Hello and welcome to the first ever post on Soil On Up. While I am very new to the world of blogging I'm delighted to find a fun way of keeping an online record of various activities throughout the year involving gardening to share with others who also love, appreciate or are just plain interested in what gardening is all about. Through photos, stories and even artwork (I'll put that BFA to work yet!) I hope you will all enjoy what I have to offer.
A garden girl like me should provide you with some background. I have virtually been gardening all of my life... well not literally. As a child I grew up with a mother who was mad about gardening, so it was always a part of my life. As a kid I helped her plant rows, squish marauding pests, weed, water, harvest and preserve. This was all done voluntarily of course for in gardening was always fun and never a chore. Though I wasn't aware of it then, I was slowly absorbing many pieces of knowledge from her and it wasn't until later on in life that I have had truly been able to appreciate that.
Learning doesn't ever stop... not with anything and especially not with gardening. While I have and continue to learn from my mother, I read and experiment endlessly so that now even she admits, "The varieties you grow have long surpassed me in every way." Thanks ma :)
Here in New York state I share with my boyfriend (but I'm gardener mind you) a 3600 square foot backyard garden plot. Only having lived here since 2008, we are continuing to learn the characteristics of this land. As of last year our soil PH was on the acidic side, clayey and very stony.
The 2009 garden... left for many opportunities shall we say. From furry, feathered and slimy pests to an overly moist summer and a devastating tomato blight, this year has me hoping for much improvement... and surely more adventures.
Being that it is January I have a severe case of spring fever going on... nothing new. Due to our very stony soil, cultivation of rows must be dug by hand. I read in one of my gardening books once that if your lucky enough to get a January thaw that it would be wise to take advantage of it. And i did just that! Above you will see me out there thoroughly layered double digging to prepare the rows for spring. Since this is a very laborious activity (two 15 foot rows a day is enough for me), whatever digging I can accomplish now is a 'better sooner than later' scenario... especially when later my energies are better applied to planting, thinning and keeping the young weeds at bay.
So far I feel like I have a good 1/4 of the garden rows prepared. Before I begin digging in I spread out an amount of horse manure which I gathered from one of my friends farm, which she is ever generous to do. Manure is always an excellent idea for adding organic matter to your soil. In addition to that, I have been spreading out some wood ashes. I did some research and found that one way you can improve your soil, especially my kind of soil, is by adding wood ashes. Wood ashes contain a good amount of calcium carbonate, which acts as a liming agent increasing the PH of your soil. It also adds organic material, potassium, some phosphorus, magnesium and trace elements of other things like iron, boron, copper and zinc to name a few. Normal garden applications of wood ash are usually about a five gallon buckets worth for every 1000 square feet.
Our backyard has years of tree debris and on a something of a chilly January thaw-ish day as I prepared rows I built a small fire in the garden putting this yard waste to work. Don't know yet exactly how much of an impact this all will make, but I can't help but think this will do more good than harm. There IS a warning about the possibility of TOO much wood ash for your garden, since your increasing your PH you could cause the soil to become too alkaline. When this happens some of the nutrients in the soil can become 'bound' to the soil and be less available for your vegetables to use. In the case of acid loving plants... such as potatoes, you want to be particularly careful about a heavy hand of wood ash as this can cause potato scab. On the contrary, I read that ... when the time comes months from now, tomato plants will respond well to a 1/4 cup scoop of wood ash to the holes you dig to transplant them in. Another new thing of many I think I shall try doing this year.
Alas, now that our 'thaw' has come to an end and temperatures have dropped below freezing again, I will put my digging to a rest for now and resume my garden book reading and planning for the coming growing season.
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