New Gardens This Spring

Unless your soil is just rock and hard clay, there’s a new way of gardening which is much easier – No Till.

The basics of No Till are to cover you soil and weeds with cardboard and then six inches of compost. I would probably cut the grass and weeds as close as possible to the ground, but you don’t need to till or dig the soil. Brand new compost which you buy from a supplier can be quite “hot” literally so you may need to let it cool off before you do any planting. Ideally, you would put it on in late fall. I buy my compost from https://www.stlcompost.com/compost. If you have a friend with a pickup truck, you can buy compost for $28/yard.

Even though I put down a tarp, I burned the grass since this compost was so hot. I now have it delivered to my concrete driveway.

Another advantage to using compost is that you don’t need any fertilizer.

Below is a demonstration of the No Till method. He calls it No Dig, but it’s the same as No Till.

Soil Tests, Nitrogen and Compost

I had a recent soil test done on one section of my garden. I have had plants die in the past and recently the plants looked poorly in most of the area.

The test showed high levels of phosphorous, potassium and organic matter. The test does not test for nitrogen, but based upon my organic matter levels they didn’t recommend any added nitrogen. They did mention that, “Nitrogen is not listed because the level is not stable in the soil. It changes too frequently.”

What they recommended was to cut back on the compost, since my organic matter level is so high and to cut back on the phosphorous and potassium. He said that high levels can stop the uptake of other nutrients.

Their main recommendations were…

1. Just use a high nitrogen fertilizer without added phosphorous or potassium – blood meal, cottonseed meal etc.
2. Don’t add compost for a while. Try hardwood mulch on top

I did notice that added milorganite did green up the plants, but also adds phosphorous.

Fixing Soil with Amendments

Mycorrhizae
101010-Osmocote-Milo-Rosetone

This one particular garden area has been a problem for the last 3 or 4 years. Plants would dies for no particular reason, although some plants seem to not be bothered.

In the picture of poppies above, I have seeded much too heavily and the plants look terrible. I’m testing different type of amendments to see which might help the poppies.

Mycorrhizae is on the top and then left to right is is 10-10-10, Osmocote, Milorganite and Espoma Rosetone.

I added amendments on May 27th. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will see what difference each of them makes.

Soil Mixes

I noticed that Home Depot is carrying a number of Kellogg brand soil mixes, so I decided to buy all three and see what the difference is between them.

1. Raised Bed and Potting Mix – $8.27/2cu.ft. – This mix had 2.5 cups of large wood particles out of 12 cups. Other than that, it is similar to #3 – the Premium Potting Mix.
2. Garden Soil – This is not Top Soil. At $6.97, it is the cheapest, but is more like a nice mulch, not a soil for planting. it has 4 cups of large wood chips out of 12 cups. It does not contain perlite.
3. Potting Mix – Premium Mix for Outdoor Containers. This seems like a nice mix for use in a pot or in the garden. Out of 12 cups, it only had 1 cup of large wood chips and perlite. This is my favorite and at $6.47/1.5 cu.Ft., it seems like a good buy.

All three contain tiny amounts of fertilizer, so you will have to add your own fertilizer to these mixes.
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Kellogg – All Natural Topper – a new product I just discovered. Unfortunately it contains 4 cups of large particles out of 12 cups. $6.27/1.5 cu. ft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is another brand from Miracle Grow – Natures Care – organic raised bed soil. Unfortunately, it is about 40% wood particles. It would make a nice mulch. It has a little nutrition, but not much. It also doesn’t have perlite.

 

 

SLC Grower’s Mix

After watching a couple of years of Monty Don on “Gardeners’ World,” one of the differences I noticed was he doesn’t use peat moss in the U.K. He mainly uses a lot of compost, perlite and grit.  I’ve also never seen him use fertilizer other than compost which he makes himself.

You would be hard pressed to find this mixture in any nursery or big box store.

What I have found is a mix which seems similar to what Monty Don uses.

SLC Grower’s Mix has a combination of pine bark fines, compost and PBH rice hulls, although they wouldn’t tell me the exact percentages.

When I talked to SLC they did indicate that they would recommend using Osmocote if I was planning to grow from small size to large size in a pot. He recommended using a medium dosage.  They do include a small starter nutrition in the mix and a micro-nutrient charge.

The product will be a bit drier since it drains so well. You may have to water more often.

I’m going to be doing some tests with this product versus my standard BX ProMix.  The SLC mix is only $6 per 2 cu. ft. bag.

You would obviously be better off buying the mix in bulk, if you have a place to dump it.

The one odd thing about this mix is that it is in bags which say Cotton Blossom Compost.

 

Mycorrhizal Fungi

I’m going to use this page to add in information about this topic.

• Good article from  Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott, WSU Science Editor – you don’t need to buy and add MF to the soil.
• RadioLab Podcast – From Tree to Shining Tree

Here’s some good information from Gabe Brown on Mycorrhizal Fungi. One of the reasons I use Pro-Mix BX is because it has this fungi.

Vermiculite for Starting Seeds

I tested various proportions of vermiculite for starting seeds.

1. 100% vermiculite

2. 100% Miracle Gro potting mix

3. 50% vermiculite and 50% potting mix.

4. Potting mix on the bottom and vermiculite covering the seeds on the top.

Here are the results below from best to worst – I had 18 hollyhock seeds per tray.

1. 100% Vermiculite – 8 seeds germinate 
2. Miracle Gro covered with Vermiculite – 7 seeds 
3. 50% MG + 50% Ver – 4 seeds
4.  100% MG – 1 seed

Vermiculite has zero nutrients so I will be bottom watering with Jacks classic 20-20-20 with micro-nutrients. This variety is more expensive than Miracle Gro, but does a good job. Note – see my results below – this does NOT work!

Note – wear a mask when handling dry vermiculite. Wet the vermiculite as soon as possible to reduce dust particles and possible asbestos.

As you can see in the picture above, while vermiculite is great for starting seeds, since it has no nutrients, the seedlings don’t mature and grow very well. Even though I have constant bottom watering with Jacks water soluble fertilizer. The seeds in the picture are dianthus and basil. They are much healthier in the Miralcle Gro mix.

Video – Vermiculite for Starting Seeds

All New Square Foot Gardening – Notes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some notes from this book and also his book, “Square Foot Gardening – Answer Book.”

• He plants on top on the dirt and grass. No tilling and no improving the soil.
• His soil mix is 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 coarse vermiculite and 1/3 compost (from different sources)
• As part of the compost mix, he encourages using worm castings, composted manure, etc. – this is probably where he gets his Nitrogen source.
• No added fertilizer.
• He does add extra compost every year.
• He suggests using 1 x 6 or 2 x 6 lumber.
• He says to use landscape fabric underneath the box.He used to recommend putting down newspaper or cardboard. He’s worried about old weeds seeds sprouting from the soil.
• After you harvest a crop you add a handful of compost to that particular square.
• Crop Rotation – after you harvest a crop you put in a different type of vegetable. You move from root, to fruit to leaf crops.

I’m going to test this system out this year and see what results I get. I do a version of this as my “Easy” butterfly garden. I use a mix from St.Louis Composting which does contain soil and compost.

Here’s a good video of the process although it’s a bit old.