Gardeners of AW, unite

[jennontheisland]

Dry matter. Grass clippings, fallen leaves, that sort of thing. Moss is too green for this purpose.

I've also heard that charcoal (not the bbq briquettes, but leftovers from a fire) can help.

Heat should improve the pace of decomposition too.

[Fenika]

Kewl. About how long do the leaves take to break down in an incomplete compost 'pile' ?

[SPMiller]

Leaves all by themselves only need a year or two. It'll be even quicker in a compost pile.

[Fenika]

Awesome.

Cheers folks

[blacbird]

Originally Posted by jennontheisland

I've also heard that charcoal (not the bbq briquettes, but leftovers from a fire) can help.

Fire ashes, from wood, are excellent fertilizer. White ash from thoroughly burned wood consists primarily of potassium carbonate. Potassium is hugely important nutrition for plants, and commercial chemical fertilizer contains it in the form of potassium nitrate. But the carbonate is probably better, in that it is both soluble and chemically basic, thereby neutralizing to some extent acidic chemicals that are common in other fertilizer components, both organic and chemical, and in having the potassium. Save all your fireplace/campfire ashes for garden purposes, whenever possible. And nothing wrong with adding them to your compost.

Another really good thing to add to compost is coffee grounds. Many root vegetables, most notably carrots, adore coffee grounds.

[Canotila]

Originally Posted by blacbird

Fire ashes, from wood, are excellent fertilizer. White ash from thoroughly burned wood consists primarily of potassium carbonate. Potassium is hugely important nutrition for plants, and commercial chemical fertilizer contains it in the form of potassium nitrate. But the carbonate is probably better, in that it is both soluble and chemically basic, thereby neutralizing to some extent acidic chemicals that are common in other fertilizer components, both organic and chemical, and in having the potassium. Save all your fireplace/campfire ashes for garden purposes, whenever possible. And nothing wrong with adding them to your compost.

Another really good thing to add to compost is coffee grounds. Many root vegetables, most notably carrots, adore coffee grounds.

Coffee chaff is wonderful as well. It has the same mineral/nitrogen content as coffee grounds without the acidity. Which is nice if your soil is acidic to start with.

If you're like us and working with pure clay, charcoal is excellent for amending the soil. You need to crush it to a powder first, rather than mix it in chunks. Two years ago I mixed a blend of charcoal and composted horse manure into a section of our garden, and used composted horse manure by itself for the rest. This year the pure manure section had been "used up" and turned back into hard flat red clay again. The section with the added charcoal is still loose and rich feeling, along with looking darker. The soil is normally red/grey streaked clay.

[Fenika]

I bought The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Storey publishing. It's really good and I am going to work on my soil next week.

[HistorySleuth]

Originally Posted by blacbird
Fire ashes, from wood, are excellent fertilizer. White ash from thoroughly burned wood consists primarily of potassium carbonate.

The potash was quite the high commodity in my area in the 1800s. Quite a lot of asheries around.

My dirt is frozen rock solid so I can't actually do anything with it (as is my compost container.). I dry and save my coffee grounds all winter long as well as baking banana peels and smashing them up to use come spring/summer. Bananas have phosphorus and potassium. Roses like too so I sprinkle them around the bushes. Seems to the ants don't like to crawl over them to get to the plants either. I've read that the potassium is poisonous to them. I bake my peels at 200 degrees. You can tell by the smell when their near done. They should be black and crunchy. I don't have a pestle and mortar so I put them between wax paper and crush them with my rolling pin.

Of course you can use the actual peel itself around the plants just under the soil (and in your compost of course), but it seems in powder form it keeps the ants away.

[Fenika]

Good to know. I wonder if it would deter/annoy fire ants....

[kikazaru]

I have zero space for a veggie garden at my house, but I do recall reading somewhere, sometime, someplace, a raised bed for planting that the gardener was able to cram a lot of garden into a very small space.

What I recall, the design went something like this;

It was two tiered and may have even been on wheels. The wooden base was aprox 6 feet long by about 4ft wide, by about 2 feet tall and these sides were slanted inward and there were scattershot holes maybe 3" wide drilled in the sides. It was filled with dirt and in the middle of it, lengthwise, another smaller rectangular bed was inserted (no holes I don't think). The top bed was planted with taller plants like tomatoes and perhaps plants that drooped over the edges - flowers maybe. The bottom tier had shorter, bushier plants and the holes in the sides were plugged with herbs and perhaps lettuce.

I'd like to build one and can't find any info on it, does anyone know where I'd find some info on it?

[Fenika]

I can't help you with that design, but I can tell you deep beds of soil that's not highly compacted will improve root growth and plant health. If you do wide rows this is of course more efficient than 12 or 18" rows. Just make sure you aren't reaching across and smashing soil to get to those middle plants (iirc, 3' is suggested in my Storey guide that features the GROW method)

I have purchased some seeds. Now if I could stop traveling for work I would actually plant them and build a cold frame...

[kikazaru]

Thanks Fenika. My front yard is miniscule and shady so I've only got shade loving flowers. I have no back yard to speak of - my deck is over looking water. I do have a small side yard but it is mostly taken up by a large tree and rocks for my retaining wall. I thought that this two tiered contraption might be the ticket to use in that small space.

[SPMiller]

My parsley is still doing fine (growing and putting out new leaves) despite snowfall and temperatures as low as -8 C. That's both flat-leaf and curly-leaf varieties. Go figure.

Potted basil is also doing great.

I got some of the weeding done because the wild lettuce is already starting.

[icerose]

My section of the garden was sprayed by heavy chemical weed killers and then tilled in so I'm not sure if I'm going to do a garden this year.

[Fenika]

SP, that's awesome, and Rose, that sucks. I sympathize. Do you know what chemicals exactly? You can find out short term and long term break down of those chemicals, though being under ground will either make the break down better or worse. You might also research what commercial vegetables already have a heavy application of weed killers, and plant those in your garden. Better the chemical months old and underground than the chemical on growing plants.

Don't write it off completely. Plus I just discovered the gardening program that airs on NPR- http://www.whyy.org/91FM/ybyg/ You might call them for more ideas on how to salvage what you have to work with.

[SPMiller]

Too early for gardening posts? No? Good.

If you were wondering whether parsley could survive a winter, the answer is apparently yes, provided you live in zone 8. These are two of the several clumps that survived.



Granted, I did cheat a little: I planted them near a south wall, and I covered them twice. An intentionally unprotected row died in the second cold spell, but it did survive the first.

[Stew21]

Pardon my reach... Saw this thread and thought it'd be fabulous in the new Hands On forum!

[icerose]

Well still three months away from planting season here in nowhere, Utah. We still have snow and ice on the ground but I have spring fever so bad. I found a new seed seller called richters.com and they have all these amazing herbs. I'm itching to get my hands on them. If I had a place of my own I'd set up a green house and some hot boxes and hoop houses and I'd be planting my seeds right now. Alas, hopefully that will happen next year, or maybe even sometime this year if I get lucky.

[shakeysix]

cold and foggy again today but this time the fog isn't freezing. i can see where spring might be a possibility. two days ago i would have said it had been called off. anyway just this morning i started a packet of shasta daisy seed and ten coneflower seeds in the Home Ec. teacher's classroom window. this spring i will help her rejuvenate her flower beds at home and she will help me redesign my kitchen. she hates to garden and i hate to cook---s6

[tiny]

My roses are growing beautifully and my yard is covered in olives. I have no idea what to do with them. But I do feel so very lucky living in Southern California. It's made me absolutely obsessive about plants. I finally got my golden barrel from my parents house. I need to get a picture of it.

[darkprincealain]

Cannot wait for warmer weather here. As put forth in another thread, I have seeds for different smaller veggies and herbs like I did last year, ready to plant. Of course, that thread was about beetberries only, but there are quite a few other items on the list.

And I may decide to do mint this year if I'm feeling lazy. That stuff is hard to kill even for a pretty mediocre gardener such as myself.

[HistorySleuth]

Originally Posted by kikazaru

I have zero space for a veggie garden at my house, but I do recall reading somewhere, sometime, someplace, a raised bed for planting that the gardener was able to cram a lot of garden into a very small space.

What I recall, the design went something like this;

It was two tiered and may have even been on wheels. The wooden base was aprox 6 feet long by about 4ft wide, by about 2 feet tall and these sides were slanted inward and there were scattershot holes maybe 3" wide drilled in the sides. It was filled with dirt and in the middle of it, lengthwise, another smaller rectangular bed was inserted (no holes I don't think). The top bed was planted with taller plants like tomatoes and perhaps plants that drooped over the edges - flowers maybe. The bottom tier had shorter, bushier plants and the holes in the sides were plugged with herbs and perhaps lettuce.

I'd like to build one and can't find any info on it, does anyone know where I'd find some info on it?

Ihave no space either in my small village lot so I did mine in my driveway where the sun is in recycle bins. Pics of my garden in this post.

I've never seen that one you describe but if you get a book called Gardening by the Square Foot it has a lot of ideas for limited space. Also you'd be surprised how much you can grow. Less bugs, no weeding, and I did 3 crop cycles. (spring, summer, fall)

[TedTheewen]

I'm still pretty far away from planting time here in Wisconsin. I have a lot of work to do once it does get nice. Of course, the landlord might not let me plant anything, depending on his wife's mood.

Last year was ok, but I learned a lot of very basic lessons. This year will be very different.

[Fenika]

Originally Posted by Stew21

Pardon my reach... Saw this thread and thought it'd be fabulous in the new Hands On forum!

Hey now, we were quite content where we were! ...where ever that was. Cooking forum, I think. This crafty forum looks fun though.

I have a sad. I had to move out of a bad situation and now have very little light at my new place. Once the leaves fill in on the trees it will be even worse. I'll have to get that square foot gardening book from the library- my friend suggested it as well. Building something on wheels sounds good because I can have a morning and afternoon location. Otherwise I'll be mostly potting things and hoping I can move again soon.

Meanwhile, the lettuce and spinach have been growing slowwwwwly despite the number of warm days we've had recently. I think they are lacking some nutrients since I placed them in old soil. Or the soil is too compressed. I have plans to devour them and try again, including some broccoli.

[sunandshadow]

Originally Posted by SPMiller

Too early for gardening posts? No? Good.

If you were wondering whether parsley could survive a winter, the answer is apparently yes, provided you live in zone 8. These are two of the several clumps that survived.



Granted, I did cheat a little: I planted them near a south wall, and I covered them twice. An intentionally unprotected row died in the second cold spell, but it did survive the first.

I was surprised to have cabbage survive the winter last year (zone 6). It went to seed as soon as it got warm though, so I did not get any additional cabbage out of it.

Currently I'm waiting for the ground to thaw because I found a forgotten bag of dutch iris bulbs I want to put in the ground. I wnt out with a spade to put them in last week, and was baffled to find that the ground was rock hard ice, yet the crocuses, daffodils tulips, and hyacinths are coming up right through it. Strong little plants! And of course the Muscari have had green leaves all winter, they are amazingly cold-tolerant. Worried about the peach tree though, it seems determined to bloom even though the nights are still regularly freezing. And I can't cover it because it's so windy here - last time I covered a tree the wind caught so much on the surface area that it whipped the little tree around and killed it. o.O

I want to buy some gladiolus bulbs this year, never grown those before. I've got hollyhock seeds in a starter tray, and packets of pansy and poppy seeds to scatter outside when it warms up. If anyone has suggestions for other seeds I can just grab a packet, throw them on the ground, and get flowers in zone 6, I'd be happy to hear them. Bonus points if there is a good chance they will reseed, or go perennial.

Need to pick up vegetable seeds too. I want to grow rutabagas but I never see their seeds anywhere, only turnips. Anyone want to recommend a spineless okra which is less prone to turning woody than Clemson? Or a zucchini which is immune to the powdery mildew that lives in my yard?