Maily Arnold, a northern California gardener with a 2 1/2 acre vegetable plot (figure A), offers tips you can use in your own garden. And they won't cost you a thing.
Maily uses a recycled milk jug -- hung from her belt by the handle -- as a catch-all (figure B).
Another way to use plastic milk jugs is to fill them with water and set them near young transplants (figure C). The jugs collect heat during the day and release it slowly in the evening, keeping the new plants warm. Any type of tender warm-season crop can be protected with this ingenious method.
The art of recycling is at its peak in Maily's garden. Old wood pallets are used as supports and fences (figure D). When the pallets finally break down, they're chopped up and burned in the wood stove. Even the marble dust Maily's husband, a sculptor, generates is swept up and used as a soil amendment.
Sheet composting is the practice of spreading plant material on top of the soil to decompose at its own rate. The process of decomposition is slower than in a compost pile that's turned regularly, but the material eventually breaks down and in the meantime acts as a mulch to slow weed growth and keep the soil moist. At the end of the season Maily chops up the plants where they've grown, using her pruning shears, and plants something else. The earthworms appreciate this method of composting, which provides them a constant source of food. Maily is meticulous about pruning and weeding but leaves some weeds, such as Queen Anne's lace (figure E) and bronze fennel, untouched so they can attract beneficial insects.
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