Coffee's ready...

[rancher hicks]

Karl the book I'm reading "the man who ate his boots" mentions that in the 1800's and early 1900's the Northwest passage was blocked with ice. Then the ice breakers came and they could get through in the summer as the ice was not so thick. Now the ice is not there and there is feuding over who has the rights to the area. The russians have placed a flag to declare the territory theirs. Each country looking to exploit the area. Canada is laying claims but doesn't have the money to build a way to monitor the area so country's can just cut through without being stopped.

So my point is that global warming is here and we all will feel the effects in different ways.

I garden in raised beds and so I figure it's the soil that's the problem, cuz new nutrients need to be added to replenish it. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen am I right? So I need to replenish the phosphorus and potassium, but how to do this without using commercial fertilizers. I do know that banana peels are rich in potassium and I use them for my roses.

All the best
rancher

 

[chics in the sun]

Oh, I know, Rancher. My BF has tried to get more custody of the girls (so they would be with us during the school week and we could do all those things) on the grounds that their slacker Mom isn't providing enough support for them to do well in school. The 13 year old almost didn't make it to 8th grade!! There is NO EXCUSE. She just doesn't do her homework and turn in assignments, and Mom doesn't check. They have no structure or expectations. Their Mom even told them they had to live with her while they went to college!! And the younger one is absolutely BRILLIANT. I've done my sneaky deed and planted the seed that she is perfectly capable of getting a scholarship, and there is no need to limit herself to the two schools near her mother's house. I have the feeling when the younger one is a teenager we will end up with her full time after the you-know-what hits the fan and she realizes her mom is not the saint and martyr she paints herself to be. It kills my BF, who has two bachelor degrees and is working on his Masters.

I just turned my remaining coffee into a nice iced coffee drink after working outside digging a trench for the coop addition and becoming absolutly soaked in sweat after just an hour of being out there. And my poor garden is fried from the heat. I think I need to move it to a shady area. All I got this summer was a dozen tomatoes. The summer squash all died after a two months of looking beautiful, and the pole bean plants lasted about two weeks. Sigh. Time to dig it all up and re-plant.

 

[karl E lutz]

Chicks sorry to hear about your garden.
Rancher I know that the climate has changed but is it permanent? No weather pattrns on this earth are permanent. The little ice age lasted in europe until mid !800's. I don't know what God has in store for the earth but I can see that change is emminent in everything that happens. "Not trying to start a debate I am not a man made global warming believer and that is all I am saying.
Chicken du du is too hot for immediate application to your plants, it will kill them .
If you use it put it on in the fall and let it saturate with the weather.
I killed my potatos last season with cow manure by using it directly on the potato when I planted.
My corn does the best in the area that I originally had my burn pile. So I know that the ash did something to the soil. This year I will spread cow manure from my herd all over the garden and fall till. I did not fall till last year as it was too wet to get it done in our area.I hope for better weather this year.
Try epsome salt on your tomatoes. The garden shop that I go to swears by it. The old blue haired ladies say it will make your tomatoes very nice and red and it is considered an organic fertilizer.
My place was not ever tilled before I moved there. It was a pasture for livestock so fertilizing has not been an Issue for me yet.

 

[rancher hicks]

Thanks for the advice about epsom salt. I'd forgotten about that, I've read so much.
Don't have cows just chickens and cats.

chicks sorry about the kids situation they are not easy for sure.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Chicks in the sun - - - Are you by chance a TEACHER ? ? ? ?

 

[math ace]

Quote:
You should start with a soil test - - - Most county ag. departments will do a basic soil test for FREE or very minor charge.

You need to know you Ph value BEFORE you fix the nutrients. If your Ph is LOW, then you might add something that would raise Ph and potassium at the same time. You would not want to add something that would raise your potassium and lower you Ph at the same time.

So, Ph tests are usually free from the ag departments. The ag department may charge a small fee to determine your phosphorus and potassium values. I used to live near a fertilizer company and they did a really good test for FREE too. Every other year, I have the ag department do my soil test.

I have a HOME kit that I do on a semi-annual basis. You can pick them up at Lowes and Home Depot in the Garden section. Normally, they are colored capsules that you mix with soil and water.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I have had a horrid trouble with squash bugs. It is taking everything out in my garden. GREEN BEANS - - - I have gotten almost NONE out of my garden this year and I have replanted them 3 times. It has to be our heat. We went from setting records for length of freezing temps to record heat - - - - NO IN BETWEEN TYPICAL SPRING WEATHER THIS YEAR

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Don't use the cats poop - - - it will have meat by products in it.
I get manure FREE from different people on Craigslist.
If they are selling rabbits - - - then they must have poo that they want to get rid of.
If they are boarding HORSES - - - then they have a pile of poo that they need to get rid of.
etc.

I have used 4 pallets to make a compost bin with. I put all manures in this bin, coffee grinds ( free from starbucks - - big bags of it), veg scraps, and hay, straw, or pine chips (from horse stalls) in the compost bin. If you get the right amount of poo (nitrogen) and hay, straw, or pine chips ( carbon), you compost bin will really COOK. I can put things in my garden after sitting in my compost bin for 6 months.

Every fall / spring, I rototill in my compost. My soil still needs added fertilizers during the growing season, BUT the compost takes care of trace elements and some of the BIG three - nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

 

[chics in the sun]

I am a school social worker as of February of this year, specifically working with pregnant or parenting high school students. This school year I get a transfer to the toughest school in St.Pete - Yeah for me!! It's a rough crowd, but somebody's gotta do it, for the sake of the teens and for the babies. I'm assuming you teach math?
And yes, I think not having spring for more than two or three days was hard on the garden. Although I can't say I did much better last summer. What are you planting for the fall? I did well with broccoli and carrots last year.

 

[chics in the sun]

My BF built a composter out of a big barrel, but it is not large enough to handle all the *$%^ around here with the rabbit and the chickens, so that is all in a pile that I really need to build a bin for. The kitchen scraps are in the barrel, and they are composting nicely.