Best Organic Soil Amendments

This is called a ‘bloom' and is a positive stage in the development of the microbial environment needed by your worms. This will be hard for children – I know it was for me!Your worms actually consume the bedding as well as the food, and you might...

Explore the pros and cons of no-till crops and gardens for your small farm. Without tillage to do away with weeds, cover crops become a primary tool in the weed battle. When the Organic Association of Kentucky announced the topic lineup for its conference...

They also need plumbing components, including filters and connections, from their water source to the drip tape. 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...

Included with the packing slip were fairly easy to follow instructions for making the inoculant.Chlorine Free Water (well water or tap water aged in a open container for a day)Effective micro-organisms (also known as EM, Order On-Line)Weather protected...

We'll get to that some other time.This all-comers, laissez-faire approach to composting is part of a larger effort to produce as little trash as possible. The majority are earmarked for the new compost corral, but many of them go toward mulching my whole...

Scientists may consider fungi microbes, but hyphae are unlimited in how long they can grow. When microorganisms decompose dead plants and animals, they put life's elemental building blocks back into circulation, including the big three—nitrogen, potassium,...

Or they can be added to potting mixes for seedlings and containers.I think of the hulls as being similar to vermiculite, another other product I've used for years.You may be able to find rice hulls at your local nursery.

All these critters come to enjoy the banquet of moist, rotting goodness that you've set out. They can start eating that waste as soon as you've dropped it. Occasional overwhelming or offensive bugs can be reduced or avoided with closer attention to basic...

Straw is a great insulator, but allows air and moisture to circulate. If you can find a dark-colored tarp, to absorb any solar energy on those rare sunny winter days, all the better! Just don't seal the pile off too tightly, as your microbes need air...

Harvest lentils on a hot, dry day, when plants begin to turn yellow and the lower pods turn brown and rattle when shaken. Snap-pea pods are 2½ to 3 inches long at maturity; snow peas are harvestable when pods are 2 inches wide and up to 4 to 5 inches...

I don't use them.Food should be in smallish pieces (under 2 inches). Most gardeners are comfortable with worms, and welcome them into their garden as hardworking partners in soil management.

You can never get too much organic material in your soil.As I said earlier, it takes time but constant addition of organic materials will improve your gardens soil structure each and every season.Here's how I handle it in my gardens: each fall I add 5...

Allen Smith, "Saving Leaves For Compost"Other neighbors have various methods of dealing with the leaves. Years before we moved to the area, someone accidentally caught the woods on fire while burning leaves.

Even the poorest soils can be improved to yield a productive crop by adding beneficial amendments, which will help improve plant growth and health. A number of soil problems can throw your garden off balance, but there's no shortage of amendments to set...

So we take our daily vitamins, and we throw some 10-10-10 fertilizer around our plants. Generally, your county extension service will have the name and address of a lab for testing.For testing my soil, the local Extension Agent recommended taking samples...

Plants which have evolved under such soil conditions often have developed mechanisms to deal with this issue.” In essence, without proper pH, your plants may not be able to get the food they need to thrive.

Use these tips to make smarter fertilizing decisions. She is co-owner of Mockingbird Meadows, a medicinal herb and honey farm near Columbus, Ohio, where she consults with women and their partners on issues of hormonal imbalance, oversees the United Plant...

About the Author: Horticulturalist Jessica Walliser is the author of Good Bug, Bad Bug: Who's Who, What They Do and How to Manage Them Organically (St. Lynn's Press, 2008) and co-host of Pittsburgh's top-rated gardening radio program, The Organic Gardeners...

So let's take a look at the most pressing readings from a basic soil test and identify the red flags—that is, the elements that are the most important for healthy soil. A pasture, on the other hand, will be more forgiving.

But because the 30 billion gallons of pee Americans produce in a year doesn't go onto farms, where does it go? If you're a woman, you'll want to try ­fashioning a way to sit down on a modified watering can or use what's called a female urination device...

This compost should be fully mature, not slimy, and added as soil is being prepared for planting. But it's also a great way to check your progress, so over the years, as you amend and grow, you can see through a soil test how well you're doing.

In The Soil Will Save Us (Rodale, 2014), author Kristin Ohlson writes that the imprudent ways we manage agricultural land accounts for 30 percent of the world's carbon emissions. Both of these products are helpful in menstrual disorders, osteoporosis...

Tiny root hairs reach out into the soil and intertwine with the fungi that are capable of dissolving minerals from rocks and decaying plants. The first place to start when trying to answer this question is to perform a soil test on your garden; balanced...

Peat-Soil Combination Mix 2 parts vermiculite 3 parts sphagnum peat moss 2 parts perlite 2 parts dehydrated manure 3 parts garden soil 1/2 part bone meal 5. Tags garden , homemade potting soil , Lists , plants

Soil is the backbone of our farms, and something we need to pay careful attention to if we want plentiful, nutritious, disease-free crops. Here are nine ways healthy soil benefits your farm crops.

If you're mulching around trees or shrubs , avoid contact with the trunk or stem, as this can provide habitat to slugs, sow bugs and mice that could damage the tree. Wood chips are readily available at many commercial stores, and some areas even allow...

This activity is called rotational grazing. If you leave the mulch there, it would eventually break down and become a part of the soil. If a soil test shows an excess nutrient, some farmers quickly graze that grass before moving them onto a deficient...