Bone Meal and Blood Meal?

[Emerald]

Can I use both?

[opabinia51]

Yes, bone meal will decrease the pH of your soil a bit and also help to fortify plants by providing them with Calcium and I'm sure that it has other effects as well.

Blood meal is a green compostable so, don't add to much but as I said before you can add it. Just add some sort of brown like leaves, shredded black and white newspaper, sawdust, etc to offset the Nitrogen in the blood meal if you add a lot of it.

A bit won't hurt a thing though.

[Emerald]

I am going to mix up some blood meal, bone meal and some other things to work into some of the soil where I am having problems.

Many thanks for your reply!!

[opabinia51]

Excellant! Don't forget to put your eggshells into the soil as well. And coffee grounds are another green you can use (used coffee grounds).

[Emerald]

Excellant! Don't forget to put your eggshells into the soil as well. And coffee grounds are another green you can use (used coffee grounds).

I have a bag beside my coffee pot and egg shells on a paper towel drying out. My hero laughed at me when he saw me putting the coffee grouns in the bag. He ask me if we had gotten so poor I was saving them to brue again When I told him the egg shells are for my tomato plants and to help my soil he ask me could he have a chicken house......then he started walking around like a chicken. Hes a nut and is loving all this new info as much as I am. I'm still waiting for him to lay me an egg but he didnt think that was very funny. I'm lucky to have a hubby that gets into the gardening as much as me. It sure helps when I have to dig up sod.

Thanks again for all the wonderful post and info.

[opabinia51]

You are most welcome Emerald! Thanks for the nice accolade. You're plants are really going to thank you for all that you are doing for them.

From the sounds of things, you may have very claylike soil, is this a fact?

If so, the only real way to ammend this is to add lots and lots of organic matter in the form of truckloads of leaves in the fall with greens to quicken their decomposition. I have never agreed with adding sand because it's best to work with what you have but, some people say to add sand and I've been telling people to do that. One of our other members pointed out that adding sand to clay makes concrete so, use your judgement there.

I'm lucky enough to have sand based soil which is very easy to ammend, I add the truckloads of apple, linden tree, maple, a few oak, pear, cherry, cottonwood and so on leaves along with horse and chcken manure, organic used cofee grounds (by the bucket load from a local coffee shop), seaweed, eggshells (actually a green), kelp meal, rock phosphate, grass clippings and..... other goodies. All in different layers. Works like a charm.

I plant a cover crop at the end of September of Rye, vetch, clover, peas and buckwheat which I mow a few times and then turn into the soil and cover with a layer of unmulched maple leaves and then I go from there.

I top everything off with a layer of chickenmanure in the areas where I will not grow corn the next year and horse manure where I will be growing corn and then plant another cover crop of Rye, etc and Fava Beans that come up in early spring and give me beans while I'm turning the rest of the cover crop in. Great in soups, can't get enough of them.

Anyway, that's what I do to keep my soil nice and healthy.


I also dig trenches and fill them with layers of leaves, manure, leaves, coffee grounds, l.eaves, grass clippings, leaves and so on and top them off with more soil. Sometimes I throw some rock phosphate into them as well.

[Emerald]

You are most welcome Emerald! Thanks for the nice accolade. You're plants are really going to thank you for all that you are doing for them.

From the sounds of things, you may have very claylike soil, is this a fact?

If so, the only real way to ammend this is to add lots and lots of organic matter in the form of truckloads of leaves in the fall with greens to quicken their decomposition. I have never agreed with adding sand because it's best to work with what you have but, some people say to add sand and I've been telling people to do that. One of our other members pointed out that adding sand to clay makes concrete so, use your judgement there.

I'm lucky enough to have sand based soil which is very easy to ammend, I add the truckloads of apple, linden tree, maple, a few oak, pear, cherry, cottonwood and so on leaves along with horse and chcken manure, organic used cofee grounds (by the bucket load from a local coffee shop), seaweed, eggshells (actually a green), kelp meal, rock phosphate, grass clippings and..... other goodies. All in different layers. Works like a charm.

I plant a cover crop at the end of September of Rye, vetch, clover, peas and buckwheat which I mow a few times and then turn into the soil and cover with a layer of unmulched maple leaves and then I go from there.

I top everything off with a layer of chickenmanure in the areas where I will not grow corn the next year and horse manure where I will be growing corn and then plant another cover crop of Rye, etc and Fava Beans that come up in early spring and give me beans while I'm turning the rest of the cover crop in. Great in soups, can't get enough of them.

Anyway, that's what I do to keep my soil nice and healthy.


I also dig trenches and fill them with layers of leaves, manure, leaves, coffee grounds, l.eaves, grass clippings, leaves and so on and top them off with more soil. Sometimes I throw some rock phosphate into them as well.

I have a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the soil here. You are correct in stating there are lots, loads of clay here. I think this is one of the reasons I am having trouble with my crape myrtle trees. I am thrilled to get any info on correcting this as you have put so much time in to typing it out here for me. My hero said he would be working with me on getting some amendments for the rest of the yard. He knows quite a few fellows that work for saw mills and will be checking to see what we can get from them. We have a lot of clay toward the front of our house but to the back there’s more rock. As you get closer to the forest area the soil is black but full of roots.

Again thanks for the info, I have been printing everything off to keep in my garden diary. I am truly enjoying this site and look forward to making many new friends.

[opabinia51]

Sawdust will help as well but be sure to add manure or fish soil along with the dust or it will take years to break down.