Robert's Gardening
Tips and Tricks
Each tip I have will require
some description, as each of us has different conditions to work with. The
tips I share are based on mine, though might be useful to you.
Page 2 Compost and
Fertilizers
I have made two compost areas
next to my garden. each is 6 x 8 feet and surrounded with treated 2 x 6
gapped at 4 inches to allow air flow, and built to a height of 4 feet. The
side facing the garden left open for easy access but I do most of my
moving with the backhoe which I just reach over the 2 x 6 fence from the
outside. We have fenced the entire garden with 4 foot farm fence and
placed a 2 foot border at the base of chicken wire to keep the rabbits and
cats out. At the base of the fence we have lined in a row 6 x 8 x16 cinder
blocks so none can push under and to keep the garden dirt in as it is
above the surrounding ground level. (See soils and you will see why my
garden had to be elevated instead of at ground level)
Into these areas we throw all
greens from the kitchen as well as egg shells, sea shells, and any other
table scraps that are not of meat, fats or dairy. We place within the
compost all weeds we pull and dead flowers in winter as well as manure of
horse and cow. Little there is that does not make its way into the
compost. And yes on some days you wish you could be upwind of it. We pour
wine that has turned and vinegar that has sat to long in the cupboard as
well. It is a veritable fermentation factory and one could probably get a
buzz on from eating it; if they didn't die first.
Everything in one year goes in
one side, the other left empty the first year. Every year thereafter you
will use one side while the other ferments. At times it is over
flowing, fully 4 feet above the fence by fall, but in time the
micro-organisms that thrive there have it whittled down to size. By Spring
it is 1/2 its fall size. But it is still to ripe to enter the garden. As
stated before I am luckier than most as I have a backhoe so moving and
turning this mess is quite easy but even if it weren't I'd do it by hand.
In fact as we search for worms each spring for the wormbox, I do turn at
least a quarter of it by hand. We get enough worms to last the fishing
season in this Spring tilling of the compost. But in order to assure the
compost is well tilled I move it from one side to the vacant 6 x 8 side so
that what was once on the bottom is now on the top. This will sit another
year while we fill the newly opened side of the compost bins with the
current years detritus. The wife will use some of this wintered over
compost for her flower plantings and some will find its way to the fruit
trees but most will wait till the next year and the garden.
By the spring of the next year
this compost is black and heavy and rich in well aged manure and compost
and after the first Burn (see soils) I apply this liberally and as evenly
as possible upon the garden soil. I let it set till the Spring tilling and
burn so that the rains will wash the nutrients down into the soil and so
that many of the bugs might die of the cold. This is only a couple weeks
but I have found that to till it in right away causes clumping and I have
more problems with bugs in my garden. Leaving it exposed, I would guess,
allows it to dry some and it crumbles better and also the bugs either die
or move on. In any case this works best for me. I average about 4 yards of
compost a year. Most goes into my garden of roughly 35 x 40 feet. But I
also have a hundred and fifty foot row of grape vines and below these we
grow vine plants like cucumber and pumpkin and this is also where I have
my chives. I have another 50 foot row where I have set poles for pole
beans and then there is the orchard. We never have enough compost.
On the spring till, the garden
compost is agitated into the earth to the depth that the tines on my
rototiller will go. You can see the difference in the color of the earth
as this black, dry, goo is mixed with the brown earth. Each year the
garden dirt gets darker and my crops get healthier. I do apply some ammonium
nitrate during this till to off set any loss of nitrogen by the
decomposing grass clipping I used the last year as ground cover. (see
soils). But at nearly two years for most it is well aged the compost
itself should not be so great a problem. Only the grass cuttings (see
soils) are of consequence in leeching nitrogen from the soil.
This is not only nourishing the
soil but is soil building. As each year I have more and more soil to work
with. The wife and I have decided last year (2006) that we were going to
enlarge the garden. We will do it in stages of perhaps 2 to 6 feet a year
with a final length of added space, we hope, to be another 40 feet.
Half of the soils for the addition will come from the compost. The other
half will be screened dirt.
Composting not only nourishes
your garden but it recycles all that waste from the house and the other
things you grow or weeds you pull or leaves you rake. And in our case
provides us with fishing worms for the season which we keep in a worm box I
built and it will hopefully aide in growing our garden to suit our needs.
The old adage 'waste not, want
not' really applies to compost as much, if not more, than to money.
No real tips here just be sure
to keep your compost wet and turn it once in a while. If it dries out the
bacteria die and the decomposition stops. You want it to build heat to
kill the weed seeds and help the bacteria break it down. So If you only
have grass clippings you will need to add other things like table scraps,
BUT NOT ANY MEAT, FATS OR DAIRY. You could also buy a compost maker which
is but dried bacteria in a box. Just add water. You can check with your
nursery or get that rid-x stuff they use for septic systems. You just want
a culture of bacteria to start and rotting leaves or household scraps will
do just fine. Even some old yeast not dead but still not good enough for
baking. Homemade beer is seriously yeast happy and so is homemade wine. If
it is bad and stinks it is probably good compost material. Leaves however
are best. Grass takes at least 2 years to fully break down.
Adding manure is the best way
to get that bacteria going.
And as we have ended with
manure we shall speak of fertilizers.
Manure being one of the better
fertilizers you can get but never use it fresh. Let it age first or you will
kill or severely damage your crop. Horse, cow and pig manure should age at
least a year whereas chicken at least two years. That chicken manure is
some potent stuff. Some will say horse can do with just 6 months or less
and true it is not that potent but I use it in my compost which is a two
year process and have used it in one year before but it seemed to draw ground
insects that can harm your crops. Especially root crops like turnips and
radish which will get worms drilling holes in them. Most riding stables,
dairy farms, and places where they raise chickens for the eggs, will
have a mound of manure usually mixed with sawdust, wood shavings or straw.
And in most cases they will be happy to let you have all you want for
FREE.
We have a riding stable a few
miles away that actually will take their backhoe and load it in your
pick-up truck for free as well. Though their manure is more wood shavings
than manure. I'd rather go to another place I know where the manure is
almost pure with just a bit of straw. Though I do have to shovel it
myself, the manure is free. I got a load of chicken manure one year and
thought I was safe with my two year aging process, but it burned up most
of my seedlings. The only crop I got was that which I had started in my
greenhouse. Though on the third year the garden really out did itself.
Still, I have a two year composting process going, so no more chicken
manure for me.
I do occasional use or have
used chemical fertilizers and see no harm in doing so. They are generally
made of ingredients like potash, phosphates, potassium and ammonium
nitrate and a few others and their main failing is they do not
provide trace elements necessary for proper food sustenance and
human health. Though the crops grow well the nutrient value is reduced.
The jury is still out on whether they cause a build-up of toxic chemicals
over time. Still if used sparingly or only when necessary I don't believe
they cause any great harm and most of the food you buy at the grocery
store are raised with these chemical fertilizers.
However having said that I do
think that food crops taste much better using natural fertilizers and that
is why the only chemical fertilizer I use is Ammonium Nitrate. I use it
sparingly, but must use it to replace lost nitrogen in the soil which is
consumed by composting materials. I only apply it once at the last tilling
before seeding to give the plants a head start. This is the major ingredient in
most grass fertilizers as it causes rapid growth but does not last
long.
Again I have to have you look
at my two year composting process. Most everything is degraded by the time
it hits the garden so it does not leech that much nitrogen out of the soil
but see my section on 'soils' and you will read where I place grass
clippings down as a ground cover to hold moisture. It takes two years for
these to degrade and I till them in every year. As such I have to replace
the nitrogen they consume. As a covering they take nitrogen and once
tilled in they continue to take nitrogen till these grass clippings
totally degrade in two years. Plants cannot get nitrogen through their
leaves, only through their roots. So what these grass clippings take out, I
must replace.
For most major agricultural
production, chemical is the only way to go. It would not be cost effective
to go all natural. But as a home gardener it may be a bit more effort and
smell a bit more but there is no reason we can't go organic as much as
possible. So as for myself the only chemical fertilizer I use is pure ammonium
nitrate, and that sparingly.
Also for those of you that can
take the smell get a 55 gallon drum and place in it worm droppings from
your wormbox or horse, cow or chicken manure and add water and cover. Stir
occasionally and when you fertilize just dip up a gallon or two of this
highly pungent liquid gook and spead it judiciously every week or two
during the growing season but after the crops are well rooted. Better than
any liquid fertilizer that you will buy at the stores.
When you stake out your garden,
test the way the wind blows.
For you will want to be
standing upwind,
when you check to see how it
grows. RT
Page 3 Insect Control and
Disease Control.
Article by Robert Taormina
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My daughter has Cerebral Palsy. I do
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who can donate their time to help seek out this information of
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I am spending what time and
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Please check out the site and if you
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Through having to take our daughter to therapy and
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