The KInd Life Community Forum

I am new to the composting/use for gardening and have been saving all my veggie scraps & and outside leaves for the hope of turning my future garden into a great one later this spring. The soil we have in our backyard seems good and moist, but what do I need to do to make it really nice for planting this week??Should I buy an organic topsoil or just use what I have back there and hope for the best!?Any help will be great...I have only grown herbs & tomatoes on a patio before :)

Hi, OK-sticking to 'GREEN GARDENING' I foudn this website that I thaught you would find useful. It provides readers with all of the 'GREEN' gardening products that one can use to enrich soil for deeply enriched crops.

Here is the website:

www.intelligentnutrients.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/education_manual.pdf

This site includes everything from flax seed meal to add nitrogen to your soil.

Here is a pointer: if you buy a vegetable or fruit gardening book it will tell you what types of soil levels you need for the type of crops you are growing and the zone. The zone numbers are for each specific locations. Like it in the US different parts of CA have different zone numbers. This will ensure that your are in the propper zone (basically atmosphere) to grow your crops. This will ensure a great crop. The book will also inform you of the specific type of nutrients that each vegetable needs (i.e. potatoes need more nitrogen to grow). So a season before you grow your potatoes use a cover crop to enrich your soil with lots of nice and healthy nitrogen(use a specific type of cover crop that ensures nitrogen production) and your pototoes will do wonderfully. If you choose not to use a cover crop buy a soil amendment that is rich in the nutrient you need.

Fruits need acidic soil so if your growing fruits enrich your soil with an acidic soil amendment.

For lettuces and potatoes (I think) I've found information on growing these and they should not be grown in the same area twice, so rotate these items and never grow them in the same place twice. I guess if you do...give your soil lots and lots of extra organic nutrients.

Here's a tip for you: if you grow strawberries in the ground buy a bird net and cover your strawberries with it. If you don't the birds will eat them all and you will probably have no strawberries to eat yourself.

I found this too: "Add organic fertilizer to your grapevine soil with grape pomace. This is comprised of grape seeds and skins from organic wineries ."

I tried some lettuce grown with this grape seed amended into their soil and the lettuces was very very unique.

From,
Julie S :)