Goldmine in your backyard

[sweetpea]

Well, Mother Nature was not kind to the few of us who garden in the winter this year! Lost all we put out and from what I saw, we were not the only ones...such a shame all the hard work many of us put into a delicious winter garden!

Okay onward...

My husband did some soil tests this year and our soil needs amendments! The soil was too ALKALINE! Do you have any clue as to how hard it is to get someone else to understand our issue? All of the people we talked to at Lowe's, Home Depot & the 2 local Ace Hardware stores all tried to sell us lime....Couldn't get them to understand that we didn't have high ACIDITY, BUT high ALKALINITY!! Adding Lime would only INCREASE our gardens alkaline problem. Seems this is not a big issue in many gardens, lucky us!

Thankfully, Bruce over at Gator Fertilizer, now known as Diamond R Fertilizer understood WHAT my husband was trying to say. He sold us some stuff that is over 90% sulfa to put down! This is what we needed, sulfa. We originally asked for Aluminum Sulfate, but that can become toxic in the soil and the plants, so do not get any!

Honey dear added 'some' to see how it was doing...and our soil came down 2 points to around 7.5 instead of 9-9.5 What happened to us our soil was 'out' and we started seeing smaller plants with less fruits. Here I thought with all the composting I was trying to do, it was helping. It probably was but I more than likely was not putting enough back into the soil. Fertilizers help, but it gets expensive. I also learned that fertilizers are only a temporary help and a better choice is to amend as we are doing now. It really was not that expensive to get the sulfa, by my calculations it is cheaper than buying the equivalent in fertilizer.

Right now, we have seen faster growth, greener growth and the existing plants are jumping up. Bad thing is I am horribly allergic to sulfa so when my honey puts out the remainder of it, I am going to have to hid in the house with the a/c on or off to Flagler ER we go…  

Happy Spring and Happy Gardening everyone and may all of our plants receive enough rain this year    

[sweetpea]

Last fall I started 3 plants in those Topsy Turvy Planters. The results for me were phenomenal! I followed the directions that came and used some of my own compost mixed in with some average planting soil, the kind you can buy anywhere.

The key was to water, water, and water some more! That was challenging because the planters were all hung on the porch from the rafters. Being short, this made watering interesting because I could not reach the top of the planter, even with my 2-step stepping stool. I did not use a chain, just the short hanger wire that came with the planter. I eventually went and got a ‘watering wand’ and it really helped. You have to water the planter until it cannot hold any more water. When you fill the planter on the table or whatever, you put in all the dirt you can WITHOUT shoving in too much. If you shove in too much, you risk making the soil too compact and the roots will not be able to grow. Therefore, anyhow, after you get the dirt in, the planter hung up the soil settles on its own, and there is headspace at the top. Mine had 2-inch headspace; this is what needed to be filled every time I watered.
I planted 2 tomato plants and 1 green pepper plant.

The tomato plants got bigger than any plant I had ever planted in the ground. One measured over 9 feet long with lots of bushing, because I kept pinching back; the other one was over 7 feet. The pepper plant really did not get too big, but it was big enough. The tomatoes grew normal, but the pepper grew rather odd. There were various shapes as the pepper tried to follow the sun. Biggest one was around 4 inches long and 2 inches across.

The disadvantages were:
1- The planters were so darned heavy I could not lift it up to hang it. My son lifted it up just fine. NOTE: DO NOT use any other hooks then the ones that come with the planter. I did not realize how heavy they were and used different hooks and 2 days later, we had to rehang the bags onto the hooks supplied.
-2- Not so easy to water without a stool and a watering wand.

Advantages:
1-better plants and better harvest
2- Healthier plants (I did not have ANY pests or leaf rot or blossom drop).
3- No wasted space
Topsy Turvy just introduced a fertilizer for their planters. I am not trying it because I use my own compost. If anyone does try these planters with the fertilizer, please report on how you like it.

This year I got a Strawberry Topsy Turvy and I do not like it. I did not get enough plants to fill all the holes and the ones that did not have plants leaked out the water. I am not using this one again. I will probably use it for my herbs or for some pepper plants.

[Sunshine]

Myself and 3 friends had absolutely no luck with those planters, glad to hear someone did.

[sweetpea]

Welcome Spring 2012!! Tried some new tricks this year since spring is so early this year.

Our garden has wider rows 3 ft across and I add some 10-10-10 immediately this year. Along with water, water and more consistent water my grandchildrens green beans and peas are up already and about 8 inches tall. Potatoes are doing well along with some volunteers from the fall.

We've already been harvesting our turnip greens and most of our radishes are done and need to be re-seeded.

I got some beets and added the tops to a planter to try and get them to seed. Well after 2 weeks, they are doing just fine.

Last year I spent the extra money and got some heirloom tomato plants and I'm pleased to say that with some tender loving care, they survived the winter and are doing well so far. I've started some new ones with just planting shoots and they're doing well too.

Keep up your hard work and our gardens will be enough for all of us and our families.

My chickens are keeping me in enough manure and eggs to make 3 families happy.

[sweetpea]

Just went out and picked some more beans, yellow ones, green ones and purple ones. We got so many that I'm smiling from ear to ear!!!

Carrots, beans (3 different kinds), peas (3 different varieties), my heirloom tomatoes ( 2 different varieties), turnips and potatoes all doing well.

My secret??? Ample watering and FERTILIZE, FERTILIZE, FERTILIZE religiously every 4-6 weeks. I used just plain old 10-10-10 and we have amazing results!!

Also I have access to shredded paper which I put out around my plants to help mulch. Doesn't really matter that it's degrading now because it's just going to go back into the soil.

As for my other gardens, my roses are doing the best they have in years!!! I have about 6 inches of leaf mulch down and with it adding acid to the soil that they so very much love it's also a great way to maintain the moisture content!! And of course FERTILIZING them also helps

Keep growing!!! Food prices are going through the roof and we can afford to grow plants for pennies which in turn yield us great tasting veggies and what is reaped for that initial investment makes buying at the store expensive!!

We really are lucky here because for the most part we can garden year round, the farmers almanac and the local farmers all teach us what we can grow and when to grow it.