Why You Need to Test Your Soil

Have your soil tested. You could go by the general guidelines for your area, but you will be doing yourself a favor in the long run if you get the soil tested. Usually, you send a soil sample for testing to your cooperative extension agency. This analysis of your soil will reveal its PH level and whether it's acid, alkaline or neutral. Some plants like certain PH levels. How do you grow plants that prefer a PH of 6.0 in the same garden with a plant that prefers a PH of 7.5? You have two choices: Choose a plant that will do well in that soil OR prepare soil that will suit the plants you want.

These two videos explain the testing process very well.

Once you have the results, you have scientific feedback on how to prepare your soil for the plants you want to grow.

Different Mulches and Why We Mulch

Mulching helps prevent water from evaporating from the soil. It also helps protect the soil from crusting and can lower the soil temperature. There are a variety of mulches including compost, straw, composted manure and even aged wood chips.

For the wood chips, check with your extension agent about the type of wood to use and make sure to inquire as to how long ago it was chipped from the live tree. Here's a link to learn more.

You need to know the effect of what you’re mulching with. For example, sawdust can make the soil more acidic. Blueberries love acidic soil (low PH), but other plants might not. Here's a link to learn more about mulch in general. Here's a link to specific kinds of mulch and their effects on the underlying soil.

Serious Soil Preparation

Soil is the foundation for everything you do in the garden and a harbinger of your garden's success. Spend time doing it right. Here's how I did mine. It was a lot of back-breaking work but it is REALLY paying off now in my high-yield garden.

1. Set the rows - decide where you want rows, which are raised in-place beds. Mine were around three feet wide.
2. I used an auger to dig/auger three feet down the entire length of the bed. This is a lot of work and I suggest you break it up between several days, depending on how large your garden is. I put logs to the side of the garden so I would later know where the were. These deep rows allow great soil drainage and deep root growth.
   
3. I added composted horse manure, old dark rich soil, amendments such as lime, gypsum,... to the entire garden and spread it out evenly.
4. Next I tilled the entire garden vertically and horizontally.
5. Then I raked the soil into rows matching where the logs had been laid so the rows (raised beds) would be over the deeply dug soil.
6. Then I put wood chips in the pathways.

It was a one time deal. From now on, all I have to do it amend the rows with compost. I should never have to till again - just add compost on top of the rows.

The evidence that it worked is seen every day now with the high yield and size of the plants and fruit and vegetables.

Florida Weave & Pruning Cucumbers

Florida weave is the way to go if you are going to prune tomato suckers and have more then 3-4 plants. I also use it with peppers.

I never would have believed it unless I tried it myself. My pruned cucumbers are yielding more than my 'free' cucumber plants. Here's the video explaining how & why.

Brandywine Tomatoes

We've had lots of rain here after a long dry spell. Most of my tomatoes (brandywine and cherry) are 7 to 8 feet tall and full of fruit.

Some Pink Brandywine are turning color and a few cherry tomatoes are red. New cucumbers ripen every day, as do zucchini. The moon & stars watermelon have taken over, which is why I planted them on the end and trained their vines to grow away from the garden.

Watered in compost & rock dust tea on the test area - we'll see how that works.

Another short one

This site, usrbanfarm, is worth checking out: http://www.urbanfarming.org.  As is this one, http://www.nabiscoworld.com/triscuit/- which also has a plan-maker for your garden.

We've has two night totaling around 3" rain. My water veggeies love it (cucumbers, watermelon, zucchini).

Enjoy.

What's Hot? Eating Local

According to this article, the American Culinary Federation's "What's Hot in 2011" list includes eating local food.

Why?

• It saves fuel to transport your food
• It's fresher
• You can talk to the person who actually grew the food
• It tastes better

Did you know it takes approximately 1500 miles to bring a salad to your plate?  10 calories of energy are used to bring you one calorie of food.

Think about it and go to the farmers market. Click here to find one.