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- #41
tortoise
Wild Hare
That looks perfect for enriching garden soil! Thank you for the suggestion!
What did you do in your garden today?
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Trying2keepitReal
Almost Self-Reliant
do you use your extension office for soil sample testing or do you do your own home kits?
I have been planning out the garden for next spring as well, though I have one more plot, 15x25, to take the fence down and prepare for winter. Getting a little ahead of myself. But this weekend should be in the 50s so I will head out then.
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- #43
tortoise
Wild Hare
I'm debating! The extension office will tell us what kind of fertilizer and how much we need. I know it has negligible nitrogen so I'm wondering if I should bother with the cost of testing and invest the money in blood meal instead.
Trying2keepitReal
Almost Self-Reliant
can you supplement with the blood meal this year, plant next year along with adding additional nitrogen resources throughout the planting season (like coffee grounds), and get it tested next year. That might at least give you an idea of what you have done has had any affect at all.
flowerbug
Sustainability Master
also learning which plants actually need that much to begin with. my experience so far is that a lot of the garden plants don't need that much compared to a few others and what's even more fun is that some varieties react differently within the same plant types (for example some red peppers i grow like more nitrogen but if i plant certain green peppers in that same mix i'll get plenty of leaves but not many fruits). for me the heaviest feeders i grow are tomatoes, onions and red peppers. after that certain beans do better in better soil but others i have will grow anywhere i plant them. garlic i plant into 2nd or 3rd year after using the worms (which also include their worm poo and pee too) as my main fertiler.
tomatoes always start with worms castings since they are such big plants and put out so many lbs of results. they do well for us.
squash and melons seem to do pretty good with more organic matter in the soil and i'm always short on having enough of that here so they sometimes have to grow without and can still do ok in the mostly clay, but they'll go up another notch in production when i can get them planted in more compost or worms.
cucumbers we've stopped growing but they did g reat in our plain soils as long as they were up high enough to get above the flash flood stage. that was usually also in the 2nd or 3rd season after amending with the worms.
i'm not sure if i'll get work done outside today or not. hope to.
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- #46
tortoise
Wild Hare
I'm thinking the only reason to test this year is to for a "before". I should order a cheap testing kit from amazon then
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- #47
tortoise
Wild Hare
I need blood meal for corn and sunflower seed. I am considering buying bait fish or feeder fish and trying the legendary gardening tip of burying a fish under each corn seed. Why not?also learning which plants actually need that much to begin with. my experience so far is that a lot of the garden plants don't need that much compared to a few others and what's even more fun is that some varieties react differently within the same plant types (for example some red peppers i grow like more nitrogen but if i plant certain green peppers in that same mix i'll get plenty of leaves but not many fruits). for me the heaviest feeders i grow are tomatoes, onions and red peppers. after that certain beans do better in better soil but others i have will grow anywhere i plant them. garlic i plant into 2nd or 3rd year after using the worms (which also include their worm poo and pee too) as my main fertiler.
tomatoes always start with worms castings since they are such big plants and put out so many lbs of results. they do well for us.
squash and melons seem to do pretty good with more organic matter in the soil and i'm always short on having enough of that here so they sometimes have to grow without and can still do ok in the mostly clay, but they'll go up another notch in production when i can get them planted in more compost or worms.
cucumbers we've stopped growing but they did g reat in our plain soils as long as they were up high enough to get above the flash flood stage. that was usually also in the 2nd or 3rd season after amending with the worms.
i'm not sure if i'll get work done outside today or not. hope to.
flowerbug
Sustainability Master
if you keep a bucket and gloves in your car you can stop and pick up smaller road kill for free. i don't have to do that here but if someone hits something in the road near our place here i do pick it off the road and bury it so we don't have to smell it all summer. biggest animal so far was a wild turkey someone hit out front. what a mess. i had to use the wheelbarrow to move it. next day Mom went out and picked up all the feathers and whatever else i missed. buried it in the squash garden and had a great crop from that area the next few seasons.
Trying2keepitReal
Almost Self-Reliant
@tortoise do you use your chicken poop in your garden/soil, that might help too
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- #50
tortoise
Wild Hare
I haven't yet. I have been using it in a compost-in-place project building up soil on top of a blacktop slope. Someone spread random blacktop around, as if trying to use the the end of a batch. It's covered and has grass and mint established on it now, so I could use chicken poo/litter/feather in the garden. I have a pile of sheep manure/bedding that might be ready to use next spring.
