Dr. Elaine Ingham from Rodale Institute

I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Elaine Ingham's soil biology classes at Rodale Institute last spring.  If you have the time to listen, this is an interview that she did on Sunday.  The interview was the first half hour of the show, it is approx. 30 minutes long.

http://www.kgnu.org/tributaries/5/12/2013

The point that she kept emphasizing during the classes is that our soils contain everything that a plant needs to grow.  We don't need to be adding any extra minerals, etc. to our soil for plant growth.  The microbes will mine every mineral that a plant needs and give it to the plant in the exact quantities that the plant needs. We need the microbes not the additives but chemical companies want us to be dependent on their products.  Without the soil microbes present in our soil, we are dependent on their products.  We don't have to be.

Simple Tips for Better Garden Soil

Here is a great article from Mother Earth News to help with making great soil to grow great plants.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Better-Garden-Soil.aspx#axzz2RenwehnJ

The advantage of using vermicompost and vermicompost tea is the diversity of microorganisms that are present in it consistently.  The worms bins develop a balanced community of the necessary organisms that can be added to your soil food web to help it become all that it should be.

Gardener's Day at Zwingli Church

Just a reminder that I will be at the Gardener's Day at Zwingli Church in Souderton on Sat., April 27.  Here is the link -

http://www.zwingli.org/gday.php

April in the Garden

The weather is still on the cool side.  We had 33 degrees this morning.  I have still been using the row covers on cold nights but I will leave it off if the temp. stays in the upper 40s. 










I am anxiously waiting to cut some fresh lettuce.
This was Bibb lettuce that I started in Jan. and
transplanted in the garden in March.  I have one
short section that I planted in black plastic to
help warm up the soil.  I hope that I will be able to enjoy some fresh lettuce this week.  I have been spraying the garden with compost tea every 2 weeks.  I didn't start spraying last year until June.  I want to see if there will be any difference.  The lettuce is beautiful and filling out nicely.












Spinach

Swiss chard

Onions




Broccoli with carrots from last fall

Here are some other crops that are in the garden



.



What does a groundhog know anyway?

Six weeks ago Punxsutawney Phil made his prediction - an early spring.











 Here we are six weeks later and this is what my garden looked like this morning.










It has been challenging this year to get an early start in the garden.  I have planted my kale seedlings under the row cover and they are alive but not growing.  I looked at the 10 day forecast and they haven't predicted any days that will be in the 50's.  This is the middle of March.  We should be experiencing some exhilarating spring warmth.  There isn't any logical reason to plant peas or spinach directly in the ground, so I have not. 

I have trays of lettuce ready to go in the ground. I have been hardening them off every day outside for the past week. I have put black plastic on the ground and covered the row. I just can't make myself plant them when the forecast calls for snow. So I have been harvesting the leaves and enjoying fresh salad greens.

 

 

Carrots pulled last week from under the row cover
that were planted in September

And since it is St. Patrick's Day here is part of an Irish blessing -

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
... and rains fall soft upon your fields.

Winter Dreams

Anyone who thinks that gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year. For gardening begins in January with the dream. ~Josephine Nuese

Garden plans for this year are slowly taking shape.  The first seeds have been sown and glimmers of new life are always the reality of the dream.

Kale and lettuce sown Jan 17. sprouted Jan 21

 

 I am still picking spinach, lettuce, kale and carrots from under my row cover in the garden.  We are anticipating the coldest temperatures of the winter this week.  I am not doing anything extra to keep the plants under the cover from freezing.  Time will reveal how hardy they are.







(This was written in January and I failed to publish it, oops!)

New Year

Here is a good article from The New York Times.  I met Jack Chambers, Rhonda Sherman and Norm Aracon at a seminar at NC State.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/science/worms-produce-another-kind-of-gold-for-farmers.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130101&_r=0