Friday, February 20, 2009

Organic fertilizing

A basic fact of life here in Texas is that our clay soil is heavy, dense, and essentially devoid of nutrients. So, in the vegetable garden beds I'm preparing, I'm trying to mix in a lot of organic matter, primarily kitchen waste as well as leaves and other yard waste.

But, it's going to take a while to enrich the soil; so, I felt I needed to boost the soil this year with additional nutrients. Wanting to stay organic, that meant a trip down to "Green Mama's" - the nearest organic nursery. We used to have an organic nursery much closer, called "Redenta's" - but, they closed a year or so ago. Jon was very sad.  Jon is still mourning the loss of Elliotts Hardware store (what's it been?  5 years?) - but that's a topic for another blog post.


Anyway, I talked to the good folks at Green Mama's, and settled on a 40# bag of a general purpose organic fertilizer. Based on some reading I've done, I also bought a bag of lava sand and green sand - which add additional minerals and other nutrients besides the basic N-P-K (Nitrogen-Potassium-Phophorus). From what I've been reading, I'll probably want to get a bag of lava sand and green sand each year to enrich the garden; but, a 40# bag is only $7 each which should be sufficient for my entire garden.

For now, I've been tossing kitchen waste directly into my raised beds and mixing it in with the native soil; but, I need to come up with a place to compost. I have a compost pile in my back yard; but, it's on the total opposite side of the yard as my vegetable garden - as inconvenient as it can possibly be. So, I want to move it to be closer to the vegetable garden since that is where most of it will be used.

But where? Since my vegetable garden is in the front, I don't really want a compost pile in the front yard - not very attractive. I've thought about putting on just inside the gate - but that's where the swimming pool is. Do I want a compost pile next to the swimming pool? Is there a way I could dress it up so that it isn't quite so ugly? 

Decorative composting - now there's an idea that needs pursuing . . .

1 comment:

  1. I am so excited to see this blog - thanks for letting me know about it. I have read every word!

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