When did gardening get so out of hand? Last year I stuck plants in the ground and they grew....mostly good. Then...
Decided to compost...had to buy a pitch fork, find sufficient nitrogen and carbon materials for proper amounts of fungi and bacteria growth. Who knew?
Decided to build raised beds this year, five of them, 4' x 8'. Two good days of sunshine, enough to build, drag, and bury the corner posts in the ground. Pretty cool looking actually, and my back is still keeping me upright. So far so good.
Here's where things get weird and out of hand... maybe I'm the one out of hand. It's okay.
I am layering the beds with various products (like lasagna) and after a lot of research believe it's all good. In fact, I have high expectations but who really knows with the garden gods.
These are all OMRI (certified organic) products, layered:
- Finished compost, garden bed variety
- Vermiculite (retains moisture)
- more compost
- Canadian peat moss (moisture)
- more compost
- Coir (outer husk of coconuts) mainly for aeration
- more compost
- Amozite rock dust for trace minerals
- Dr Earth compost for top finishing layer
- Oyster shell flour ( for calcium) and to inhibit blossom rot
- worm castings (must have!) Crazzzy good stuff!
- top off with endomycorrhizal inoculants (fungi that lives off rock dust and extracts minerals for root growth)
fold in all ingredients, then insert plants into ground after shaking Xtreme Gardening Mykos Pure Mycorrhizal Inoculant Natural Root Enhancer on plant roots. Don't ask. But it works!
After planting, spray with compost tea made from worm castings and other good stuff.
Install drip system using water filter to rid chlorine that would kill good bacteria.
Goal: end expensive 50 year use of mineral supplements, eat better organically, and be healthier with great tasting veggies.
Say the word kale before last year and I cringed. Love it now. Fresh from the garden to the kitchen made the difference.
Looking for heirloom seeds, indeterminate tomatoes and tree kale this year. Planting squash and cucumbers vertically. Tomato plants pruned to single-stem and using one square foot per tomato plant.
Been six months researching all this in free time. Gonna give it a go! Questions? Feel free to ask.  |
