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Which should we be doing in Socal in our raised beds - cover cropping or covering the topsoil with straw?
I did an outdoor run in SoCal a few years back and wound up using straw. In retrospect I think I would go with the weedblocker fabric from Home Depot and then some straw over the top of that.Which should we be doing in Socal in our raised beds - cover cropping or covering the topsoil with straw?
You can do either or both. I like cover cropping over straw IF the cover crops can get enough sun to actually grow. I found they allowed me to use significantly less water. If cover cropping, try for a 'guild', which is to say you want at least 4 species, the more the merrier. Go for shorter growing plants.Which should we be doing in Socal in our raised beds - cover cropping or covering the topsoil with straw?
You can do either or both. I like cover cropping over straw IF the cover crops can get enough sun to actually grow. I found they allowed me to use significantly less water. If cover cropping, try for a 'guild', which is to say you want at least 4 species, the more the merrier. Go for shorter growing plants.
I've also found that wild birds LOVE to scrape through loose straw.
Pics!!!...I can't find many snakes on my property, and if I do I relocate them, rattlers included. What I have found are these legless lizards and the males are absolutely spectacularly blue, like something from the ocean.
I use chipped/shredded bamboo;Which should we be doing in Socal in our raised beds - cover cropping or covering the topsoil with straw?
They're too fast! It was AMAZING. What I can show you is what I found online. :DPics!!!...
Wow!!! I've never seen a legless lizard that color--Ooooh, NICE addition with the millet and the lentils, it's high in protein. Add some mustard to your mix, along with fenugreek (you can buy it for cheap @bulkfoods dot com) and you've got food you *and* the wildlife can munch on. :D
They're too fast! It was AMAZING. What I can show you is what I found online. :D
K, ready for this? What I saw was truly colored just like a blue devil damsel.
I enjoy the difference between the two species in their sexual dimorphism. You can *only* tell the damsel's sex by its anal fin conformation, the male's being much more pointed than the female's, and the female fish tends to have a more waspy 'waist' area. The lizards' dimorphism is much more marked, with the female being a drab brown and therefore resembling much more a snake of some sort. But NOT a snake. :eek:
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Loose leaf lettuce and spinach too, just need to replant. Cats like to chomp on some of those grasses, like rye.
The food fenugreek seeds sprout ok? I mean some seeds you use for herbs don't germinate well, but if you buy the seeds for growing they do, like poppy seed. That's why I ask.
How about coriander seed?
This place has 200 packs of organic fenugreek cover crop seed, and pounds, but the pounds are a lot more:
Absolutely no legs, but it does have a skink-looking head for sure, which is why I knew it wasn't a snake. Right now, between the kitties and the chickens our property is populated with a new, undescribed species of short-tailed lizard. :eek:Perhaps a subspecies of the Western Skink? http://www.wildherps.com/species/E.skiltonianus.html
I mean are you sure it didn't have some little legs?
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