Green to Gold
November 3, 2008|Comments (12)
The best way to begin conditioning soil is to delay planting a full veggie garden and plant a crop of green manure. If the folks in our area who were plagued by impossibly clay-rich soil could have known about green manure, the main source of income for the old money would not have come from inventing the formula for Coca Cola (“Co-Cola” as the locals call it) or textile mills. Columbus might have then become a Georgian-style Lexington, Kentucky or something. Instead, the soil made extensive farming and even owning horses an extremely expensive endeavor. Imagine the start up costs!
Plowing this soil requires high-quality tractors and vast amounts of compost. I sometimes imagine how difficult it would have been to settle this area with the combination of insufferable heat and humidity, predacious arachnids, poisonous snakes, mosquitoes from the Jurassic period, and soil packed so tightly that if we’d had coal available the main crop might have been diamonds.
Back to green manure… green gold for the soil. Used as a rotation crop or a ground cover to keep the soil (and thus, the veggie roots) cool, these wonderful little legumes are then plowed under to add organic matter to the soil. How important is organic matter to the soil? Lots.
Once the legumes have been turned under, they set to work improving aeration, water retention, weed suppression, and since their roots were so deep they were able to bring up nutrients that other plants could not — so they introduce those nutrients to the well-worked portion of the soil. Essentially, they act as the spa, massage therapists, and nutrition gurus frequented by celebrities and those who profited from the government bailout of certain nefarious loan companies — only for dirt.
Want a list of super-great green manures and links of where to purchase them? Oh, I’m on it!
The Fall Garden, Getting Ready
October 6, 2008|Comments (19)
As the days begin to shorten and the heat of summer is slowly disappearing… fall gardening becomes priority. Visions of collards, broccoli, cabbage, and carrots dance in my head. First things first… soil prep. Soil preparation is numero uno for a fall garden. So just erase that picture of collards for a moment. And focus. Focus!
That’s right… the compost bin!
A full compost bin is one of the most welcomed sights to any gardener. Many books give detailed instructions on how to maintain compost piles or create compost bins out of T-posts and wire mesh. These composting methods work for a lot of people who don’t have dogs. Our first compost bin was the T-post and wire mesh variety. I happily cut the tops out of milk jugs and filled them with egg shells and whatnot (no meat or dairy products). We emptied them into the bin (which we were quite proud of).
In just twenty-four hours, our wonderful cat and dogs dug out the scraps and ruined our bin. A quick call to my Aunt Nancy solved the problem. Nancy, who grew up on a farm in PA, told us to take an old garbage can and drill holes in the bottom. She said to make sure the lid could be secured to keep the rain off of the compost. Turning the compost is easily done with a pitch fork. We tried this method and love it for small-scale composting.
Good compost is like pear pie for plants. Only good for you. So maybe not pie for plants. You get the idea.
Spread out the good stuff. And till. Stop when the compost is completely turned over into your top soil.
Now you can start planting those fabulous cool weather nonacidic goodies: beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, lettuce, mustard, onions, radishes, spinach and turnips. Get those leaves together for more compost. You’ll need to compost again after this harvest. And what a harvest it will be:
