((Serious Gardening))

[galanie]

Quote:
Agreed. I always recommend 3 things: Compost, compost, and compost. I never add vermiculite because I have a bed that had vermiculite added when it was created and 20 years later is a mess. The soil is gummy and dries into rock-hard clumps. Compost would fix this but I'd have to dig up the plants to incorporate it fully and the point is, it's not good in the long run.

And since my soil is alkaline too, I like to mulch with pine needles and add them to the compost. Also I'm lazy and don't want to test the PH so I let momma nature take care of it while adding all the acidic pine needles I can, keeping in mind that it takes a very long time for them to break down. So there is more in the mulch than in the compost. Lucky me to have a few pine trees in my yard.

Another thing to avoid if you have alkaline soil is wood ashes. I think a little wouldn't hurt much but they are highly alkaline.

 

[Junkmanme]

Yes. I agree with THESE postings! Very Good recommendations.

My soil here in the High Altitude Desert of New Mexico is heavy clay (caliche) that acts much like Bentonite. It will expand a lot with water...but when it dries out huge cracks (deep) appear. Adding sand is good...but the ground will become like concrete UNLESS much organic matter is also added. THIS is where Compost is a lifesaver. I put all the leaves, pine needles, chicken manure, leftover kitchen produce and such things in my compost pile. It immensely improves the texture of this "hard-pan" clay. I cannot use the "no-till" methods that some people use where the natural soils are good. But each year I till in the compost and each year the soil gets better.

AND...each year my veggie garden is more productive. My rear-tine tiller is the BEST garden tool imaginable !!!

I also enjoy reading/studying various gardening subjects on the GardenWeb Forums. There is a lot of good information available there.

-Junkmanme-

 

[galanie]

I just sold my rear-tine troy bilt tiller. The soil is good in my area and I've gone to permanent 4x4 and 4x8 raised beds which I turn by hand. But since the soil was originally rototilled with plenty of compost, hand turning is no big deal. Even in the one bed that never got tilled first, once I initially got it turned with plenty of organic matter, its very soft since no feet ever tread in them. In my garden, stepping in the beds is punishable by Horrible Death. My only problem is tree roots. The beds are not within the drip line of any trees but those roots go WAY past the drip line. I've found Oak, Pine, and Pecan all send roots out to Asia in spite of all you read about the roots not going much past the drip line.

Oh, and Junkmanme, I know what you're saying. I've gardened in caliche myself. It's virtually impossible to have a decent garden in that without lots of organic matter. The traditional 'wisdom' of adding sand is wrong. Caliche usually has sand in it anyway, it's just super fine like powder. You're right, it makes a great concrete.

 

[Junkmanme]

galanie,

I'm not surprised that you find tree-roots in your garden. Roots of most any plant will seek moisture and nutrients....so they would naturally head toward your good garden soil. A good sharp spade takes care of them pretty easily when they are young....later you might need an AXE !!!

Yep. This caliche clay IS a challenge...but as you said...The Compost is a life-saver in this soil!

-Junkmanme-

 

[HHandbasket]

Our next door neighbors have 2 giant evergreens in the back yard, one a pine and one a cedar. The roots of those trees are heavily networked throughout our backyard, including my garden area. I've pulled many roots out during my digging (turned the ground by hand this year, no tiller--it was awesome exercise!). Sometimes when I pull up these evergreen roots, especially in large pieces, I can smell the cedar or pine & it smells kinda neat. But I just throw those roots along with everything else into the compost heap.

My garden rows are made & it's ready for planting. Just waiting for that last frost to be over & I can get busy putting stuff in the ground! Yay!

 

[Junkmanme]

Maybe it's unnecessary....BUT...I'm SHY of putting "live roots" into my compost pile. Some, I think, MIGHT "take root" and grow in it....just complicating my gardening. When I put such stuff in...I let it dry first and then run it through my "chipper/shredder".

just the way I like to do it.

-Junkmanme-

 

[Smittenroade]

Quote:
Gardener's Black Gold or Compost is easy or you can make it really hard. I prefer easy. It's mixing "green" and "brown" materials and mixing them to make a pile that heats up to kill bad seeds and stuff. Provide moisture to keep the pile working.

Green stuff provides the nitrogen: grass clippings withour herbicides, kitchen veggie scraps - no meat or fats, manures - not dog, cat or human
Brown stuff provides the carbon: dry crushed leaves, old hay, dry plant residue from the garden, add garden soil to innoculate your pile with good microbes and bacteria.

A simple ring of wire panel or even three wood shipping panels wired together make a simple container.
Layer your green and brown stuff until you container is full.
"Fluff you pile or turn it with a fork for oxygen.
The pile should be moist like a sponge. If it seems dry, then add water.
You know it's working when you dig into it and get an earthy smell. If it stinks, it's too wet.
When it'd done to your like, you can sift out the big particles using a wire mesh screen in a fram over a wheelbarrow. The big stuff becomes the bottom of your next compost pile.

We make a good compost by throwing bags of dry leaves on the floor of the hen house and letting the hens crumble them as they search through for goodies. They also add their manure into the mix as they are scratching through the leaves.
Then periodically we shovel out wheelbarrows of this good stuff and add it to a pile of hay and cow manure that has been worked (turned several times over the summer) with a tractor in the lot. We allow the pile to heat up to kill bad organisms and to allow the compost to cure.

I moved a huge pile to the garden last fall and it has cured over the winter....It goes in the garden this spring.

I just wanted to reemphasize this post. Thank you all for the wonderful information! This thread is helping me and many other new farmers I do believe. Is there anything that anyone does differently while composting than NanaKat? Please share on your composting procedures.

 

[Junkmanme]

Smittenroade,

In addition to the info given here, I recommend that you look at the GardenWeb Forums (do a Google Search).
As I recall, they have an entire forum on Composting.....and another on Vermi-Composting (worm - composting).
VERY INFORMATIVE !!!

-Junkmanme-

 

[Smittenroade]

Quote:
Dang man...Thats a cool forum with lots of information...before I knew it I had wondered off the compost section and bought some new exotic carnivorous plants. We have alot of bugs around here so I kind of rationalized getting a couple Nepenthes and Venus Fly Traps to my DW lol

Shes going to kill me when I tell her how many I REALLY bought lmao

 

[Junkmanme]

Quote:
Dang man...Thats a cool forum with lots of information...before I knew it I had wondered off the compost section and bought some new exotic carnivorous plants. We have alot of bugs around here so I kind of rationalized getting a couple Nepenthes and Venus Fly Traps to my DW lol

Shes going to kill me when I tell her how many I REALLY bought lmao

( In my Father's Voice- a former Army Sergeant -....)

"Boy!.....When I send you for some Information on 'Excrement'......
.........YOU don't come back to me with a "Fly-Trap"!!!

Ha-Ha !!!

-Junkmanme-