Japanese Radish Cover Crop - Will it Affect Existing Flowers / Shrubs / Bulbs ?


Question: if I plant Japanese Radish seeds in late August (Zone 6) as a 'cover crop' as a way to try to ammend/soften/nourish/fix the existing garden soil, will the radishes negatively affect/ruin my existing flower garden?Soil Background: The soil is dry and compacted (and clay-y at the bottom); I've added compost, I've added gypsum, all with no luck. A few years back when my husband and I bought the house, he roto-tilled the soil, which I think brought up a LOT of clay. I read that Japanese Radish can be planted in late Summer, allowed to grow, then can die/rot and that this process will magically repair the soil's health come Springtime.Current Garden: I have a 'three-season' flower bed consisting of perennial flowers such as Bleeding Hearts, Helenium, Black Lace Elderberry, some tulips, and some others (the 'others' did not survive since planted last Fall as seedlings/juveniles - I suspect that they couldn't breathe in that awful soil).I suppose I'm looking to find out if the radishes will ruin what's managed to survive thus far. And if anyone has any other ideas aside from dumping bags and bags of more compost on top in the Fall.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An invasion of tomato plants last year in our yard

Image
Hi there! Last year I noticed something weird was happening in our yard. Very weird.To be precise, there were tomato plants growing in all kinds of places. Didn't cover anywhere remotely near the entire yard but were certainly noticeable. In gardens, small fruit orchards (a place where we have strawberries, raspberries and such),in terrible soil close to the outside WC, even in pots. What did in the world happen? I can't remember this ever occuring before on this scale at least. And there was quite a large distance between the two furthest occurences. Me and my family are also not the type of people who commonly eat outdoors and don't eat too many tomatoes anyway.It's worth noting it wasn't an exactly unique case though given there was a year recently when mulberries were doing a similar thing due to me happening to have some of it here. Still, I can't remember any sprouts of it appearing last year even though there were more than enough mulberry fruits around,...
Read more

How do I deal with snails and slugs?

Image
I am trying to grow basil, sage (maybe breggarten?), and mint. I bought one pot of each 2-3 weeks ago. I put the mint and sage each in a flower box, and the basil in a (medium) flower pot. It's winter here (mainly rain and cold), so pretty soon garden snails and slugs started to eat them---especially the sage, with over half of its leaves now eaten. Since I plan to eat them, I bought a natural-based snail and slug repellent. It's based on some Gaultheria oil thing. It doesn't work. Slugs and snails just go to the planters' brim and bypass the barrier I sprinkled around them. I tried that old-wives tale of cooper wire. It doesn't work. And it looks like the copper barrier needs to be at least 5cm thick to work anyway (preferably 10cm and up). Salt isn't an option since it'll kill plants. Using synthetic snail and slug bait to kill them isn't an option either. I don't want to find out if it does break down and enter plants or not (and thus would enter...
Read more

Can I move these herbs without killing them?

Image
I planted some cilantro and basil (and a third one I can't remember) a while back, but the seeds didn't sprout. I assumed they were dead since they'd been sitting for a year or two, so I just used the soil they were in when I repotted a begonia. They sprouted anyway, and I was content to leave them where they came up. I was not expecting so much of it to actually live. Is it okay to leave them all with the begonia, or should I remove them? If I should remove them, is it possible to replant them elsewhere?The two that seemed to come up are cilantro and basil. I know both get sizeable. I don't think the third herb actually came up.And this is what was already in the pot.
Read more