New to growing outside and need help

I have a greenhouse and last year I planted everything in pots and then brought them in for the winter. However, I would love to plant something on each side of my porch where we pulled up some old bushes, roots and all. The soil there is sort of powdery sand/plain dirt and I would like to fix it so that I can plant some flowers there. So, what do I need to do to the soil to get it ready for planting flowers and maybe some EE in? What do I need to add to it?

Thanks for your help,
Jesse

Sorry Jesse for the long wait on your post. Compost, compost, compost, and compost are the 4 things that will improve your soil. So put as much as you can build and put it there. I always top dress my native soils with 10 to 12" of compost and mix it into the old top soil.

This message was edited Mar 20, 2007 5:27 AM

Where do I find compost? I do not have any sort of compost pile.

Jesse

You buy it until your garden gets going. Then you will have plenty. It is the only thing that will help your spot. Best of luck. Steve

So what is the best thing to buy? I see horse manure, cow manure, etc. Could you tell me what is the best thing to buy?
I hate to be such a bother but I'm so new to outdoor gardening.

Jesse

Compost is a combination of carbon (wood, leaves, plant material) and nitrogen (manure, blood meal, alfalfa meal) that has been cooking for a period of time to make soil building material. I would buy "soil starter, soil builder, compost, or any local named product that is a composted material. cow manure,horse manure etc needs to be composted or it could burn your plants.

So I'm guessing that I build a pile out in the corner of my back yard and let it sit. And maybe put a wire fence around it. The only bad thing about that is that we have rats in the field behind us so I would need to make sure they did not get into it. Anyway, when I buy these things, how long do I leave them sitting in the bin before it is ready to be used on my plants? And do you put food of any kind in it? And can you buy compost already made that can go on your plants directly? I do not have a whole lot of room to grow stuff in, just the places on each side of my porch. There rest of my yard has nothing, not even grass. So I'm just mainly concerned with what I'm going to grow next to my porch on each side. So since I don't need a whole lot, can I buy compost ready to use?

Jesse

rats dont get into compost only if you put meat stuff in it. I have no problem with mine. Buy it ready to use.

Thanks Soferdig. I was hoping that I could buy it ready to use since I have such a little space to work with. But I appreciate you for answering all of my silly question.

Jesse

Look into Durham County's Ag extension through NC State, they may know of towns in your area that collect leaves for compost for gardeners. Their site says finely ground pine needles are used around there. That's one of the better ag extensions in the country, I look at their sites all the time.

http://durham.ces.ncsu.edu/search/search.php?restrict=durham&q=compost&type=Local

Most cities and small town have compost sites. I "found" ours in Kalispell and "used" some of it for my early garden. Don't tell the city mothers and fathers. Compost is everywhere there is plant. Look and be aware and you can find it in the natural everywhere. I have visited farms, cleaned up broken bales off the side of the highway, gone to dairy farmers and recieved old silage, collected mint after extract and composted it, and yes borrowed from the huge pile that will never be used in our town of leaf debris that is years old and full of worms. Go out in the woods, look under an old decidious tree, find a pile and use it.

BTW: For anyone who lives in the City of Los Angeles -- the city maintains a large composting operation in the Valley, and you can get all the compost you want for free.

If you have a Lowes or Home depot, around you they do sell it bagged to get you started, or you could check this article and go from there, believe me, it works; http://davesgarden.com/articles/view/26/
I started just about the same as you nothing bur terrible soil.
Josephine.

Plantcrazi, I have never run a compost pile and have improved the soil every place I've lived. You can use just about anything if you use it carefully. To get a quick start you should use the bagged stuff and some worms (bless their little hearts) and then just keep adding every year. I started here with just sand. I have always just buried my kitchen waste without smell or bugs. I just dig it down next to a plant and it decomposes just fine. You can use horse and rabbit manure right out of the animals, but at this point in the year just do the quick start thing. Then this fall use your leaves and your neighbors' leaves as mulch (they'll be glad to get rid of their bags of leaves!) and in the spring just dig them in. Good luck!! I know you will have good results.
Diane

Thanks for the idea 1gardengram. I live in a yard that has millions of leaves each year and we bagged them up and threw them all away. I had no idea of using them as compost for this year. I also have 2 huge pine trees and I could use that too. Thanks for telling me about this. I will make a compost pile out of all the leaves and stuff for next year.

Jesse

I use the pinestraw from our trees too, along with the leaves. The leaves decompose faster, but in the spring I just rake off the pinestraw. You could use your pinestraw now as mulch if you want to. It's great stuff and it's free.