Naturally Amending Your Garden Soil
This is a comprehensive bit of information for your garden soil. In this post, I will discuss how to combine naturally organic & healthy soil with composting and cover crops that add nutrients back into the soil.
Most of the Spring and Summer vegetables take out much-needed nitrogen from the soil. Planting Fall vegetables which are mostly leafy greens put the nitrogen back into the soil. This is a WIN/WIN!
Even a Fall Cover Crop of Clover or grasses will charge the soil for the Spring. Sew the seeds at least 2 weeks before the first frost date. Check the calendar for your growing area.
Best Vegetables to Plant in the Fall
"Most of the cold-hardy vegetables are leafy greens, root vegetables and plants in the cole family (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc.) Try planting the following crops when the summer temperatures start to drop-- Arugula *
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts *
- Bunching Onions *
- Bush Beans *
- Cabbage *
- Cauliflower
- Collard Greens *
- Garlic *
- Kale
- Kohlrabi
- Leeks *
- Lettuce *
- Mustard Greens
- Parsley *
- Peas *
- Radishes *
- Spinach *
- Swiss Chard
- Turnips *
In addition to these crops above, we are planting Pak Choy (like Bok Choy), Alaskan Pea Pods, and Calendula. I'll get one good crop of the Calendula in the greenhouse before the weather gets frosty. We are planting the * stared crops above. The Broccoli & Cauliflower do better in the early Spring in our area of the Rocky Mountains.
Our hoop house cover will be going up next week and I'll move most of the potted garden in to lengthen their growing season.
The Compost "Cooker" Tumbler is a new investment for us. We get regular Spring and Summer grass cuttings from a friend who drops them off to us at no cost to us and it saves him from paying the dump to take them. Another WIN/WIN for us all!
Including the supplements of grasses, organic matter, and veggie waste from the kitchen, we add chicken manure that is mixed with hay. It all goes into the Tumbler except the chicken manure that goes into an outside Compost Bin made from recycled wooden pallets. This is turned over every week and the grass is added to increase the nitrogen. A 50/50 blend of compost is 50% Green (Grass) and 50% Brown (Chicken manure and hay).
In the Fall, we add the leaves and the old plants as organic matter to the tumbler. Chopping the plants up makes them cook faster in the compost tumbler. The tumbler has to be turned 1 x per day in one full rotation. The organic matter added to the tumbler will restart the time the matter has to stay in the tumbler. So, if I put in organic greens and browns today, then they will be ready to pull out as composted material in two weeks. However, this does not apply when you add more organic green & brown matter to the tumbler. The date then changes to the date the new material has been added and the two weeks start from that date.
Ideally, the matter removed from the tumbler will be a blended compost consisting of bits and pieces of organic matter. If yours does not look like this description, add more time to the composting process.
When added to the soil, the soil will begin to resemble "Chocolate Cake" in consistency. This means you have done your homework and get an A+!!
It may take a few years, but it is so worth every bit of effort. This is the first garden we have to start from scratch with. The soil here is 50% Clay, 40% Shale, and 10% Sand. Not the best soil to have, but it is what it is and we are amending the heck out of it! Using the raised bed boxes will help bring this about faster. We will continue to add the organic matter throughout the Fall/Winter Seasons. By Springtime, our garden amendments in both composts should be ready for the veggie & herb gardens.
Here is a quick list of great soil references:
Mother Earth News - https://www.motherearthnews.com/
Johnny's Selected Seeds - https://www.johnnyseeds.com/
Burpee Seeds - https://www.burpee.com/
Join me in being Creative!
Enjoy!
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