Robert's Gardening Tips and Tricks 

Page 1 Soils, Weeds

Page 2 Compost and Fertilizers

Page 3 Insects and Disease Control

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Robert's Gardening 

Tips and Tricks

Page 1 Soils, Weeds (or the lack thereof).

I wish this was the summer of the year instead of January as I write this.  I would love to be able to post some pics of my garden and other plantings I have, in full Glory. Well maybe in time. For now I think I will tell you of my special circumstances as regards soils.

We have here what we locals refer to as Spanaway soils, which for those of you who are wondering what that is, well lets just say that we have no soil; just varying degrees of sizes of rock.

Oh there are areas of Western Washington that are bountiful with perfect, deep, rich, dark soils but they lie in the river valleys and not up on the plateaus. Other areas have a deep sandy loam which can be nourished to health. But here, on my land. There be ROCK and plenty of it. The last ice age made sure that the upper lands were scoured of any soils and what little we have is just the last few thousand years of evergreens and underbrush that have accumulated. It amounts to barely 6 inches of rock laden soil before becoming all rock with nary a root surviving. In some areas the rock leads to hardpan at anywhere from 3 to 10 feet or more. The shallower the hardpan the more likely to have wetlands that flood most of the year. I have some areas of wetland on the back of my property. It is useless for anything. Nothing but cottonwood trees grow there. Some areas are gravel deep enough for open pit gravel mining operations. Like a sand and gravel place not but 3 miles from here. If it were not for the frequent rains I believe this would be a barren desert. 

To garden in this type "soil" ( and I am not sure I should even speak that name as regards my "Rock Garden") is next to impossible without having soil brought in. But at over $280.00 a dump truck load of but 10 yards, (2007 price) it is a bit more than many including me can pay. So I, like most who desire a garden here, screen what little soil we have or battle the rocks for supremacy of the garden plat. Or both.

I am luckier than most as I have a backhoe and dozer from when I was in the excavation business, and with a bit of welding and some 1/2 inch hardware cloth, have constructed a gravity screen that allows me to scrape the bit of topsoil we have and screen it for the garden. The rock is so great though that it takes ten yards of scrapings to make but 1 yard of soil still having about 40% rock of 1/2 inch in diameter or less. the remaining 60% I would have to begrudgingly call soil. 

This 'soil' is still not of great quality and is burgeoning with seeds of weeds. Left alone the garden would be overtaken with weeds in just a few short days in the spring. And as our winters are quite mild we have hardy weeds grow even in the dead of winter. Weed seeds are hardy and survive for years and with each turning of  the soil weed seeds are brought to the surface and new weeds are born.

I used to get on hands and knees and pull weeds once a week from Spring to Fall, just to keep them at bay. I have since developed some things I do throughout the year that has lessened my work and saved my back. I started by trying a weed killer that would allow replanting in a couple weeks like Round-up. I would spray before the spring tilling and again in a couple weeks, after many weed seeds germinated. Then in another couple weeks, I would plant and try to keep the garden weed free. I found this helped but I was still doing constant battle with weeds. I couldn't pull weeds till my crop had sprouted and by then the weeds had already taken over. I was back on my knees trying to pull the weeds from my crops without pulling my crops from the ground.

A new method was called for. I thought of sterilizing the soil with a commercial weed killer but then I would have no garden for at least two years, or more, and I wasn't sure even that would work and besides the cost was prohibitive. So I decided to burn the weeds out. I got a five gallon propane tank and a torch and in the Winter just before Spring I burned every square inch. Killing weeds and seeds that lay dormant on the surface. When time to plant grew near I would till the soil and then make my rows and plats and then BURN it again to kill any seeds I'd brought up during the tilling. I'd lightly rake over the top two inches just prior to planting and BURN it again. Then with the soil still warm and dry I would sow my seed.

The first year I did this I noticed a remarkable reduction in weeds during those first few weeks as my crops sprouted. Then in a month or so I would notice the weeds start as those seeds that lie deeper than the burn could reach had made their way to the surface. But even so my crops were up and I could remove the weeds with much less difficulty than before. As I do this year after year I have fewer and fewer weeds. Oh yes they are still coming up, but in nowhere near the numbers they once did. Not all weeds sprout from seed, some from root and it will be impossible to totally eradicate them. But so long as I can keep their numbers at bay, I am satisfied.

So Tip # 1

When in doubt, BURN em out !!!

As to the soil itself it is well drained. So much so that in the summer we must water every other day or the plants wilt. I have tried removing all the soil and placing a copious amount of wood chips and compost at the bottom to retain moisture and then back filling the soil, but this has not helped and as the wood chips degrade they take nitrogen from the soil requiring more fertilizers.

I have tried to place more soil so that there is more depth but this has proved ineffectual as well. Though I now have enough soil to raise the deeper root crops. A bit of a bonus for all that work. I suppose if I had the ability to make the soils several feet thick I could solve the problem but I have neither the soil nor the motivation to do so. So I have resorted to placing the grass clippings from mowing our yard between the rows and about the stems of the plants. this provides not only a way to retain moisture but warms the soil and helps keep the weeds down. It can become a soggy mess when wet but for all its trouble it has helped considerably. By using my burning method and tilling it under every year it adds some much needed nutrients as well.

So Tip #2

To keep it wet, a ground cover is our best bet.

The next problem I have with the soils is that they  quite frankly have so little nutrients that all they can grow is weeds. Most fertilizers wash through the soil so quickly that one needs to fertilize three times a year. This puts a lot of strain on the crops as these fertilizers are strong when first applied and have a tendency to stunt the growth for a couple weeks till they diminish somewhat and the roots have grown accustomed to it. With our short summer a stunted crop is basically a failed crop.

I have found copious amounts of compost and manures in the late winter just after my first burn and tilling, help considerably. On the next tilling this compost and manure gets distributed evenly throughout the soils. And as much as I would like to be totally organic I have to add ammonia nitrate for nitrogen to combat that lost to the decomposing material and to get the crop off to a good start. This to be placed and tilled into the soil the same day or day before planting. 

When I plant I generally rake up rows and then flatten the tops allowing me a width to plant two rows of seed. This allows me good access between crops to weed and makes the best use of the ground I plant, I bed some plants but very few as the row method works best for me. After sowing my seed in freshly burnt ground I wait a couple days then apply a bit of liquid fish fertilizer or my homemade liquid fertilizer consisting of worm droppings , horse manure and a bit of chicken manure fermented in a 55 gallon drum, between the two rows of seed. I've found a conical top, water bottle works best to lay a line of the fish fertilizer which allows me to control a steady line between my seed, but one could just as easily poke a hole and squeeze it out of its original container. Ever so  mildly diluted, just so it flows from its container, Just squirting it out sparingly, at the surface. This usually done on a rainy day or just prior to watering. This fairly mild fertilizer soaks into the  ground and helps those seeds get off to a good start. As the fertilizer is weak and not placed directly over the seed it does not burn the root but as the root gets in to it, it makes for a burst of growth. 

I have tried the liquid fertilizers so often advertised but these, being pure liquid, leech through my porous rock, I mean soil, too quickly and do not provide continuing nourishment. A time release does fairly well but again if I use this I must apply it after the plants are well on their way as the initial shock would kill just germinated seeds, and later use stunts the growth a bit before taking effect. I prefer to add a bit more fish fertilizer or my homemade liquid fertilizer every couple weeks  during the summer growing season. It is mild and does not stunt growth. I just fill my large water bottle using a funnel and go along squirting it down the centerline between the plants. It stinks to high heaven but the plants have no noses that I can discern. 

So Tip # 3

If you desire it to grow, Nourish the soil well and your good to go.

Well that is about all I have to say of soils. My soils at least. Each of us will have our own difficulties and need to find our own remedies.

Count yourself lucky 

if you have soils better than me,

 and if they be worse

 you have my sympathy. 

Though I must really wonder

how that can be. RT

Page 2 Composting and Other Fertilizers

The following is the same on all pages and if you have already read it, you need not bother reading it again. 

My daughter has Cerebral Palsy. I do not say this for sympathy. I have created a site devoted to helping people with disabilities find resources they need to navigate DSHS, DDD, SSI and others including the school system. What I need from you is to let people with disabilities know of the site and get them to send me information of their local and State agencies that fulfill the needs of the disabled. I want to make this information available to all for free on my site. I just need the help of either a person with a child having cerebral palsy or any disability or a concerned person who can donate their time to help seek out this information of advocacy groups for the disabled.

 I am spending what time and resources I have but I need help.

 Please check out the site and if you can contribute with any information please do so. Check out the site I made for families with children who have CP Click http://www.cpfsn.org 

 Through having to take our daughter to therapy and doctors appointments we have come to know many parent's of children with Cerebral Palsy. In the course of our attempts to advocate for our daughter and upon hearing of the same troubles others have had doing the same we decided to use some web space and try to do something about it. We want very much to be able to provide relevant information for every locality across the country so that people seeking information do not have to spend days in search of the information they need. We would welcome any help you could give us. Any links you can supply for either .gov's or private agencies that provide for or advocate for the Disabled would be appreciated. We would like to break them down by Federal, State, County, City and Schools. Please visit  www.cpfsn.org and see if there is anything you can contribute to grow the site into a useful and relevant site for people with disabilities specially those with Children who have Cerebral Palsy.

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