Can Anyone Give Any Personal Recomendations For Breaking Ground On A New Garden?
We have just moved into zone 8b. I’m in the process of planning my garden right now and already have some seedlings started. My main question is: When I start to till the ground, what do you add to your soil to get it producing. Mainly I will be planting tomatoes, peppers, herbs, zucchini, other squash, & I’d like to try some strawberries. Maybe some pumpkins. Like I said we’ve just moved in here so there has not been any veggies grown here in the past and I will also just be starting out w/ my compost, so I do not have compost ready to go on the dirt. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!
Either buy or rent a tiller to begin with. The first time will be especially hard if that area’s not been tilled before, especially if it’s grassy. Figure out the area you want to plant, then till it up in rows. After you’re finished, do it again the opposite direction to help break up any remaining dirt. A neat trick for your tomatoes, peppers and squash–put down black plastic where you want to plant. fasten it down, then cut X’s where you want to plant the plants (bigger holes for seeds, and watch them to be sure they don’t grow under the plastic). Use landscaping staples (a “U” shaped piece of wire works, too), at each X to keep the plastic from covering the plant. The plastic will not only keep out weeds, it will also hold in heat and moisture. And I always use Miracle-Gro For Tomatoes when I plant both the tomatoes and peppers (also eggplants), since they’re in the same family.
Dig deep, at least twice as deep as you plan to plant. Add one big bag of compost for every four square feet. Add one big bag of manure to every 8 square feet.
Cover the cuttings, seeds etc., with a combo of topsoil and compost mixed with the excavated (sifted to eliminate weed seeds) dirt from the digging.
Use a fish emulsion at least once a week.
Personally, I prefer to smother the existing grass or other vegetation with layers of newspaper covered with compost. By not tilling up the ground, you don’t bring up the weed seeds. After a few weeks you can plant right through the paper, which will eventually decompose. You can buy bags of compost at most home improvement or garden centers.
The best thing to do is to take some soil samples from your garden and have the local Agricultural Exchange office do a soil analysis for you. They’ll tell you exactly what you need. It only costs like $5.
easiest no-dig gardens http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ You control the soil while not breaking your back. No fertilizers or chemicals needed
I can’t really give any tips to your question but I can tell you the best way to start a compost. We started ours and it seems to be doing really well. When we moved into our house this fall, the old owners had 2 trash containers and we only needed one so we now use one for our compost. We first put some grass clippings into the trash bin then we simply started to put all of our food waste on top. We eat a lot of seafood and the shells are great for the compost and so are bananas and egg shells . Whenever I start cooking I lay out a piece of old newspaper on the counter and any scraps or pieces that are not used or are waste or left overs from days ago that no one will eat I simply toss them onto the newspaper and then dump it into the trash bin. Over the winter we haven’t cut the grass much but once we do we will add some of the clippings to the compost bin. Also we plan to buy worms to add to the bin. The worms will eat all of the food rests and make great soil. I hope this at least helps with getting your compost started. Good luck and Good Fruits!