Garden Frustrations....

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eweisner

eweisner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2011
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2,871
City & State/Province
Portland, TN
I will get some produce out of my small plot this year but no where near what I had anticipated. Mostly because my dirt is fill from the subdivision build. My largest zucchini is about 24" in diameter, my largest tomato plant is maybe 24" tall. 8 green bean plants out of 24 came up.

Went to my dad's today and his garden is amazing. He has 30 tomatoes coming off of one plant. His squash plants are waist high. My son could crawl into the leaves and hide. We froze nine and canned 18 quarts of green beans today.

Anyway, we both have come to the conclusion that I need to rebuild the nutrients in my soil. He gave me some liquid fertilizer he had gotten from the Amish a few years ago, and some ferti-lome fish emulsion fertilizer to put on my garden ASAP.

He also gave me some red clover as a cover crop for this winter. What do the rest of you use as a cover crop?
 
Just get some horse manure and turn in under between the rows and you will build that soil up in no time.
 
Locksley said:
Just get some horse manure and turn in under between the rows and you will build that soil up in no time.
Click to expand...
X2! If your soil is poor, which it sounds like yours is you have to build it up. You can fertilize the heck out of it but if the soil is so poor that it won't absorb and retain moisture it isn't doing any good.

The best way to "build" your soil is with organic matter. As Locksley suggested horse manure is good as is rotten sawdust, leaves, table scraps, compost etc. It may take years to get your soil in good shape, but you will see an improvement every year.
 
See if your city/county has a free mulch program.

Rutherford co gives away free mulch so I get several piles each year. Use it in the chicken coop, then pile up in the garden. Till under at the end of the year.

Went from a brick like constancy to gravel :D

A few more years and we might have some good garden dirt.

Bags of leaves/grass clippings work good too. Just let them rot down over the summer. Cover with plastic to help "cook" the seeds so you dont end up with a sod farm instead of a garden.
 

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