Are there any gardeners on DG?

DG, we are neighbors!

I live in Grizzly Flats! Up the hill from Somerset, just north of Mt. Aukum and south of Placerville!

Howdy neighbor!

Evelyn

P.S. What is your elevation? We are at about 3500'.

Hi Evelyn, Glad to have a neighbor on DG. Did you lose power today, we sure did, for 10 hours.Not a good thing --- I think we're going to have to get a generator this winter, I really don't like putting up with this. Many of our neighbors have them and they come on automatically when the power goes off. I guess they run off the propane tanks, which is very nice. Boy, --- it's raining cats and dogs right now, the wind is fierce too. I'll look forward to talking to you
Jacquie

OH Evelyn, I forgot to tell you, -- we live at 4000'-

dguimo,

Yes! We finally got our power back. I work in Placerville, so, of course, they had power. (Oh, well...)

We have a generator that is hooked up to the water pump, so at least we have running water when the power goes down...but that's about it... No 'puter...

DH in a better mood now that TV is back on.. go figure.

GV,this is good reading I'm gonna rebump. :)

I am an organic gardener, altho maybe not considered a true one as I sometimes get desperate and spray some weeds with RoundUp. I have one large and 3 smaller 3 foot square compost piles and one tumbler type. Can't make compost fast enough. Here where i live I don't think anything had ever been grown before other than the native, grass and sagebrush. I hired a couple of fellows to grub out all the sage brush and am fighting the native grasses. On one of the forums and I don't remember which someone was going to take orders for red worms. I know I said i wanted 2 lbs. but I haven't seen anymore about that. rutholive (Donna)

Ruth there is a co-op going for worms,I'm not sure it is in the final stages yet,you might want to look there.:)

Dguimo,

Got any worms to spare?? Who do you buy them from?

Evelyn

I also agree that this is a very interesting thread.

Though all here know I love this site and am actively posting in various forums, I must admit to a little disappointment at not finding at Dave's more active forums regarding the soil, plant metabolism, etc.

This is not a criticism of the membership or of Dave (who is a most gracious host, indeed). It's just a reality. Not everyone has the same interests.

Not everyone wants to understand soil chemistry, cation exchange potential, and the four stages of the cell life cycle and how these are offering instructions to us as gardeners.

On the other hand, I am very interested in these things and am actively reading about them and am trying to begin applying this reading in the community garden I cultivate.

As all here know, I am very new to gardening, and am thus a relatively blank slate. Got sumptin ta teach me? I'm all ears.

This is a link to the worm coop thread:

http://davesgarden.com/t/371604/


Adam.

Adam,,how bout teaching me sumpin,How do you create the Hyper to the other threads???

Root

Root
Go to the thread you want to link to. Copy the url. Go to the thread you want to add the link to and paste the url there. Thats all there is to it.

Paul

Thats what I don't get Paul how to find url?

Look up at the top middle of the screen, youll see a long rectangular bar that runs across the top of the screen. It will have something like h,t,t,p davesgarden in it.
That is the url or the address of that thread. Hilight it and then copy it. Go th the thread you are writing and paste it into the body of the message

See I'm not getting the http anywhere on my screen.

Root,
Where it says Address

no address

Go to the VIEW command button on your browser.

Go to TOOL BARS

Click ADDRESS.

This will open the address bar in your browser and will enable you to see the URL.

Copy the ENTIRE address and paste it directly into your post.

This ought to work.

Adam.

I got it adam,I must have customized the tool bar without knowing,I had to drag it down to get the address to show,That GW helped me out,Thanks for the help!
Bob

OK, now I need a bobcat, 4 tons of straw and mulch and I can fix the soil (HA!LMAO) in my backyard! I have red clay in the back with NO top soil-what's there is what I've been creating and it's not much! I am going to start. It will take years before my backyard is going to be plantable everywhere I want it to be, but I am going to do it!

Gotta go get some red worms too......

This thread has been around a long time, and keeps coming back up. We do hope to attract more and more "serious" gardeners to the site, but it's like anything else - you gotta have some to attract more, and I think we're slowly getting there.

On the other hand, I hope this forum retains the same warmth, good humor and compassion that is the hallmark of DG. (I get a nervous twitch just lurking on a similar forum on another site; I even cover my eyes when I spot some poor newbie posting a question, because it's a sure bet they'll get waylaid by the "serious gardeners".)

I will say that since I began gardening on this piece of half-clay/half-bedrock, I've learned to appreciate what I don't know about dirt. I'm scrambling up a steep learning curve, and I know I've still got a long way to go.

A couple things I've learned the hard way, so far:

1) Ruth Stout didn't garden in clay; and
2) We must learn to think in terms of "feeding" our soil, rather than feeding our plants.

Don't get me wrong - Ruth Stout is one of my heroes. But bless her heart, when she counseled everyone everywhere to stop digging in any soil amendments, I don't believe she truly understood how long it would take clay soil to become soft and workable if compost is never worked in. (Yeah, it could happen, but I don't want to die of old age waiting around for that day.)

As to #2, well - it basically comes down to organics vs. non-organics. The guys at our extension office will tell you that a plant doesn't really care whether its fertilizer is organic or not. That may be true, but I do know that my soil will respond differently to an application of compost vs. chemicals. Shame on the agri-businesses for sneering at organic methods for so long, to the serious detriment of our farms and gardens. (Stepping off one of my many soapboxes :)

This message was edited Friday, Feb 7th 10:14 PM

GV ~~~

Such wise words...,

"...come to appreciate what I don't know about dirt."

Memorable.

Adam.

aAare of have any of you used Endomycorrhizal inoculant in your soil. My daughter sent me some last year and I used it but don't know if it helped. I found a source in La Pine OR and ordered a 3lb. container of the kind for seed starting. Don't know if I ever will use that much of that one but that is the smallest container they use. I am going to send for another container of the type to use when planting trees and shrubs, as I plan to plant a lot in my new woodland garden. rutholive (Donna)

It seems that many of the 'famous' gardeners have few ideas on how to deal with neglected clay soil. Some may have a garden that is clay based but their gardens have been worked for years and have some texture to them. What they don't let on is how many years it takes to get it workable.

Our soil is clay/clay loam, suffers from; compaction, poor drainage and at least 2 decades of neglect. Southern England isn't noted for it's arid landscapes and being near a tidal river, we have all the joys of a high water table.

I can easily write an essay on 'How to break garden implements in July' or 'Creating tiny ponds in December'. I really must get around to that chapter on 'How to deal with a garden that is under 2 inch of standing water 4 months of the year'. OK slight exaggeration, lets say saturation point to standing water.

I don't mind if people think I'm not a real gardener, I'll just sit here and make clay balls to throw at them.

Thanks Baa! I'm New and not a real gardener either,I am clearing land in Mi.for a cabin someday,it is sand,don't have to worry about a perk test there,LOl,I live in Kc now and here I have to fun of digging the beds that the prior owner filled with clay,tells you how much of a gardener he was to bring in clay and fill raised beds,I don't have anywhere to go with it so I am working it through my compost piles.(Made from his raised bed posts)I'm getting close here in Kc.,it has to be easier in sand up north!
Root(non published,non gardener)LOL!

Bob plant cover crop on that sand and all the chicken manure you can find it is the hotest i can think of and you will need it we had one field that you planted wheat and clover in it the next year was clover crop then back to wheat and you still had to fertilize when you went back to wheat some of that Mi sand hasn't got much plant food in it
but it is easier that the mo clay but i will still take sw mo
good gardening
dave719

Great thread! one which I wish to join and hope to learn from. I'm no "expurt" but I've done a little double digging, been adding Organic Matter, and take advise from our local organicly-minded extension office (we are blessed!!) These three activities have all been MOST beneficical.

I too, have hard-packed clay caused by our "normal regional soil type" enhanced by previous overuse and poor agri-practices. We had serious damage to the fields AND forests when we got the place. The land about the house was equally abused by carelessness and neglect. Over the past twenty years we have been cleaning up trash and trying to grow things here and there.

Last year I decided to try gardening again. I started double digging the area, but I tuckered out before planting season came. So I only got about 1/3 finished. I went down 3' with my shovel then added what I have available in the way of Organic Matter.

I am pleased to have two horses (field ornaments) who insist on pooping inside their loafing shed instead of out on their 20 acres of pasture. This is both curse and blessing. I collect their droppings each morning and night and when good weather allows I add it to my compost pile behind the house and yard. By the way, my steamin' heap does not stink.

I have 50 chickens who have been making plenty of deposits in the hen house this winter for my use this coming year. Another curse/blessing. "The girls" are day rangers who do their doo doo outside during the days of spring, summer and fall. This winter they stay inside watching the soaps, eating "corn dogs" and knitting baby chick booties (I think)

I am planning to create a new flower border along the picket fence which confines my dogs.

I'm determined to get this border started this year. Have any of you opinions on the following? I double dig the border (as far as my old bones will allow me) adding my well-rotted horse manure from the compost, as well as "hot" chicken poop. I thought I could put the chicken poop in the bottom of my trench, add some peat moss to separate it from the soil, and then layer shovels of ol' clay and horse manuer to the surface.

I do plan to mulch the border whenever I set out plants or sew seed because we have been experiencing some summer dry spells. I don't know what to use however. Spring and fall are always very wet at times.

Please let me know any of your experiences with hot chicken manure used like this. Or make suggestions as to how I can ammend my soil to get a nice "foundation" started for my perennials.

PS: The fence line is 80' long. UGH. I am not so young and it may take me 8 weeks to dig it up...maybe more. :-(
Thank you all who respond and advise.

I will say, that my old garden, planted on the spot where an old chicken house once stood produced a fine vege and flower garden for several years. That location is now housed in the yard for my dogs as I seem to be spreading outward...in both my personal girth and in garden beds!

I have been gardening Organically for 11 yrs, and have as many questions now as when I started, maybe more.They are different, maybe more "seriuos" or "advanced" but sometimes just something basic I may have forgoten along the way or that pertain to an area of gardening I've never ventured into before.
Pooling knowledge is key, but I have also found that many people start gardening for social reasons, particularly older folks and people in small towns and suburbs. Back fence chit-chat is a big part of a lot of peoples garden experience, and it is good for building "community", both on-line and off.
I am happy for this sight and the many friends i've met, Gardeners all.

I mentioned before about using mychorrizae innoculant. I moistened the seedling mix with the mych. before i planted any seeds. I want to tell you my seedlings have the best root systems I have ever seen. I've been transplanting seedlings for past 10 days whenever i can find time. They all look great.

Also GoVols, I am so glad you told us about those great grooved(???) trays for planting seeds. They work great and it is so easy to get one variety out without disturbing others. Donna