Farmer: Sod Busted Daily

The liquid plant food I applied last week was only a stopgap, what I really needed to do was apply organic material and more importantly test my soil. Saturday I purchased a do-it-yourself kit from Lowe's and established a few things. First, and no surprise, I was in dire need to Nitrogen. I also suspected that my soil pH may be off since some plants weren't growing as quickly as they should and I hadn't tested when I originally broke ground.

To my surprise my pH was very Alkaline (8.0)! While I'm committed to organic gardening and making slow moves with soil conditioning I realized that this would not be good for ANY of the plants in my garden and that immediate action was needed. I ran back to Lowe's and picked up a 5lbs sack of elemental sulfur which will acidify the soil. I spread about 2lbs on the surface along with coated, slow release Urea for nitrogen. I'll work this in later when I do my weekly hoe.

The remaining two tests showed that my Phosphorous was High and that I was low on Potash. Given this dramatic difference I'm going to try a fall planting of Phosphorous loving plants, possibly potatoes, to try to draw down the levels. I was unable to find an organic Potash source at the local garden center so I may have to punt and apply a combination fertilizer.

The last task I accomplished was to "mulch" the existing plants with a large bag of organic "soil conditioner" which in my area is a moist, slightly aged and pulverized sack of bark and wood chips. Looks like mulch, smells like mulch, but breaks down faster.

So how did my soil become so Alkaline so quickly? Folks around here complain about how acidic the clay soil is and regularly spread pelletized lime on their lawns when fertilizing. Heck, I spread lime also and the Bermuda sod loves it. So what gives? Well for starters I applied garden lime to the soil when I tilled, without testing it which is a major no-no. The high soluble phosphorus level is probably a result of my gypsum application and while it shouldn't hurt the garden it will cause runoff of any phosphorous I apply as part of another fertilizer since the soil is already saturated.

Anyway, that's the quick update. The straw bale tomatoes are doing quite well and haven't required water since the bales are still pretty moist and we've received a few inches of rain over the past week.

I mistakenly planted by pole beans thinking they were bush beans. I searched the local Lowe’s and found several options for support. I ended up with 2×2 mesh garden fence, a pack of approx 4 ft bamboo poles and a spool of garden twine. I interwove the bamboo between the fence mesh and drove the poles in the ground near the sprouts. I then secured the fence with the twine. Everything is green so maybe I can keep the HOA off my case. :)

Sorry no pictures as it was getting dark by the time I was finished. The fence is shorter than it would otherwise be if I’d left more space between the rows. I also noticed a few buds on the green bell plants and lots of new leaves on the pumpkin which really liked the urea nitrogen.

My recently germinated Genovese basil and Sweet Basil are looking quite good. Hopefully they’ll supplement the harvest from the single sweet basil I bought at the local greenhouse.

If bugs can eat your plants they will. I just applied a fine mist of Murphy Oil Soap to my plants. The aphids were particularly attacking my lima bean plants and hearty hibiscus. I used a small spray bottle and had enough left over to put a nice coat on my shrubbery which was under attack earlier in the year.

For more updates, pictures and more visit MyFolia site!

Unfortunately I have not been able to break ground due to the weather. Over the past few days we've received 2½ inches of rain which have helped the regional drought condition but also inundated or soaked most of the backyard. In short it's simply too wet to run any machine through the yard without tearing it up.

However, fortunately my seedlings are developing nicely. Saturday I was able to transplant the first batch including eight peat trays of Arkansas Traveler tomatoes, four Dixie Queen watermelons, and four Queensland Blue pumpkins to their new digs. Thankfully the sun is back after a week of overcast skies and I'm slowly beginning the process of hardening off the plants against natural sunlight.

The timing could not have been better as most of the plants were starting to show their true leaves. This is the gardener's signal to re-pot the plants and to begin to begin the process of acclimating the seedlings to regular sunlight slowly. Too much exposure too quickly will sunburn the plants and cause many to die before maturing enough to plant. It's also a great time to fertilize the peat pots as the plants have consumed most of the nutrients in the germination soil.

As far as the garden is concerned, today I'm headed to the local Ace Hardware to pick up six railroad cross ties which will serve as the boundary for my garden. I tentatively rescheduled the tiller rental for next Saturday and plan to churn the dirt and mix in several bags of gypsum, manure and other composts to soften and condition the soil.

If all goes well I'm hoping to have plants in the ground in several weeks. In the meantime I'll most likely cover the new bed with black plastic to help lock in the moisture and to bake out any unwanted weeds that might try to germinate in the mean time.