Posted by Zootal on February 2, 2008, 6:44 pm
Question: I have an old plastic 10' diameter swimming pool liner. If I were
to spread that on the ground, would the soil under it dry out enough that I
could work with it (dig in it, plant stuff, etc.)? I'm in the mid Wilammette
Valley, Oregon, and it rains and rains and rains this time of year, and my
entire back yard is mud, and remains mud until late April, maybe not until
May.
Posted by JoeSpareBedroom on February 2, 2008, 8:35 pm
> Question: I have an old plastic 10' diameter swimming pool liner. If I
> were to spread that on the ground, would the soil under it dry out enough
> that I could work with it (dig in it, plant stuff, etc.)? I'm in the mid
> Wilammette Valley, Oregon, and it rains and rains and rains this time of
> year, and my entire back yard is mud, and remains mud until late April,
> maybe not until May.
If you have decent drainage, the soil under the plastic will be drier than
the surrounding area, but it could still be too wet to work.
Why don't you try it and report back on the results?
Posted by Sheldon on February 3, 2008, 12:22 pm
> Question: I have an old plastic 10' diameter swimming pool liner. If I were
> to spread that on the ground, would the soil under it dry out enough that I
> could work with it (dig in it, plant stuff, etc.)? I'm in the mid Wilammette
> Valley, Oregon, and it rains and rains and rains this time of year, and my
> entire back yard is mud, and remains mud until late April, maybe not until
> May.
If anything that plastic liner will prevent the ground underneath from
drying until long after the surrounding ground dries. Sounds like
your only salvation is raised bed gardening, or at least build up a
berm for a planting bed. But in your area farmers don't work their
ground until early may anyway, it's too wet earlier, but more
importantly it's too cold outdoors to plant earlier. Planting too
early actually puts you behind, your seeds/seedlings if not damaged
will die... and with many crops (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc.)
once damaged they will never fully recover, it would be best to
replant. Planting a little late will actually be a head start.
What's your big rush... if you insist on getting an early start then
you need a greenhouse.
Posted by ntantiques on February 4, 2008, 1:58 am
> > Question: I have an old plastic 10' diameter swimming pool liner. If I were
> > to spread that on the ground, would the soil under it dry out enough that I
> > could work with it (dig in it, plant stuff, etc.)? I'm in the mid Wilammette
> > Valley, Oregon, and it rains and rains and rains this time of year, and my
> > entire back yard is mud, and remains mud until late April, maybe not until
> > May.
> If anything that plastic liner will prevent the ground underneath from
> drying until long after the surrounding ground dries. Sounds like
> your only salvation is raised bed gardening, or at least build up a
> berm for a planting bed. But in your area farmers don't work their
> ground until early may anyway, it's too wet earlier, but more
> importantly it's too cold outdoors to plant earlier. Planting too
> early actually puts you behind, your seeds/seedlings if not damaged
> will die... and with many crops (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc.)
> once damaged they will never fully recover, it would be best to
> replant. Planting a little late will actually be a head start.
> What's your big rush... if you insist on getting an early start then
> you need a greenhouse.
Like the OP, I'm in Oregon - outside of Eugene/southern Willamette
Valley. Our soil actually drains well, but even so, our gardens are a
virtual quagmire right now. Likely to stay that way for a while -
between the rains and melting snow, even our raised beds are weeks
away from being workable. The only outdoor gardening we'll be able to
do for a while involves a chain saw - sadly, last week's heavy snow
brought down two of our trees.
Have a small greenhouse, but it's filled to the gills with my frost
tender container plants. Established plants do ok in there with a heat
lamp, but with lots of 20 degree nights and a mid-May frost danger
date - it's too cold for me to germinate seeds in the winter here.
Suggest you might want to try an indoor garden.
Last fall we built in 8' bench in the warmest corner of the garage and
hung 2 banks of adjustable grow lights. Now have multiple flats of
perennial cuttings happily growing under lights on heat mats. They're
thriving and when the ground is finally workable, I'm going to be way
ahead of the game. An adjacent deck is the perfect place to harden
plants off before they migrate to the garden. Will start annual seeds
next month. The lights & mats were well worth the investment and I
can't tell you what a pleasure it was to go tend my indoor garden last
week when we were snowed in...
Nancy T
Posted by Zootal on February 5, 2008, 12:14 am
> Last fall we built in 8' bench in the warmest corner of the garage and
> hung 2 banks of adjustable grow lights. Now have multiple flats of
> perennial cuttings happily growing under lights on heat mats. They're
> thriving and when the ground is finally workable, I'm going to be way
> ahead of the game. An adjacent deck is the perfect place to harden
> plants off before they migrate to the garden. Will start annual seeds
> next month. The lights & mats were well worth the investment and I
> can't tell you what a pleasure it was to go tend my indoor garden last
> week when we were snowed in...
> Nancy T
I'm maybe 30 miles north of you, I live in the thriving metropolis of
Lebanon :)
I have a nice slab in my back yard, maybe 10' x 20'. I'm seriously
considering putting some sort of greenhouse on it. I got a late start with
the garden last year, and we didn't start getting tomatoes and stuff until
towards the end of the season. Half my pumpkins were green when the frost
killed the vines. If I could get just 30 days jumpstart, it would mean a
whole months worth of stuff - and at the rate we eat squash and tomatoes and
stuff, that amounts to quite a bit of $ savings. Mmmm...I can already taste
those purple tomatoes, the yellow crooknecks, the tomatillos...<drools>...
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> were to spread that on the ground, would the soil under it dry out enough
> that I could work with it (dig in it, plant stuff, etc.)? I'm in the mid
> Wilammette Valley, Oregon, and it rains and rains and rains this time of
> year, and my entire back yard is mud, and remains mud until late April,
> maybe not until May.