Best Organic Potting Soil

If you put food in one half of the bin one week and the other half next time, you can keep track of how fast your worms are eating and adjust your feeding amounts accordingly. If the top layer dries out from time to time, spritz with water.

You're allowing the establishment of a healthy microbial community underground, fostering that community and letting it regulate itself. (Rodale Institute has a video explaining this process.) Either way, you'll need a no-till transplanter and seed drill...

“Then we spend about $600 for labor. One of the main benefits of growing in plastic is that it extends the growing season on both ends, meaning growers can take their crops to market sooner and extend production later in the year.

Our family was never that great at traditional composting. These have a tray in the bottom to hold the fermenting garbage up out of the liquid that accumulates and a spigot to siphon off the liquid.The liquid is full of micro-organisms and can be diluted...

This last spring, when the corral seemed almost full, I topped it off with thick pads of straw and planted tomatoes & melons into that. The majority are earmarked for the new compost corral, but many of them go toward mulching my whole garden.

They are the ones that clip away all but the veins of a dead leaf, leaving their lace-like handiwork behind. Insects and Worms Most gardeners are familiar with some of the dogs of soil life—earwigs, beetles and earthworms.

Coconut coir and rice hulls are two currently popular candidates for "greener" choices. I hope you'll try some of these "recycled" products in your own gardens and containers this year.

The squirmy larvae of tiny fruit flies and of larger black soldier flies are eager eaters of "green" compostables like coffee grounds and kitchen waste. They can even help warm a cool pile in their enthusiastic zeal to consume.These creatures find your...

To find them, click on the tag "soil and compost" in the Helpful Links box at the bottom of this page. The advantage is that the compost progresses from "rough" to "finished" much more rapidly.

Use a combine to harvest and thresh; cut and windrow the beans to dry further before threshing; or harvest by hand, pulling the plants up and hanging them in a protected place to dry for another few days before threshing.

Rinsed egg shells are acceptable but they don't really break down. Seal the edges of the screen to the plastic with duct tape. I've found they don't eat root vegetables like potatoes or carrots (unless cooked or really rotted), or dried things like onion...

In my area we have mostly maple trees so the majority of my leaves are maple. Manures offer very little in nutrients to the garden other than a small amount of nitrogen.I recommend composting manures before appling them to the garden.

I hope you have found some numbers here to appreciate the potential of your labor, and put your leaves to work for you. 1990.http://compost.css.cornell.edu/factsheet2.pdf 10 Oct 2008Biernbaum & Fogiel.

But does it, really? Then let's use some simple terms to understand what the test results mean and what we can do to improve our soil for what we want to grow. Generally, your county extension service will have the name and address of a lab for testing.For...

Soil pH May Affect Certain Diseases Image Catalog/Flikcr In a study of soybean diseases performed by the University of Wisconsin, researchers determined that proper soil pH decreased crop damaged by soybean cyst nematodes and brown stem rot.

This was not only because of the presence of contaminated bedding but also because the herbicides clopyralid and picloram were found in commercial animal feed. One of the biggest mistakes that we make in gardening is to rely solely on a bag of fertilizer...

Soil pH above 7 is alkaline and contains more negatively charged hydroxide ions. In a nutshell, the pH is the comparative measure of hydrogen and hydroxide ions present. Dolomitic lime is derived in a similar manner but from limestone sources that contain...

For that reason, as you dig in, consider trying more comprehensive tests over time from private labs. For that reason, a soil's CEC is better used as a management tool to determine how much of any one nutrient to add and how often.

Here are three resources you already make at home—for free! Lime reduces acidity, usually raising pH to about 6.5, and acts like a key to unlock those nutrients. Since 2012, the folks at the Rich Earth Institute in Brattleboro, Vt., have recruited 170...

Compost Well Good compost should be added to a busy garden every year. Don't add wood chips to vegetable gardens if you can help it, though they do work well in paths. Whenever you can, cover the soil either with a cover crop, mulch or physical barriers,...

They also have a few things to offer for lung and kidney health before we even get to the folkloric uses against various tumors and irregular growths. Allowing the plants to do the work means that soils heal rather than continually needing us to apply...

I'm always reminding my kids to stay on the garden paths; compacted soils from heavy tractors or careless feet will restrict those roots from reaching deeply into the soil, and I'll have to water more frequently.

With the right ingredients on hand, you can mix up your own batch of healthy potting soil. Tags garden , homemade potting soil , Lists , plants Lime for each shovel of peat moss 6.

If you're not already convinced of the benefits well-tended soil brings to your plants and farm, here are nine things you'll want to keep in mind. On cold spring nights, the warmth stored in the soil during the day can moderate the temperatures around...

Hot, humid weather may bring out a slight odor some people dislike. Granules are more suited to working into the soil, while chunks and shredded bark work better for mulching.Not only is tree bark easy to obtain, it tends to hold its color better than...

When leaching salt, it's often recommended that you mix sulfur or gypsum into the soil first, then several weeks later run three or more inches of water over the same soil. The crop will effectively suck up the excess nutrients and turn it into food.

Make A Potato Bin I sometimes pile my used potting soil into a 4-foot-tall, box-wire frame, lined with newspaper. It can seem like a waste to throw out spent potting soil from your container plantings at the end of the growing season.