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| As my first garden ventured into the actual growing and harvesting stage ... (and when I found awesome people on the seed exchange and am planning to try winter sowing) my thoughts of compost and soil faded into the background ...
Now that I'm staring at the white stuff covering the back yard (I figure if you don't mention its name, it goes away sooner) I'm thinking about spring and new beds and planting flowers for the first time and edibles for the second. I need to construct new beds :-\ That requires ... soil. I have a couple of bins full of compost (about a cubic yard each) and I've stolen trash bags full of leaves to hopefully make leaf mold for organic matter and mulch, but I'm considering lasagna beds around my veggie garden to grow flowers, as well as flowers and plants in other areas of the yard. I was going to smother the grass (weeds, mostly, actually) with either cardboard or newspaper and then pile compost (layered? prob?) on to grow in. I'm also debating spending the cash (which I don't have) to have a bunch of mushroom manure delivered ... I'm thinking a few yards at least to offset the delivery cost (I wish I had a pickup truck) ... So ... I've missed the convos, and look forward to reading past threads through the cold weather. If anyone sees any glaring problems, oversights, or pitfalls with my proposed spring planting, please let me know! -veronica |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I'm pretty new here. I am from Uniontown Pa about 30-40 miles from Pittsburgh. I have been on the tree forum for a couple years, though. Anyways welcome back. poaky1 |
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| Hey v, how ya been? If you were closer, I'd drop off a couple of CYs. :-) As far as the SMS, I've read there can be issues with salt in that stuff. I've never actually seen any of the stuff but I'd look into that before I brought a bunch in. Lloyd |
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| So much stuff I wish I knew when I began gardening. Like I shouldn't have built raised beds on sand, and set up good irrigation from the start and.. How's your ph? Mushroom compost can be fairly alkaline. |
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| Unless you are building raised beds there is no good reason to spend money to amend your surface soil. The May 2009 issue of Organic Gardening magazine (local Library) has an excellent article on soil preperation as does the Octobeer/November 2010 issue. Basically these articles tell you to add lots of organic matter to your soil and in your area there is usually lots of organic matter fairly readily available for free as people get rid of the leaves that fall from their trees. |
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- Posted by nancyjeanmc (My Page) on Sat, Dec 11, 10 at 18:13
| I'm with Kimmsr. The thing I love about composting is that it's free! And I am not good about measuring out greens/brown/acid/alkaline/yada/yada/yada. I just dump! And my flowers love it. |
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