And then what? :)

It looks lovely, very motivational. You're gonna have many tomatoes ;) Good luck!

Cheers,
Djole

Then I will have more tomatoes next year than I did this year LOL!

Was watering the grass seed that I put in the new pathway around the tomato garden extension and looking at the way the yard there has charged. I really like it better as it looks more open without that sapling tree. Besides it was a Mulberry and I was always hacking it back as it just did not want to behave and stay smaller.

That extension really is going to up the number of tomato plants in that bed next year. Now I have 12 plants, two rows of six. Next year I plan on planting 20 plants there in two rows of ten. Plus I have the Tower Square garden in which I plan to put 10 tomato plants. And that is a compleatly new veggie area now that I have the iris plants moved out of there. And I have other areas with tomato plants. Lots of tomato plants.

The tomatoes seem to have slowed down putting out the ripe fruits just lately but I really can't complain. Green fruits still setting and the production this year was excellent.

I'm jealous! All I have room for is 4 pots.

Rita, we meet again. It's Sharon (hugobee). I'm thinking about ditching some perennials in one area and extending my garden in another area. I want to have lots of tomatoes. So you will just lay down newspaper and compost and straw. Could I use mulch instead of straw?
Sharon

Depends on what your end goal is. If you simply want to kill off the grass easily, just define your space, lay down newspaper at least 6 sheets thick. Then you can use any type of mulch on top to keep down the newspaper. By next spring all the newspaper will have broken down and you can lay down compost and plant tomatoes.

I like to do a version of Lasagna gardening. I define my beds, lay down a nice thickness of newsapaper and then pile on whatever I have. Compost, grass clippings, fall leaves and straw all work really well. I can't tell you how many of my garden beds I have made this way. I never bother to dig up my grass.

Leave it over winter and you have nice garden soil to plant in by spring.

The newspaper, then compost then straw is my most common combo simply because it is easy to get those things. I buy straw in bales at the feed store. You know, places that sell feed and bedding for horses.

newyorkrita-

Do you till your new bed at any time? We plan on tilling up a section of yard (now in native grass), but find what you wrote interesting. My concern is the dense root system of the grasses are still in place come spring time. Do you till in spring? And if not, when you go to plant is the dense root system left behind by the grasses pretty intact and compacted?

Well, you have to remember that I am working over lawn grass (compleate with weeds). I don't know what type of native grass you have but I think that you could smother the grass with the newspaper just like I do. Mow it and then lay the newspaper thickly. I use about 6 sheets, you could use more. Some people use cardboard but I never have.

By spring, there is no root system left and the soil is loose enought to plant in. I never till. I will be leaving this bed the way it is until spring.

Then in the fall, I pull the dead or pretty much dead tomato plants from the old part, bag them and put out for the garbage. Then in the spring I will put pleanty of compost on the entire bed, both old and new parts. No digging, no tilling. I just then plant directly in the compost. And I don't mix the compost in either, I just put it on top.

After planting my tomatoes, I mulch them with straw. I find the beds get full of earthworms which break everything down and till the soil to make it nice and loose and easy to work in.

Sounds easy enough. Straw is the only thing I'm not sure about. I worry about it being messy and hard for me to handle. Thinking mulch.... You said it depends on the end goal. Meaning what? Does one work better than the other? I can certainly get straw or mulch. How soon should I start, in a zone 5b? Thanks!

Straw is very easy to work with. It also breaks down readily and feeds the soil. I have ALL my tomatoes mulched with straw. But there are no hard you must use this rules. You can use whatever works for you.

You want to creat new beds, start now. By spring they will be ready to plant in.

End goal, just kill grass then newspaper and mulch works great. Modified Lasagna method would use newspaper, straw, grass clippings, coffe grounds, fall leaves, compost. Pretty much any organic matter piled on will work.

Well at least it will put the newspaper to better use, ha ha. Thanks. I'm going to get started on it ASAP. So mow, newspaper, compost, straw? Do you water the whole thing from time to time?

We're gonna try it too. I feel so much better after knowing I don't have to de-sod the 30' X 30' new bed we are going to create:)

I usually water after I finish because I like the newspaper to get wet to make it lay down better. I never water after that but it rains here a lot. If it was in an exceptionally dry area you might wet it down some from time to time. Really it is the earthworms that need some moisture.

The sod or grass just dies on its own. The earthworms come and break up the soil. It really works well. And it is the easy way of doing things.

Now that fall is coming another thing you can pile on there would be some chopped up fall leaves. Don't worry if after you had everything on that the bed is much higher than ground level. It will all sink down with time.

So guess what I did today? I intend to be ready for next year. I ordered 25 tomato cages today from Lowes as they had a free shipping offer till September. Works for me. Easier than going to get them at the store.

I bought the same 47 inch collapable triangle green coated wire cages as the ones already here.

Hi Rita, I wsh we had Lowes in my area. How much were they? I'm going to check Home Hardware and see if they have them the green coated ones are much better. I'm getting excited about the garden. Did you shape the beds first and put any kind of edging?

Sharon, scroll up and look at my last picture. You can see where I have the bricks as edging. The cages were $6.47 each. And thats the thing. You don't need a Lowes in your area of you order on line. Right now they have free shipping but thats only for a short time.

Earlier in the year Home Depot had free shipping for a time. And I ordered all the green coated metal fence posts I needed at that time.