12-01-2006, 07:26 AM
you are right, building a good loamy garden soil takes work. and to get a stable garden takes years of work, and you can never let up, you get one that produces, you have reached your goal, then you have to maintain it to keep it going, just a year or two of highbred plant growth will drain the nutrients right out of a garden.
here is a veiw of part of my garden, sweet corn 10 feet tall, tomato plants 6 feet tall. tomatos ranging from half to three quarter pound some reached two pounds. squash reaching 5 pounds. coliflower the size of basket balls. green beans 11-15 inches long.
It took years to get this soil to the point where it will produce plant life of this nature. and it is all natural.
I built this garden soil my self, I gathered clay from one part of my town and sand from another. mixed the two then added enert matter to fill the void. Both clay and sand was sub soil void of any nutrients. You would think my garden would smell of fish when I turned the soil, it dosnt, there are no remains of the fish skellitons or heads at all.
my biggest battle is slugs. that is a constant battle all summer long. nothing eats them around here, and I have more than my fair share.
this years garden produced 2 bushells of sweet corn, 2 bushells of corn, 5 bushells of squash a bushell of green beans. half dozen coliflower heads plus second growth.
my garden is 8 foot by 12 foot. being a farmer for 43 years and working a micro garden its easy to ballance and maintain favorable soil conditions year after year.
I used to have to tend to a 90 acre farm with a hoe and a rototiller and a wheel barol. No tractor. we had our own live stock where I got my fertilizer from. and it had to be picked up every day.
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here is a veiw of part of my garden, sweet corn 10 feet tall, tomato plants 6 feet tall. tomatos ranging from half to three quarter pound some reached two pounds. squash reaching 5 pounds. coliflower the size of basket balls. green beans 11-15 inches long.
It took years to get this soil to the point where it will produce plant life of this nature. and it is all natural.
I built this garden soil my self, I gathered clay from one part of my town and sand from another. mixed the two then added enert matter to fill the void. Both clay and sand was sub soil void of any nutrients. You would think my garden would smell of fish when I turned the soil, it dosnt, there are no remains of the fish skellitons or heads at all.
my biggest battle is slugs. that is a constant battle all summer long. nothing eats them around here, and I have more than my fair share.
this years garden produced 2 bushells of sweet corn, 2 bushells of corn, 5 bushells of squash a bushell of green beans. half dozen coliflower heads plus second growth.
my garden is 8 foot by 12 foot. being a farmer for 43 years and working a micro garden its easy to ballance and maintain favorable soil conditions year after year.
I used to have to tend to a 90 acre farm with a hoe and a rototiller and a wheel barol. No tractor. we had our own live stock where I got my fertilizer from. and it had to be picked up every day.
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