We've been working on our soil for the past couple of weeks.
A week ago last Saturday we put six scoops of organic compost placed on our driveway. A friend's son had time and a truck available and through four trips to Valley Sod we brought seven scoops (a scoop being a skip loader scoop) to our house. The driver kept one and left the rest for us.
Over the next week or so I hand turned the dirt in both the "koi pond" and the "corner office". Normally this hasn't been an issue as the dirt in this area has been good quality. Not anymore, I'm sad to say. I know one year I turned the dirt in the "koi pond" during the halftime presentation during the Super Bowl (roughly a half an hour). This time it took around three hours.
The "corner office" dirt was even worse. I used to find worms everywhere in the "corner office", but not any more. I ran into one worm in the "koi pond"...that's it.
So I laid out some of the organic compost on top of the dirt in the front yard, added some gypsum and hand turned it in. Then my wife made an amendment "cocktail", consisting of some John and Bob's, Earthalizer and one other amendment and laid it on top of the soil. Then we added more compost on top and used a Mantis to turn the soil again. After that we laid hay on top of the dirt.
Hand turning and machine turning the dirt brought up about 50 cutworms, almost all full sized. I tossed them all into the street.
The dirt in the south side of the "koi pond" was better than the north side dirt. This is the reverse of how it has been historically. It was easier to turn and looked somewhat healthier.
We've also brought compost into the two new raised beds in the back yard and added compost to all the roses in the front yard.
I've started to hand dig the "Far East" in the back yard. Historically this has been the rockiest area. While the going is slow and I have dug out some large chunks of asphalt, I've been pleasantly surprised with the progress so far. It's not as bad as I expected. But I have a long, long way to go. Completing the back yard will take several weeks.
On Wednesday I spent all day moving the remaining compost from the driveway into a large pile in the back yard. We covered the pile with tarps on Thursday to keep it dry from this morning's rain.
In short: I believe our soil is depleted. I have some extra time at the moment and am trying to get our growing grounds back in good condition. The front yard is completely prepared. The back yard will take some time.
Showing posts with label Soil Preparation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soil Preparation. Show all posts
Friday, November 29, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Soil Preparation for 2013
Over the three day weekend last week my wife and I did a lot of work on our soil.
It seemed like an eternity since I was thinking about tomatoes, but the reality was it has been less than two months since the last harvest. First, I took out some grass in the back yard. However, this grass isn't for new growing ground. It's for placing an outside shed in the back yard. That point brings up another issue -- if things go as planned we will have less growing ground in the back yard for growing tomatoes. We grew 93 tomato plants in 2012. I suspect we'll grow around 60 this year. But...we'll see.
I also raked the hay off of the soil in the back yard. We highly recommend laying down hay during the fallow periods of the winter and early spring. Hay on top of the soil will hold moisture and a bit of heat within the soil. That encourages microbial growth and worm activity. In my opinion worms don't do a whole lot to your soil, but what they do only benefits the soil. And worms work for free. Anything you can do to encourage a happy environment for worms will pay off. Make it easy for worms to work for you! When the hay breaks down it is simply absorbed into the soil.
The hay was raked to the side, my wife applied fertilizer and phosphate and the hay was raked back over the soil. My wife also worked the soil in the raised beds and along the southern border of our back yard.
In the front yard we did a similar thing in the "koi pond". I raked the hay to the south side, my wife applied fertilizer and phosphates and the hay was raked back. The only difference involved moments of levity. There are at least 50 SunGold tomatoes in the dirt. I picked out about a dozen of them an tossed them into the streets.
Also, we had purchased some mulch and had it placed in our "corner office". We moved the mulch into all of the non-tomato growing areas of the front yard. The mulch had been purchased about three or four weeks prior and had just been sitting there waiting for us to move it into place. In that time it rained once or twice so it is inevitable some of the mulch leached into the soil. If I remember correctly, some mulch was left on top of the "corner office" but not the "koi pond". Now that I think of it I assume the corner office got some of the fertilizer and phosphate but I don't know that for a fact.
We worked pretty hard over the three day President's day weekend. We had heard a storm was going to hit on Tuesday and Wednesday, which proved true. So our soil additives got watered in somewhat. My wife also watered the front and back yards this weekend. Our soil is pretty well prepped for 2013.
It seemed like an eternity since I was thinking about tomatoes, but the reality was it has been less than two months since the last harvest. First, I took out some grass in the back yard. However, this grass isn't for new growing ground. It's for placing an outside shed in the back yard. That point brings up another issue -- if things go as planned we will have less growing ground in the back yard for growing tomatoes. We grew 93 tomato plants in 2012. I suspect we'll grow around 60 this year. But...we'll see.
I also raked the hay off of the soil in the back yard. We highly recommend laying down hay during the fallow periods of the winter and early spring. Hay on top of the soil will hold moisture and a bit of heat within the soil. That encourages microbial growth and worm activity. In my opinion worms don't do a whole lot to your soil, but what they do only benefits the soil. And worms work for free. Anything you can do to encourage a happy environment for worms will pay off. Make it easy for worms to work for you! When the hay breaks down it is simply absorbed into the soil.
The hay was raked to the side, my wife applied fertilizer and phosphate and the hay was raked back over the soil. My wife also worked the soil in the raised beds and along the southern border of our back yard.
In the front yard we did a similar thing in the "koi pond". I raked the hay to the south side, my wife applied fertilizer and phosphates and the hay was raked back. The only difference involved moments of levity. There are at least 50 SunGold tomatoes in the dirt. I picked out about a dozen of them an tossed them into the streets.
Also, we had purchased some mulch and had it placed in our "corner office". We moved the mulch into all of the non-tomato growing areas of the front yard. The mulch had been purchased about three or four weeks prior and had just been sitting there waiting for us to move it into place. In that time it rained once or twice so it is inevitable some of the mulch leached into the soil. If I remember correctly, some mulch was left on top of the "corner office" but not the "koi pond". Now that I think of it I assume the corner office got some of the fertilizer and phosphate but I don't know that for a fact.
We worked pretty hard over the three day President's day weekend. We had heard a storm was going to hit on Tuesday and Wednesday, which proved true. So our soil additives got watered in somewhat. My wife also watered the front and back yards this weekend. Our soil is pretty well prepped for 2013.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Preparing for Planting
Saturday morning my wife and I went to see Scott Daigre's annual tomato class at CSUN. It was fun and engaging as usual. If you didn't go this year, try to catch this in future years.
I finished turning over the grass for our new growing area. We're by no means done, however, as the dead grass needs to be pulled before we can amend the soil.
We moved one of the raised beds to another part of the backyard lawn, providing additional planting area. We may move the original raised bed as well but that will require more effort.
My wife "challenged" me to find asphalt in a random area of our backyard near our east fence. Our tomatoes do not do well in this area of the yard. The plants tend to get about 3 to 4 feet tall and then struggle. I picked a spot, checked to see if this is an acceptable spot to try and started digging. The shovel went in and we heard the scratching sound we normally associate with asphalt. After about 15 minutes of digging I had pulled up a fair amount of asphalt including at least two slightly larger than a large, thick hamburger patty.
Yep, we have an asphalt problem. My wife has been pulling it out for at least 10 years and we're still pulling out large chunks about 8 - 12 inches below the surface.
For now we're going to plant again in this area. I may dig up this area in the fall after the tomato plants are pulled. We'll see. It is very hard work.
The results of last year's back yard soil test indicated our soil is lacking nitrogen. We'll continue amending the back yard soil to supply nitrogen to the growing areas.
Our tomato plants grown from seed are not doing well at all. For the most part they were doing fine but they became very sensitive to light/water/heat/cold.
During Super Bowl weekend I turned the dirt in the "koi pond". Another round of buckwheat was planted and it is starting to sprout. The buckwheat is simply a plant that puts nitrogen back in the soil.
Tomatomania is less than three weeks away! My wife plans to work all three days of the event and I plan to work the last two days of the event. For further details, check out http://www.tomatomania.com.
I finished turning over the grass for our new growing area. We're by no means done, however, as the dead grass needs to be pulled before we can amend the soil.
We moved one of the raised beds to another part of the backyard lawn, providing additional planting area. We may move the original raised bed as well but that will require more effort.
My wife "challenged" me to find asphalt in a random area of our backyard near our east fence. Our tomatoes do not do well in this area of the yard. The plants tend to get about 3 to 4 feet tall and then struggle. I picked a spot, checked to see if this is an acceptable spot to try and started digging. The shovel went in and we heard the scratching sound we normally associate with asphalt. After about 15 minutes of digging I had pulled up a fair amount of asphalt including at least two slightly larger than a large, thick hamburger patty.
Yep, we have an asphalt problem. My wife has been pulling it out for at least 10 years and we're still pulling out large chunks about 8 - 12 inches below the surface.
For now we're going to plant again in this area. I may dig up this area in the fall after the tomato plants are pulled. We'll see. It is very hard work.
The results of last year's back yard soil test indicated our soil is lacking nitrogen. We'll continue amending the back yard soil to supply nitrogen to the growing areas.
Our tomato plants grown from seed are not doing well at all. For the most part they were doing fine but they became very sensitive to light/water/heat/cold.
During Super Bowl weekend I turned the dirt in the "koi pond". Another round of buckwheat was planted and it is starting to sprout. The buckwheat is simply a plant that puts nitrogen back in the soil.
Tomatomania is less than three weeks away! My wife plans to work all three days of the event and I plan to work the last two days of the event. For further details, check out http://www.tomatomania.com.
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