Last night was soils. Holy berk how did we get anything to grow in our garden?!?
Lots of great info in the class though. for sure. We should get some nice veggies this year.
Last night was soils. Holy berk how did we get anything to grow in our garden?!?
Lots of great info in the class though. for sure. We should get some nice veggies this year.
We'll be following this thread closely for tips! No reason that we all shouldn't benefit from your education! 
Javelin wrote: Last night was soils. Holy berk how did we get *anything* to grow in our garden?!?
Because people who get paid to teach those classes would be out of business if they said growing plants was easy.
DaveEstey wrote:Javelin wrote: Last night was soils. Holy berk how did we get *anything* to grow in our garden?!?Because people who get paid to teach those classes would be out of business if they said growing plants was easy.
Teacher is a retired volunteer, class is free.
1988RedT2 wrote: We'll be following this thread closely for tips! No reason that we all shouldn't benefit from your education!
Uh, sure! pH of 7 is balanced. Most fruit-bearing plants prefer 6.5 to 6.8 (very slightly acidic). The pH scale is exponential, so if it takes 10 to go from 7 to 6, it takes 100 to go from 6 to 5. Acidic soil tastes sour, alkaline soil tastes sweet.
Soil is sand, silt, and clay with 5% organic matter. Ideal base is ~30% clay, 5% organic, and 32.5% each sand and silt. Loam just means it will crumble, which is less than 40% clay, and has no bearing on good or bad (ie - you can have an almost total sand soil with no organics that's loamy). You want humus (carbon 3).
Soil works like a stack of paper that you made one sheet at a time. It has a lot of void area, and if you drop it, it will scatter everywhere. If you compact it, it's like a ream of copy paper, no air, it's just a brick.
Grow potatoes in a tire stack.
I've heard of the tires thing, but never tried it.
How do you test PH of your soil?
We're composting - it's neat. Our gardens will get some next year.
Oh, and stop eating dirt!
In reply to tuna55:
On the tires thing, you fill a tire with compost and plant your spuds, stack on tire #2 and repeat, and then tire #3 (and 4 if you want). When you are ready to eat spuds around Christmas time, you knock a tire off, and there's your spuds! I have three tires and an unused corner of the garden, I'm going to try it.
On the pH test, you can send in soil samples, but a good GRM version is to get regular water/liquid pH testing strips, find some 7.0 water, and dilute some soil into it, then test. That's how we're going to do it.
SWMBO bought a compost bin (about 3' diameter, 3.5-4' high) last winter and made me stick it in the garden. She then forgot it existed and I've had to "walk the puppy" ever since. I have about 6-8" of great compost on the bottom, followed by 2' of grapefruit rinds and pineapple heads.
tuna55 wrote: How do you test PH of your soil? Oh, and stop eating dirt!
There are test kits available to buy or your county's ag extension office may do it for free if you collect the samples.
tuna55 wrote: Oh, and stop eating dirt!
First thing I thought of!
I'm in turf/pesticide training right now. We have to have those license to spray right of ways at work. I'm learning about fungi this second.
Small World.
Take a soil sample to your local county extension office. They do soil testing.
Javelin wrote:DaveEstey wrote:Teacher is a retired volunteer, class is free.Javelin wrote: Last night was soils. Holy berk how did we get *anything* to grow in our garden?!?Because people who get paid to teach those classes would be out of business if they said growing plants was easy.
Touche
We've been composting, but not well. We started off with far too much leaf litter. I'm expecting to get some soil out of it this year to amend my raised beds, but I'm not expecting to have enough.
That said, the soil/compost mix I bought at the nursery for $35 a yard, amended with some extra peat moss to lighten it up, produced 9' tomato plants.
The give out compost bins for free behind many stores
I oversee the QA lab for a fertilizer company. We can make your garden grow We used to have a soil lab before I started there. I have been studying soil pH's since I had to bring in soil and make a yard since we built on dad's old commercial property. My ph is close to 8 which is high, so I really need to add elemental sulphur. That is a long process of breaking down and actually working.
Javelin wrote: SWMBO bought a compost bin (about 3' diameter, 3.5-4' high) last winter and made me stick it in the garden. She then forgot it existed and I've had to "walk the puppy" ever since. I have about 6-8" of great compost on the bottom, followed by 2' of grapefruit rinds and pineapple heads.
Please don't use any dog feces in compost that you will be using on food crops. The parasites' eggs can survive and then infect you and your family through the food. Here's a linky on that.
I keep a smaller, separate compost for doggy doo, and I use it on ornamentals that do not border a food crop. 
EastCoastMojo wrote:Javelin wrote: SWMBO bought a compost bin (about 3' diameter, 3.5-4' high) last winter and made me stick it in the garden. She then forgot it existed and I've had to "walk the puppy" ever since. I have about 6-8" of great compost on the bottom, followed by 2' of grapefruit rinds and pineapple heads.Please don't use any dog feces in compost that you will be using on food crops. The parasites' eggs can survive and then infect you and your family through the food. Here's a linky on that. I keep a smaller, separate compost for doggy doo, and I use it on ornamentals that do not border a food crop.
I don't think that's what he meant...
tuna55 wrote:EastCoastMojo wrote:I don't think that's what he meant...Javelin wrote: SWMBO bought a compost bin (about 3' diameter, 3.5-4' high) last winter and made me stick it in the garden. She then forgot it existed and I've had to "walk the puppy" ever since. I have about 6-8" of great compost on the bottom, followed by 2' of grapefruit rinds and pineapple heads.Please don't use any dog feces in compost that you will be using on food crops. The parasites' eggs can survive and then infect you and your family through the food. Here's a linky on that. I keep a smaller, separate compost for doggy doo, and I use it on ornamentals that do not border a food crop.
Precisely tuna! You know how when somebody buys a puppy and then completely neglects it? That's SWMBO and the composter. So it became "my" puppy. We're hippy vegetarians (she's vegan), so there's only fruit & veggie waste going into the bin.
Ahh, ok. My bad.
Wally wrote: The give out compost bins for free behind many stores
Way to go Wally. They deliver my wood pellets on top of my compost bin material.
the boat I intend to move onto... will have a composting toilet.. that is about as much about composting as I know
EastCoastMojo wrote: Ahh, ok.
You're a girl, it's a guy thing. My wife has done that with our compost bin, ironically also our puppy, and a stray cat.
Wally, you take your composting very seriously, I see. 
I read that as composer.
Composting? No E36 M3!
they have classes on composting?
i bet it's every bit as useful as the mandatory 3 day "communication" class i'm taking this week for work... they've tried to teach me lots of fancy words for things that i've been doing my whole adult life when interacting with other humans..
In reply to novaderrik:
Free through my local agriculture extension. It'sgot30people in it, and they all farm, garden, compost, etc.
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