New to Organic Gardening

[The Helpful Gardener]

Forget the compost heap (it is just a pile of stuff) and use those block to raise the edge around your growing area. This will allow you to import some soil from elsewhere (heck dig a hole if you have to).

Lay cardboard over the area inside your block (get it at the supermarket; I ask nice and get all I need) and wet it all down good. Put your imported soil on top of that (and compost, or whatever else have you...).

Get a bale or two of straw; scatter it about on top of that. Plant starts into the new bed. Do not walk on it or do anything other than pull the occasional weed and you will never need to do another thing to it other than add hay or straw once and a while. EASY!

[wwiding]

I'm not sure if buying soil is an option for me right now, but the soil here is really good if I can just get the weeds out. The good news is I just tried to rake a bunch of them and they came right out, with the roots. The snow is melting so the weeds come right up. If I can get rid of them, then I could probably cover the area I'm not going to grow on, to keep weeds from coming back up. As for goats, my neighbor has sheep, but I don't know if they eat weeds. Some times I can even get straw from my neighbor for free.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Who said buy? Dig right around your blocked out bed and throw that in. Like I said, dig a hole and use that.

Collect leaf duff in the woods and throw that on top of the cardboard; collect coffee grounds from a convenience store or coffee house and throw that on the leaves... Even those weeds you raked can be thrown into the mix... throw the soil from around the sides on top of that...


The problem with raking is you just sowed your next crop of weeds. All that scratchin and furrowing is just what a weed likes to get started (did you know crabgrass seed stays viable up to six feet down for up to a century?) So cover the WHOLE area with the hay or straw, and plant into it. It will come through just fine.

I'd put hands on some sheep poop too, and start composting; shredded paper is another good carbon besides leaves, or sawdust. This can be done cheap and well, just a little work to get started and less of that every year if you do it right... no raking...

HG

[Decado]

I wish I had some woods that would be awesome for soil and compost.

[farmerlon]

Lay cardboard over the area inside your block...

I second the use of cardboard.
Dig out the top layer (mat) of grass and weeds, then put a thick layer of cardboard and/or newspapers on top of the dirt that you have exposed.
If you're making a raised bed, let the cardboard extend out 2 to 3 feet on all sides of the bed.
Then, fill the bed with Soil.
Chances are that you will have eliminated all of the invasive weeds and grasses from that bed, because they can't "see the light of day" any more.
From then on, you should only have to do light cultivation in the bed, to rid it of weeds that pop up from seeds.

With lots of woods on your property, I would guess that you can find some spots in the understory that are virtually weed free, and have very rich soil due to years of leaf/branch fall. That might be a great place to source the dirt for your garden beds.
Definitely consider a soil test at your local County Extension office, to see if you need to add Lime (or something else).

[wwiding]

I love you guys. So heres what I did, I chopped/raked a couple inches deep(still working on it) and I'll get cardboard boxes from the local grocery store. The state came and bought some fill dirt recently, and I went and had a look where they dug, no weeds! The area is now a giant hill, which may be keeping the weeds from growing, but all that soil, and soil from around the trees will be enough. I also looked where the state came and cut around the power lines, there isn't a weed in site, but the soil is pretty fresh, maybe I'll use some of that too.

[wwiding]

My grandpa had the soil tested and said that it was a little acidic here.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Probably old woodland soil; the bacterial components will help balance that back. Add a few tablespoons of molasses to the first few waterings to help spike the bacterial side and it will balance itself out just fine...

HG

[Toil]

This year I'm going to try to manage weeds instead of eradication. Apparently we should not hate them, but put them to work instead.

[wwiding]

The local newspaper gives my grandma the extra rolls of paper that can't be used by the machines, for her parrots. I think I'm going to roll a couple layers down, and put my soil on top of that. There isn't any ink or any thing on it, just blank rolls of newspaper.

[The Helpful Gardener]

That's perfect WW! (and toil )

HG

[wwiding]

Well I've edged the entire area off, and shoveled a section of it six inches deep, I'll still have to pull weeds and rocks afterwards, but the soils good and loose. The best, most taxing work out I've ever had.

[gixxerific]

Lots of good advice here and it sounds like you are doing it in good fashion. You should have a fine garden.

Did you put the blocks around your garden? That would be great to keep adding material up though they are not realy needed, my garden is I suppose a raised be minus the sides.Just keep adding stuff like compost, straw manure and whatever you have organic, after time you will have an awesome very fertile garden.

I definitely agree with the trellis idea, I trellis everything I can to get more out my somewhat smaller space.

And if you are still wanting asparagus I wuold not wait because as said it is a perennial and will take a few years to become established.

Good luck can't wait to see your thriving garden this year.

Dono

[wwiding]

Well I didn't use the block because they were to heavy, they're actually from the foundation of a house that burned down on the property in the sixties. If I can borrow a friends truck then I'll use it to move the blocks. But I'm digging about a foot down, then I'll rake all the roots and rocks out. I'll lay my newspaper down, and put some of the soil I've already dug out back in, mixed with half a gallon of coffee grounds. Then I'll put soil from around the trees down. I'm halfway done with the digging now. I'm only going to grow a few things this year, and then put a lot in next year.

Funny story, my aunt and uncle live on the other side of the property, and my uncle came out to offer me some "advice". I politely explained to him that I've done enough research to know what I'm doing and don't want help from a man that doesn't eat vegetables. Any way he's angry now and he's going to try and grow corn in the sand along side his house to spite me, to make matters worse my cousin is helping me with my garden, and won't help his dad.

[gixxerific]

Now now, let's not start a family feud. Plus any advice is good whether or not the actual advice is good or not, just smile and nod.

Your probably doing good going small this year, just keep working on the rest of the plot that way by next year it will be ready.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Maybe help Unc out with his corn to mend the fence?

Corn in sand, he's gonna need it...

HG

[wwiding]

Can I mix moss with the soil? There's tons of it growing now that the snow is melting, and if it's nutrient value is high I could bread it up and mix it with the soil. I'm also going through the woods here to gather the dead logs, and crumbling them up to add to my soil mix. I love it, gardening for the cheap people(-:

[The Helpful Gardener]

Watch it with adding too much wood; you can lock up your nitrogen... make sure you add manure or greens to balance that wood out...

Moss is not a high nutrition food for anybody, but it won't hurt anything...

HG

[wwiding]

Whoops, meant to say I was going to break the moss up and add it to the soil, not bread it up. Maybe I'll try both I just had a thought, I know, it's hard to believe. Back in the 60's and 70's, a few barns, and a house burned down on the property. I bet if I move some of the metal that's been sitting there forever, the soil underneath would be really good, do to the moisture held under it, and the worms being there.(I was thinking of lasagna gardening when this idea struck me).

[The Helpful Gardener]

Fire can damage surface soils, but after some time, with the wood rotting and the left over charcoal, not to mention the leftovers from whatever was being kept in the barn (if it was cows, that's great; if it was tractors, not so good...)

HG

[wwiding]

Well hey no worries, no tractors were kept in the barn, it was all old fashioned horse equipment. Actually some of the equipment is still laying in the woods, no longer usable, but I'm going to pull it out any way, maybe I'll decorate the garden area with the stuff, and grow some flowers and vines on it.

[malkore]

The book I'm reading is the Vegetable Gardner's Bible. Its pretty straight forward and suggests organic gardening for the most part.

Narrow enough rows that you can reach in from either side (so 3-5 feet wide) and as long as you like.

So I have two almost 4' wide by 15.5' long beds just dug up this spring. Spring isn't the ideal time to 'put in' the garden space per lots of peoples posts here, but I figured my harvest may be weak this year but the roots will at least create some channels, add organics to the soil (we have a bit of clay here), and I'm putting compost on top and tilling it in.

Then I'm adding a bit of topsoil but not a truly 'raised' bed with any supports, at least not THIS year

Take on what you will enjoy working with. for me this above method was 'doable' to get started and I only have to deep dig the beds. I'll let the grass between them die and the soil compact...less to mow!

[wwiding]

Well, I've been fighting roots for the past hour or so, big ones, so I've decided that that is where I'm going to end my garden bed. Now I need to rake the rocks and loose roots out, put my newspaper down, and fill it back up. Next year maybe I'll rent some equipment and make the bed a lot longer, but for now it'll work. I'm going to focus on composting to make better soil, and growing my beans, squash, and zucchini. Maybe I'll grow some stuff to plow under in any empty rows.

[gixxerific]

I'm going to focus on composting to make better soil,

For now that is the best thing you could be doing, everything else will fall in to place.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Gixx is right; get your soil right and the rest is easy...

HG

[wwiding]

The more I look around the property, the more useful things I find! A couple years ago, my cousin had pigs in the chicken coop, I'm going to see if it's good enough to mix in with the soil. Any pointers? I know I want it to smell like dirt, and it's been sitting for a year or two. The pigs were only fed grains, no meat. I'm not sure if it broke down enough though, since it's been in the chicken coop, not outside in the sun.

[The Helpful Gardener]

It's probaly ok, but trust your nose to make the right call...

If it don't smell like poo, it'll probably do...

You are getting the hang of this fast...

HG

[wwiding]

Well it doesn't smell like junk, but it still looks like it, but it also crumbles, so I'll mix a little in. I just contacted some one around here that raises rabbits, now I need a truck. One truck load is broken down, the other is fresh! I think I was made for this.

[GrandMomMom]

This line is so full of great tips and information! I believe it will transfer well to my Pacific Northwest medium-town environment.

We rent, so it would be foolish to dump a lot of cash into the landlord's property. In the past he has done such things as put weed killer on the lawn. Once we had someone who came by looking for work clean out a neglected flower bed. The next week the landlord had about a yard of root-filled soil mounded on top of it, planted 6 hydrangea bushes about 2 feet apart and told us that we had to water them and make sure that they lived. Fortunately we had a killing frost a couple of years ago & took care of that. About the only good thing that happened there.

On the other hand, it is our environment. The landlord, however, only sees it as his property, and it is hard to argue with that.

This spring I am attempting to remove an ancient rose bush & a growing blackberry vine and replace it with grass. I'd like to go with bush beans & flowers, but who knows what HE would do about that.

I am loving all of these great healthy soil fill ideas for low cash!

[The Helpful Gardener]

I have gardened on a lot of rented property over the years and was almost always able to work it out with LLs with one exception. Just know what the boundaries are and most LLs will work with you so you can get your jones out, as they have a beautified property.

HOA's are a whole nother ball of wax...

HG