Soil: Fertilizer, Nutrients & Compost
Healthy soil is the foundation of every successful garden.
Productive gardens begin below the surface. Soil quality, organic matter, compost, nutrients, soil biology, and proper fertilization all play critical roles in plant health and productivity. These articles explore practical methods for building and maintaining healthy soil, improving fertility, understanding plant nutrient needs, and creating growing conditions that support strong, productive gardens year after year.
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Q & A : Growing Onions
How do you start and grow onions? I found that onion variety is really sensitive based on the area of the country you are in. For us I found Wala Wala does really well. That…
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Q & A : Seedlings
I got a couple of questions from my latest “glamstead” article… < click here to read that article > What do you use for potting soil? I’ve used different versions. I’ve also…
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Strawberry Update…Success !
Okay, enough of the current events and political opinion stuff…how about some glamstead garden info? Several years ago I purchased some strawberry plants from a local big box DIY store, they were Sequoia variety. I…
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How to make dirt…Part #4
This is the fourth in the making dirt series. If you haven’t already read Parts #1, #2 & #3 you might want to: <click here to read Part #1> <click here to read Part #2>…
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How to make dirt…Part #3
This is the third in the making dirt series. If you haven’t already read Parts #1 & #2 you might want to: <click here to read Part #1> <click here to read Part #2> We…
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How to make dirt…Part #2
This is the second in the making dirt series. If you haven’t already read Part #1 you might want to <click here to read Part #1> We are moving on from raised bed soil to…
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How to make dirt…Part #1
Administrative note: I broke this super, super long article into 5 shorter ones. I didn’t want to bore folks to death or overload Internet servers from folks reading it. The “parts” will be: Introduction &…
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Garden: Q & A – Why in the he$$ are you preparing a 6k square foot garden?
Why in the he$$ are you preparing a 6k square foot garden? First off…the total area I worked on was 10,000sq’, only about 6,000sq’ is going to be usable for a potential garden area. I…
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Garden: Big Mistake!
I’ve been really working hard at expanding our garden this year. Our goal is to try and eat out of the garden as much as possible. A secondary goal was to become independent of buying…
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Garden: Q & A – Tomato Soil
From: floidb RE: Garden Tip: Potting Soil Greetings and thanks for the helpful article. Do you think this mixture would work well for planting the tomatoes in a raised container, once they are large enough to…
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Garden: Starting Tomatoes Indoors
Let’s talk why to start seedlings indoors. In my area you have a 50% chance of frost (36oF) by June 3rd. Two weeks later there is only a 10% chance of frost. Sure you can…
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Garden Tip: Potting Soil
Let’s talk the potting soil racket. This year I have already planted 113 seedlings, maybe 40 – 50 yet to go. Does it get expensive to buy potting soil. Answer: Maybe. So let’s set a…
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Time to work on my strawberry patch! (ooooppppssss)
(no, that’s not my strawberry patch) Early last week I inspected my strawberry beds to see how close I was to un-mulching them for the spring. You can tell they are ready when you see…
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An Every Man’s Greenhouse – Part #1
First off…the greenhouse to the left is NOT what I am talking about. That greenhouse probably cost way more than my house did! It was just a nice picture and maybe just a bit of…
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I need your feedback on my 2024 garden proposal
I have done a tremendous amount of work getting my garden ready for 2024. I’ve built boxes, hauled in compost, bought pearlite, laid down landscape cloth, hauled in 4 tons of rock, put in a…
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Garden: New Set-up
Before I get into the details of our garden set-up it is important to know what we are trying to accomplish. As you well-know, everything we build, buy, or develop has a specific mission. We…
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Lessons Learned – Garden 2023
I put together some nice raised bed planter boxes…good call on my part. But, what really made the difference was the super high quality soil I made up for those boxes. Plenty of compost, mostly…
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Plan B, Plan C, and Strawberries…
So let’s do this in reverse order…strawberries first. But stick around for the Plan B & Plan C part…or jump directly to it. You know there is always method to my madness 🙂 Strawberries –…
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Time to be thinking spring…garden, orchard, & berry patch!
Yup, yesterday morning got me thinking about spring…garden, orchard, berry patch…YEA! I’ve been putting it off because of weather, mud mostly, but yesterday was one of my most favorite times of spring (ok, late winter)…pruning…