The Modern Victory Garden

While my morning was tied up with several errands, I was able to spend a little time this afternoon in the garden.   It was actually fortunate that my schedule worked out this way as the morning was overcast and grey, but by 11:30 am the sun was out in force and it turned into a gorgeous afternoon.   I had two primary tasks that I got done today.   First, I watered all of the side garden area.  In general, I use a combination of watering methods in my garden - hand watering (container plantings, new seed beds, and the vertical grow beds), soaker hoses (tomato and zucchini beds), and my favorite overhead sprinkler for the rest of the beds.   I like this sprinkler because it provides a very thorough soaking and covers a fairly good sized area.       

My second task was to remove the horizontal pea trellis and amend the bed in preparation for planting some fall crops.   I spread six large buckets of finished compost over the entire bed area opened up by the recent pea harvest (4 feet by 12 feet).   In addition, I broadcasted some organic all purpose fertilizer over the entire bed area as well.   The broadfork was then used to aerate the entire bed area.   My intention is to finish cultivating this bed on Sunday and then plant it up with the starts of broccoli, swiss chard, and kale that I have grown out and which are now ready to go into the ground.   I had them sitting on the railing of the deck this afternoon to keep them safely out of my way while giving them full access to the beautiful sunshine.       

The three sisters planting is getting to be a jungle.                     

The half runner pinto beans are “running” on everything within reach.    The corn, having gotten off to a slow start this year, is in jeopardy of being overrun by the bean vines.   I plan to use the weed whacker tomorrow to clean up the walkways, but will have to be very careful next to this 3 sisters planting area as the pumpkins are also running and spilling over into the walkway.       

The lettuces continue to really produce this year and I am pleasantly surprised by the work horse performer “Merlot” lettuce, which I grew out from seed shared by Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog.   This lettuce has been harvested hard many times all spring and summer and yet continues to be sweet and produces more and more for harvest.   Take a look at this lovely planter of Merlot lettuces!              

It tastes as good as it looks and I will definitely be growing this variety again.   

Hoping to spend quite a bit of time in the garden tomorrow.   I need to:

• Weed whack the walkways and do a general garden tidy up.
• Side dress the cucumbers and zucchini with a good balanced organic fertilizer.
• Water the container plantings and the back vertical grow bed (bush beans and pole beans).
• Transplant out the fall crops of broccoli, swiss chard, and kale.

The Royal Burgundy bush beans are flowering and will start producing very soon.   The Sunset runner beans and the Blue Lake pole beans are climbing at the moment.   The tomatoes have lots of blooms, small fruits formed, and the Siletz tomatoes have a few that are much bigger and one that is even breaking color.   While I am waiting for them to come online, the sugar snap peas, broccoli, zucchini, onions, garlic, lettuces, celery, kale, and swiss chard are keeping us well fed.                         

What are you doing in your garden this weekend?

I am off from work this week and alternating some days spent at home and in the garden with some days away doing fun things with my family.   Had some commitments this morning to keep but spent the afternoon working in the garden.   The broccoli (Premium Crop) and the swiss chard (Bright Lights) seedlings needed to be transplanted out.   I have been hardening them off for the past several days and they were definitely ready to go into the ground.               

I did a quick cultivation and raking of the soil in the bed area to be planted and then used a stick to mark out a grid of 1-foot spaces in an area 5 feet long by 4 feet wide.             

The broccoli plants (20 of them) were then transplanted into the bed and copper collars for slug management were placed around the stems.   These were then watered well and given some protection by putting the grow tunnel cover back up over the bed.         

The swiss chard seedlings (16 of them) were similarly planted up in an 8-foot section of the largest vertical grow bed.                                           

After lunch I got started on the big 2010 potato experiment.   I have been growing potatoes successfully for some time now in raised boxed edge beds using a trenching method.   This trenching method produces a reliable harvest but also wastes valuable growing real estate with the wide spacing between trenches.   The yields I have been getting are good but not superior and I have decided to up my game this year with the potato patch and see if I can significantly increase my harvest amounts per 100 square feet.   I already know my trenching method equals or exceeds the bin, furrow, and heavy mulching methods for production, so I am not going to waste time reverting back to any of those methods.   What I have decided to do instead is give the John Jeavon's method a try.   This entails doing a double dig and planting the potatoes on top of the loosened soil at the bottom of each trench and then covering it with the soil from the next trench to be dug.   The seed potatoes are buried much more deeply right from the beginning (approximately 9 inches or more) but in really loose soil resulting from the double dig.   You do not hill or add more layers, which is appealing in that once planted it is a relatively no fuss method of planting.   The initial planting is more work though since you are double digging the bed as you go.   If the bed has been previously double dug then it really should be fairly easy work.

Before I get too much further in describing this I must post a disclaimer – I have never used this method and do not know anyone personally who has ever done this.   I would encourage anyone interested in this to watch how this goes for me first before committing yourself in any fashion to planting this way.   I am willing to gamble a bit and just dive in and do it because the basic methodology makes good sense to me and is in keeping with the other biointensive methods I employ.   However, I don’t want anyone to think that this is a tried and true method for me because it is not.     I am taking a calculated gamble that this will work and feel fairly confident that it will, however there is the niggling worry about the potato shoots having to grow such a long ways before finally breaking through the surface of the soil.    Disclaimer completed, I will get on with describing how this works!  

The potatoes are planted with a spacing of 9 inches between them.   The next row over is approximately nine inches from the first and the spuds are offset from the prior row to create a diamond pattern.   A while ago I made a planting board for this purpose - which has spacing marked at 9 inch intervals on one edge, and the same intervals marked on the other edge but offset.                                 

The bed was prepared last weekend by placing rock minerals (rock phosphate and greensand), organic all purpose fertilizer, and compost on the surface of the entire bed.   To get started with the planting today I needed a garden spade, a garden fork, a garden rake, the planting board, a standing board (to distribute weight and minimize the soil compaction in the bed while double digging), and a wheelbarrow to hold the soil removed from the first trench.                      

Standing on the board, I use the spade to remove soil across the width of the bed, creating a trench that is approximately as wide as the spade and as deep.      

The soil from this first trench is placed in the wheelbarrow and set aside to be used at the very last step to fill in the final trench.                   

The garden fork is then used to loosen the soil at the bottom of the trench by digging into the soil and lifting.   Since this bed has been double dug before the soil is not that compacted and the digging was relatively easy to do.   It’s been four years now since I originally double dug this bed and I am encouraged by the good tilth and quality of the soil in the bed.              

The planting board is laid next to the trench and seed potatoes are then placed in the bottom of the trench to line up with the marks on the board.    

The planting board is then reversed so it is ready for the next trench.   Standing on the board again, the next trench is then dug with the soil being placed into the first trench.                                               

The bottom of that trench is again loosened using the fork and then the planting board is placed next to it and the seed potatoes are again put into the bottom of the trench.     Because the board was reversed, the potatoes are placed in an alternating pattern to the first trench’s potato placement.       

The process is then repeated for the third and each subsequent trench until you are completed.                           

I have a 32 foot bed that I am planting up in potatoes and to avoid undue stress on my back, I am pacing myself with the planting process.   Today I completed an 8-foot section of the bed or 1/4th of it.   I used a rake to smooth and level the soil over the bed sections I had completed.              

A side benefit of this method is that the planting bed is given a rejuvenating double dig in the process.  This picture does not do full justice to the quality and texture of the soil in this bed - it is really outstanding.                       

I will be working on this periodically over the remainder of the week to get this planting up process completed.   Then, as the growing season progresses, I will provide updates on how this is going.   Hopefully this will work as described - but if not, then I will have to resort to purchasing potatoes for one year.   Would not be happy about that but it would not be the end of the world either.   Wish me luck!

What a gorgeous day we had today!   It got up to the mid 50’s and everything is breaking dormancy fast.    I had to run some errands this morning, so I did not get out into it until after lunchtime - but the few hours I was outside this afternoon was heavenly.

Because we had late blight hit the garden last year, I did not save any of my potatoes for seed stock and chose instead to buy all new certified seed stock this year.   I ordered my potatoes from Ronniger Potato Farm LLC because they had a good selection, good reputation, and the best prices.   Friday my big box of potatoes arrived; 10 lbs of Yukon Gold; 10 lbs of Caribe; and 25 pounds of Russet Burbank.   

The front bag is the Yukon Gold and the back bag is the Caribe and underneath the two bags you can just glimpse the Russet Burbanks.   I opened the box and checked them today, but tomorrow when I have a little more time I will lay them out to begin chitting and do a count to see if I will need to cut them into smaller pieces.   I am going to use the 4-foot by 32-foot bed for the potatoes this year and will be planting them using the John Jeavon’s method of planting potatoes (done at the same time you double dig a bed) spacing them using a within row spacing of 9 inches and approximately 9 inches deep into the soil.   For a 32-foot long bed, I should end up with 42 rows at 9-inch intervals and 5 seed potato pieces per row if spaced 9 inches apart.   So my calculations come up that I need 210 to 215 potato seed pieces to do this bed in that manner.   These look like really nice seed potatoes and I am anxious to get them set out to begin forming sprouts.

The main task I worked on today was prepping the big 4-foot by 40-foot bed for the beginning of the planting season.   Specifically, I used the U-Bar to aerate the entire bed and then did a light cultivation and raking.   At the end of the bed, I also worked in some general-purpose organic fertilizer into a 4-foot by 12-foot section of the bed. This area will be the 2010 pea patch and I am planning to plant them tomorrow since the soil temperature is more than warm enough.   Here’s the bed after I finished the prep work.   The closest end in the photo below is where the pea patch will be going.   

Today I also took down the grow tunnel cover from the overwintered bed of carrots and parsnips.  You can see it in the photo above.    I intend to finish harvesting what remains of these in the next several weeks to clear out the bed for the coming potato crop that will go in that bed.   I need to similarly use up the last few January King cabbages from this bed to also get them out of the way for the potatoes.    

Other tasks I got to today included taking the U-Bar and gently aerating and fertilizing the raspberry patch – adding a layer of compost on the surface after I was completed.   I also rotated the six packs of seedlings in the trays under the grow lights to ensure that plants on the ends get a chance to be in the middle for a while - where they enjoy a more complete exposure to the grow lights.   I took the opportunity while swapping the packs around to brush the small seedlings lightly with my hands to help them “sturdy up”.                        

In the greenhouse, the kale and Chinese cabbages I planted out last weekend are doing well and the slow growing mache is starting to get a move on and produce more vegetation.   About the time the carrots and parsnips are finished up, these greens should be ready to start harvesting lightly.                          

That is it for today.   Tomorrow I am going to plant the pea patch and put up my horizontal grow support structure.    Forecast is for another gloriously beautiful day so it will be good to have an excuse to be out in it!

Today was a full day of garden related activity.   The weather was not particularly good (off and on rain all day) but I managed to catch the short window of time this morning that it was not raining and got some bed prep work completed that needed to be done.   First, I applied rock minerals (greensand and rock phosphate) at the rate of 6 lbs per 100 square feet to all garden beds except for one - which currently has crops planted in it.   I will use up the last of my rock mineral supply to do this bed just before I plant it up with potatoes (about a month from now).   In addition, I broadcasted plain alfalfa pellets over several beds that previously had a green manure crop but did not have an application of compost.   Alfalfa pellets are a good soil conditioner - adding organic matter plus nitrogen and other nutrients too.   A 50 lb bag is quite inexpensive and can be purchased at most livestock feed supply stores.                              

You may recall that about a month ago (January 10th) I attempted a salvage operation on the bed of overwintered spinach.   I had failed to get it covered with a grow tunnel prior to our deep freeze in December and then to add insult to significant injury - the marauding rabbit ate most of what remained of the feeble plants.   My salvage attempt included covering it with a grow tunnel and giving it a drink of fish emulsion tea.   Well, today my assessment was that the few plants that had revived were not worth the effort to keep nursing along.   I pulled all of the plants out and composted them.  The grow tunnel cover has definitely warmed up the soil in that particular section of garden though and I intend to take advantage of that and do a very early sowing of spring spinach.   Today I did the bed prep necessary to get ready for such a direct seeding.   I pulled the grow tunnel cover off long enough to do the re-mineralization (greensand and rock phosphate) and to broadcast the bed area with organic all purpose fertilizer.   I used a hoe to cultivate it all into the top six inches of soil - removing any remaining plants and weeds as I went.   Before putting the grow tunnel cover back on, I raked and watered the bed.   Since it has been covered with a grow tunnel for over a month now, it was getting dried out.   I will check the soil temperature in the bed tomorrow afternoon and if it looks good (at least 45 degrees) I will plant it up with spinach using one of my new planting jigs (the 4 inch spacing one).                

Before I did the bed amendment process, I removed the remaining over wintered kale plants.   They were still producing fairly well but I have new kale plants that went into the greenhouse today that will soon be harvestable and these were in the way.   The plants provided a nice final harvest and combined with a few fresh harvested carrots made a good addition to tonight's dinner menu.             

While I was working in the garden, I noticed that the blueberries and the bush pie cherries have significant bud and bloom swell occurring.   These are a few branches of the bush pie cherries.                                   

By the time I finished up with the outside chores it was starting to rain pretty hard and I was getting quite wet.   Luckily, the remaining items on my to do list were indoor items.   First up, I needed to plant the kale and Chinese cabbages in one of the half-barrel containers in the greenhouse.             

Moving these out of the shop to their permanent location in the greenhouse - made room in the shop to do the seedling shuffle necessary to get ready for the next big round of seed starting scheduled for today.   The tray of pac choi, lettuces, and onions were moved to the overflow light set up (much smaller and no heat pad) where they will stay for about a week before moving out to the greenhouse to start the hardening off process.   With that move, that left only one full tray of other previously started seedlings under the main light setup.   This left enough room to add the three full trays of seedlings I started today. Here's a run down of what went into those trays.

• Six 6-packs tomato - Celebrity
• Two 6-packs tomato - Cherokee Purple
• Four 6-packs tomato - Early Girl
• Three 6-packs tomato - Fantastic
• Two 6-packs tomato - Market Miracle
• Seven 6-packs tomato - Oroma
• Four 6-packs broccoli - Premium Crop
• Two 6-packs celery - Red
• Two 6-packs celery - Utah 52-70 Improved
• Four 6 packs swiss chard - Bright Lights

The areas under the lights are completely full right now.   In about two weeks I will need to start the basil and peppers but by then one of the trays will be ready to rotate out to the overflow light set up and I should be good to go.  

I got lots accomplished today and am ready to relax and enjoy an evening of watching the winter Olympics.

The weather gave us a bit of a break the past two days.   It has been overcast and cool but no rain, and it has been warm enough for the past few days that the soil is now unfrozen.   I took advantage of the respite and got outside today to take care of a few things in the garden.   The primary objective was to clean up one of two beds of carrots that have been plundered by our marauding rabbit.   I only tackled one this weekend because it is too cool to spend more than few hours outside at a time.   If the weather cooperates, I will similarly clean up the other bed next weekend.     

The bed I worked on was the newest of the vertical grow beds.   It had Mokum carrots growing in the front 1 foot of bed area – down the entire length of the bed.   This variety of carrot is particularly nice for fresh eating and we have been using them from mid summer up until just recently for that purpose.   As a consequence, there really were not too many carrots left in the bed by the time the rabbit found his way to it.   What was there though, he has been damaging with abandon.   I used two large 5 gallon buckets for the job.   One was for the damaged carrots and debris, which were destined for the compost heap.   The other was for carrots that looked to be in good condition as I pulled them from the soil.   A garden fork was used to then work my way up the bed, loosening the soil and then removing the carrots.                                                                             

For every 1 carrot that looked good – 2 (or more) were damaged.   The bucket on the left is the “looks okay” stash, and the bucket on the right is the clearly damaged group.                                          

The carrots were washed by swirling some water in the bucket until the bulk of the dirt was removed.   The muddy water was poured into the compost pile and then a further cull was made pulling out carrots that had insect or rot damage that was not readily apparent when covered with soil.   When all was said and done, I ended up with just over one and half pounds of good carrots salvaged from the bed.   Probably had about four pounds of carrot debris that went into the compost pile.                                  

I raked the bed smooth after the carrot removal process and then dumped 3 full buckets of really good finished compost across the surface.                

I then smoothed the compost out over the surface so that it provided about a ½ to 1-inch layer over the entire bed.                       

This bed is now empty and amended.   I also did a little weeding in a few other beds and put away some hoops that had been left in place but were not being used.   I have several other beds that are now empty and also need compost added to them.   Over the course of the next several weeks, I hope to get to each of these and get them taken care of too.   It was nice to spend a few hours outside today.   However, I was ready to come in and warm up by the time I wrapped up for the afternoon.   There may have been a break in the weather today, but it IS still winter out there!

There are many of us who have limited space availability for food production gardening and yet still manage to produce a tremendous amount of our own food supply.   This post is the final segment of a blog series devoted to exploring the many techniques available to optimize food production gardening.   There are quite a few topics that relate to this pursuit - including (among others):

• Crop Selection
• Intensive Planting Practices
• Season Extension
• Soil Management & Fertility

Focusing on Crop Selection kicked off the blog series, which was then followed by a four-part exploration of Intensive Planting Practices - including the topics of Raised Beds, Closely Spaced Planting, Intercropping & Succession Planting, and Vertical Growing.   The next segment was devoted to a discussion of Season Extension and now this week we will wrap the series up by talking about the topic of Soil Management and Fertility.   You can see all of these blog series posts by selecting "Blog Series" from the Categories in the side bar menu on the right side of the screen.                    

Soil Management and Fertility -                                                   

Soil is so much more than just an anchor for our plants to grow from.     It’s a living breathing environment that if carefully tended will continue to provide garden production for future years, despite intense planting practices.   Soil that is regularly replenished with organic matter and depleted nutrients will ensure that the food we harvest is truly nutrient dense.   On the other hand, poor soil management generally results in more plant diseases, declining production levels, poor water percolation and moisture retention, crops that do not contain maximum nutrient potential, and plants that generally fail to thrive.                     

There are three main points I personally focus on as it relates to soil management and fertility.

1. It is incredibly important to replenish organic matter in the soil.
2. The structure of the soil and it’s layers should be maintained – or at least as much as is possible within the artificial environment of the garden.
3. Vegetables and fruit plants deplete the soil of nutrients, which must be replenished to maintain fertility of the garden beds.

The Importance of Replenishing Organic Matter

Decaying and decomposing organic matter in the soil provides several important benefits.   First, it releases nutrients as the decomposition process occurs – both major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur) as well as others generally referred to as trace minerals.   Second, the organic matter itself acts like a sponge to hold water (needed by our plants) and prevents soil particles from densely compacting down (particularly clay or silt soils) which then pushes out air (also needed by our plants).   As gardeners we want the organic matter to decompose to provide the nutrient benefits, but that same decomposition process means that the organic matter must be periodically replenished or we face reduced soil fertility and declining soil structure.   If we do nothing else for our gardens, regularly adding organic matter is probably the most effective action we can take.   As a general rule, we need to strive to keep organic matter at 4% to 5% levels in our soil.   This translates into an annual addition of approximately a ¼ inch of compost (or equivalent organic matter) to replenish what is lost through normal decomposition processes.   A new or depleted bed that needs rejuvenating will benefit from greater amounts being added.   Hot and/or wet climates will also benefit from greater additions of organic matter than the general rule, because heat and moisture speed up decomposition.                                   

Adding organic matter must be done thoughtfully because high carbon organic matter that is added directly to the soil will initially utilize all available nitrogen to break down and if plants are in that bed too, they will be robbed of needed nitrogen until the carbonaceous material has largely decomposed.   One method to deal with that is to compost materials in piles and then add the finished compost to the garden.   However, some of the nutrients from the decomposition process in compost piles is lost in the form of leaching and off gassing - particularly cold compost piles that are just heaped and allowed to naturally decompose over a fairly long period of time.   Hot composting (which requires frequent turning and careful balancing of the nitrogen to carbon ratios) is more effective in that it reduces the amount of lost nutrients but requires considerably more attention and work.   Green manure crops can also provide needed organic matter replenishment.   Turning a green manure crop over into the soil several weeks prior to the bed being used for crops – allows the vegetation to decompose sufficiently before the plants are introduced into the bed.   The warmer the soil, the shorter the time needed to finish that first major decomposition process.   When I turn my winter cover crops over in the very early spring, I try to do it six weeks prior to the planned planting date for the bed because the soil is so cold that the decomposition process is achingly slow.   One can also compost directly in the garden bed (known as sheet composting) but again, it must be done in advance of planting to ensure that nitrogen is available for decomposition but not at the expense of a crop planted in the bed.               

(bucket of finished compost)                

Maintaining Soil Structure

Soil is actually a delicate living substance.   It’s ability to hold sufficient water (without getting water logged), and provide nutrients through organic matter decomposition and from living organisms feeding and excreting “stuff” - is very much a function of it being maintained properly.   Microbial activity in soil is what makes all this magic happen and sufficient organic matter to fuel it is the primary input.   The other major soil management task (after sufficiently replenishing organic matter) is to protect the soil structure from excessive compaction and excessive tillage.   The living web in soil is extremely important in that it works in symbiosis with roots to improve uptake of water, air, and nutrients.   Heavy duty tilling on a regular (annual) basis and walking on garden bed soils both have the affect of damaging the soil structure and disrupting the microbial activity in the soil.   Once a raised bed has been prepared initially, it really should not need more than an annual aeration with a broadfork and a cultivation of the top few inches with a three-tined cultivator to mix in compost, fertilizers, and to create a fine textured bed for direct seeding.   Compaction will naturally occur just from gravity, rain, snow, etc but the annual aeration process with a broadfork helps to counter those forces.                                                    

(broadfork)                       

If soil is composed of heavy clay (which is inclined to compact readily), or has suffered from other compacting activity, then it may require another double dig process to rejuvenate it.   Luckily, digging a bed subsequent to the first bed-establishing dig is much easier and faster than an initial double dig process.   Walking on the soil or using a rototiller is obviously not the end of the universe, but avoiding both has been proven to increase soil fertility and soil health.            

Replenishing Nutrients

While regular additions or organic matter to the garden provides nutrients for plants (both macro and micro), the depletion of nutrients by heavy feeding plants (such as corn) can outpace the slow and low level release of nutrients provided by decomposing organic matter.   In addition, not all compost or organic matter is created equally.   The inputs to the compost pile, the care by which it was tended, and the amount of heat and rain it was subjected to – all determine it’s relative value as a provider of nutrient replenishment.   In general, most of us do not have the skills or inputs available to ensure our compost contains a uniformly consistent and properly balanced level of nutrients.    Many of our common vegetable garden crops are classified as medium to heavy “feeders” and can place a significant demand on the available nutrients in our garden beds.   I have found a three-pronged approach to nutrient replenishment works best for me.   First, I add lots of organic matter through either compost or green manure crops.   Second, I add rock minerals to the soil when initially establishing a bed and then periodically re-mineralize the beds about every three years or so thereafter.   I add rock phosphate powder (phosphorous), and green sand (potassium and many trace minerals) at the rate of about 10 pounds per 100 square feet for the initial application – generally less in later additions.   I also use dolomitic lime when the soil ph needs raising - which adds calcium and magnesium while affecting the soil ph as needed.   If the soil ph needs lowering I use garden sulfur (which as the name implies adds sulfur!).            

(rock powders)             

Rock powders are long-term resources that provide needed nutrients slowly over time.   Because these rock powders break down so slowly, it is difficult to put too much into your garden - so if you get heavy handed you will only be wasting some money rather than potentially harming your soil and plants, which can happen with a heavy handed application of organic or chemical fertilizers.   Finally, I use organic fertilizers and fish or kelp emulsion drenches to provide a more fast acting nutrient replenishment or to specifically add more nitrogen or phosphorus for plants that require more of those nutrients.   I generally use a general-purpose balanced organic fertilizer when I first plant up a bed in the spring or when transplanting out seedlings – adding more nitrogen (generally leafy greens) or phosphorous sources (fruiting or root crops) if the crop needs one or the other in larger amounts.   Good nitrogen sources are alfalfa pellets (50lb bags from the feed store are fairly inexpensive), blood meal, or fishmeal.   A good phosphorous sources is bone meal.   I use fish emulsion or kelp emulsion drenches to give a mid season fertility boost if a crop indicates it needs something more – otherwise, I generally no longer use a mid season side dressing of fertilizer.   I have found it to be generally unnecessary once soil has been sufficiently amended and improved – particularly if rock powders are used and organic matter is kept high.                               

There are certainly many more aspects to soil management and fertility than this brief discussion has touched upon, but these three elements are from my perspective the most important to pay attention to.   What are some of the methods and practices you use to manage soil health and provide nutrient replenishment?

In order to thrive, plants need to be in soil that is within a certain range of PH levels.   If it is too high (alkaline) or too low (acidic) for that plant then it will not be able to avail itself of required nutrients from the soil.   Most vegetables and fruits prefer a range from 6.0 to 7.0 with some of the more notable exceptions being potatoes (which prefer a slightly more acidic soil of 5.5 to 6.0) and blueberries / cranberries (which prefer a much more acidic condition of 4.0 to 5.0).                   

Each year in the fall, I do a check of the garden PH levels to determine if adjustments are needed.   Last year when I did this, most of the regular garden beds indicated a need to have some dolomitic lime added to raise the PH level and the blueberry / cranberry areas indicated a strong need for sulfur to be added to lower the PH level.   The adjustment indicated for the blueberries and cranberries was pretty significant so a complete correction was not attempted but rather a step down in the PH level with a plan to continue adjustments in the future.   Adjusting more than 1 point in a given time period can cause undue stress on plants and it is generally advisable to try and improve the PH level over a period of time rather than to attempt extreme adjustments all at once.       

There are two small (relatively inexpensive) tools that I would recommend every gardener have on hand.   One is a good soil thermometer.   The other is a soil PH meter.                                 

They are both readily available at most garden centers.   There are also chemical PH test kits available as well.   Not all meters are of the same quality and reliability.   I have had a few “duds” in my time that read the same no matter which bed it was placed in!   The one in the picture above is the meter I currently use and have found it to be reasonably accurate.   However, if I get readings that indicate an adjustment is needed, I always go back and do a second check to verify the results before proceeding to do an amendment process adjusting PH levels.   In addition to the meters and test kits, you can also take soil samples and submit them to your local cooperative extension service office.  For a small processing fee they will test your soil for PH and nutrient levels etc.,   If you contact them they will provide instructions on how to do this and where to submit the soil for testing.   Here is a link that will help you find a local office near you if you are interested in this.

http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/                                       

To test soil PH using a meter with probe:

• Always thoroughly clean the probe before and after each insertion in soil.   My meter comes with a scrubber pad to initially clean and prep it - I then use a dry paper towel between tests and afterwards to dry it off before putting it away.
• If the soil is soaked from rain then insert the probe several inches (more than 4 inches) into the soil and wait one minute to take the  reading.   If you get a very strange reading, the probe is likely touching a bit of debris.  Pull it out, clean it, and try again somewhere close to the original insertion point. 
• If the soil is somewhat dry, dig a small hole and remove any debris such as rocks or twigs, pour distilled water (preferable) or rain water (second best) into the hole until the soil is thoroughly wet.   Then insert probe and allow one minute before reading.
• For garden beds, take several readings at various places in the bed area and determine the range of readings indicated.   Soil will be different throughout a bed due to a variety of factors and can vary significantly from one part of a bed to another.

This afternoon I took the time to test all of my garden beds and more permanent container plantings.    Including the potted blueberries…                

…. and every one of the other garden beds too.                        

The readings were placed in a spreadsheet that compared those results to the desired PH range for the bed and it’s current or expected future use.     

It appears that all of my adjustments to increase  PH last year worked very well and there are no indications that I should add lime to any of the garden beds at all this year.   However, the beds that will hold the potato patches next year and the cranberry and blueberry planting areas all need additions of garden sulfur to reduce the PH level.   The blueberry and cranberry areas in particular need rather significant reductions still.   I will wait to do the potato beds next spring, as they currently have crops in those beds that prefer the current PH range.   I went ahead and applied garden sulfur to the blueberry and cranberries today though.        

Follow the instructions carefully on the bag regarding how much to apply for a given plant or garden area to adjust the PH level.   If I am adjusting PH upwards, I like to use dolomitic lime  - as it adds calcium and magnesium while also increasing PH.   Again whatever product you need to use, follow the directions carefully on how much to apply.

Have you tested the PH levels in your garden?

There are many of us who have limited space availability for food production gardening and yet still manage to produce a tremendous amount of our own food supply.   Over the course of several weeks, I plan to devote some of my blogging time to exploring the many techniques available to optimize food production gardening.   There are quite a few topics that relate to this pursuit - including (among others):

• Crop Selection
• Intensive Planting Practices
• Season Extension
• Soil Management & Fertility

Last week I kicked this blog series off by focusing on Crop Selection.   This week the focus will be on Intensive Planting Practices.   This is a very important topic with several subtopics that are worth discussing at some length.   In order to devote proper attention to these areas (while also sparing your poor eyes the task of reading page after page of blog text!) I am breaking this particular topic into several parts.                               

Intensive planting techniques generally include a combination of planting in raised beds (either double dug or otherwise greatly amended and improved), closely spaced planting, intercropping and succession planting, and the use of vertical growing techniques – all for the purpose of producing the same amount of food in approximately 20% of the space used by traditional row gardening practices.   You may be familiar with Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening, John Jeavon’s Grow Biointensive method, or Dick Raymond’s Wide Row Gardening.   All of these authors and their recommended practices are using intensive planting techniques in various shapes and forms.   My own gardening style and intensive planting practices have evolved by incorporating and combining elements from of all of these sources, as well as from many others.                              

Planting In Raised Beds – Traditional row gardening has plantings in a relatively narrow row - generally spanning several inches in width and with wide strips of walkways in between.   This allows for the easy use of power equipment (rototillers etc) to do weed management and cultivation.   The proportion of growing areas to walkways in a traditional row garden is therefore significantly lower than a garden that utilizes raised garden beds, which generally are 4 feet in width with wide strips of walkways in between. More growing bed area and less walkways translates into greater production per square foot of available garden area.   Wide row gardening also takes advantage of this technique by increasing the width of rows significantly (often 12 to 18 inches wide) but wide rows are still only 1/4th the width of a typical raised garden bed.                 

Raised beds can be created without using any edging materials by simply mounding and shaping the prepared soil into the bed shape.   I prefer to use a boxed edged bed to prevent edge erosion and I also find it discourages accidental walking from occuring in the prepared soil.   Another advantage of a raised boxed edged bed is that it allows me to use a weed whacker to keep the walkways trim and tidy without harming the plants which are safe within the protective edging of the bed.   Finally, boxed edged beds also provide a place to anchor PVC hoops and other structures that are useful for season extension and vertical growing (future topics!).   For all these reasons (plus I think they look nice!), I use edging on all of my garden beds.    

In addition to increasing the amount of planting area per square foot of garden area, raised beds also improve production in that they are generally prepared by either double digging the soil or otherwise deeply cultivating the area and amending the soil.   Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Garden method actually calls for the creation of a soil mix that is utilized in place of native amended soil.   This mixture is referred to as Mel’s Mix and is intended to achieve the same result as double digging – creation of a well aerated, well amended soil, that drains well and provides an optimal growing area for plant roots to develop.   My experience has been that double digging provides more optimal results – but it is a great deal of work to create the beds initially.   Using your native soil but improving it significantly has the advantage of less initial cost and generally contains minerals and other bio elements that a manmade mixture will not provide.   You can learn more about double digging a garden bed HERE.   I think it is an investment that yields significant rewards and once completed really does not need to be done again unless you allow compaction to occur by walking within the beds.   Once double dug a bed can be kept aerated by the periodic use of a broad fork or a garden fork and regular additions of compost - which always improves soil structure.   You can read more about prepping garden beds and specifically about using a broad fork HERE.   The advantage of a double dug garden bed is that you have a growing medium that is rich in nutrients and minerals, allows air and water to reach the plants roots, and encourages the colonization of the soil by beneficial creatures (such as worms) and bacteria to break down organic matter in the soil making even more nutrients available to the plants.   My preference for double digging comes in part because it provides a very deep environment of this greatly improved soil structure for roots to really grow and stretch down into – something a more shallowly cultivated or sealed bottom bed will not provide.   The vitality of plants that have been given really ample room for root growth is very apparent when compared to the same plants grown in less “roomy” conditions.           

Next week, I will continue the blog series and the focus on intensive planting techniques by discussing the concept of closely spacing plants.

I decided to try something new in the fall garden this year.   Territorial Seed came out with a new offering of a loose-leaf cabbage called Beira Tronchuda and it looked so interesting that I decided to dive right in and give it a try.   Started the seeds on June 13th along with several other fall crops and on July 11th I transplanted them all out into the bed that had previously held the pea patch.    

These plants were all obviously quite happy in this bed because two weeks later (July 25th) they looked like this.                                        

It is my experience that just about any crop will be wildly happy if it is planted as a follow up to the pea patch.   All legumes improve soil by nitrogen fixing, but peas in particular seem to leave the soil in a really excellent condition.   

Now, well into the fall season, the Beira Tronchuda cabbages look like this. 

These plants have big beautiful leaves that definitely are cabbage like in shape and firmness, but the color and the texture feels more like kale to me.   Tonight I made the first harvest from this planting.   I cut over ¾ of a pound of leaves off of 2 plants.   After a leaf was cut, I just pulled the stem off and later  composted all of them.   These plants have a central growing point that keeps producing new leaves so long as you just cut away the older lower leaves and leave the center alone - very similar to swiss chard's growth habit.                                                

The harvest was immediately taken inside and used in an Asian chicken/veggie/noodle stir-fry dish for the evening meal (you can see my recipe on the calendar entry for today).   Wow! This was excellent eating.    

The combination of fast growth, good productivity, and excellent eating qualities makes this new item a winner.

Many people view October as the month where their garden comes to an end for yet another season.   In some respects this is indeed a time where plants complete their annual cycle and either die or go dormant.   However, as I stand in the fall garden (dressed in layers to keep the damp chill from seeping in) I see the foundation of next year's garden.   October is a perfect time to improve soil structure, return depleted nutrients, and encourage minerals in the soil to become more readily available to plants.   Nature uses this time to do the same thing as well.   Leaves fall and litter the forest floor.   There they molder and decompose through the damp winter and spring - producing rich humousy soil that sustains the diversity of life that grows there.   Taking a cue from nature, if my garden beds are not in production with fall and winter crops then they are either planted up in a green manure crop or layered in a deep blanket of rough finished compost.                  

Fall is a great time to create new compost piles as well.   The last lawn mowing of the year, fall leaves, and the garden clean up debris all combine to provide a really wonderful mixture of compostable materials.   The leaves have yet to really get falling but the garden debris from pulling down the vine crops and spent bush beans have helped to finish filling two of the wire compost bins.   There are more vines to come and the fall leaves combined with them will fill another full bin once the trees have finished their annual drop.   Today I emptied out the compost bin that was assembled late last fall - comprised largely of last year's leaves, lawn clippings, and some kitchen and garden debris.   Generally, since I do not constantly turn my compost piles, it takes approximately one year from full assembly until I have a pile of good rough finished compost.                                   

This bin is now empty and ready for the current year's leaves and final garden clean up debris.   The compost from this single bin supplied a heavy layer that was placed on the oldest vertical grow bed.                   

This bed is largely empty now with the exception of some celery and some swiss chard (recently harvested so they do not show very well in this picture).   In addition, there was enough compost from this single bin to also heavily layer two of the large beds in the newer section of the garden.   The compost was dumped into the beds using a wheelbarrow and then spread with a pitchfork.      

Next spring, I will use the broad fork to loosen and aerate the soil, add some organic fertilizer, and then lightly cultivate the top few inches to mix and break up the soil - preparing the bed for another year of high production.    Since these two large beds are new, they will benefit greatly from the large addition of organic matter.   They were double dug and amended this spring with compost and rock minerals but it takes several years of organic investment in garden soil to bring it up to a truly high performing status and health.                                                         

Rather than view October as the end of the garden season, I see it as the start of the coming year's garden cycle.   What steps are you taking this fall to improve your soil?