Hardiest Plants for Sick Soil?

[ninnymary]

Are you keeping your seeds moist until they germinate? What about starting seeds indoors and then transplanting? Just a thought.

Mary

 

[Carol Dee]

I would try the daisies. Can't hurt. Will grass grow there? If so, let is grow and set out pots, barrells, etc.... Good Luck.
Lots of members here seem to have luck container gardening.

 

[lesa]

I would make your own compost- not spend money on it... Use your kitchen scrapes, and grass clippings. Do you know anyone with chickens or horses??

 

[catjac1975]

Is there a chance that the raised bed does not have good drainage. It sounds that way.

 

[GardenGeisha]

I do keep the soil moist. I can get seeds to grow in other locations.

Yes, a bit of grass does grow there. Putting pots in the raised bed is a good idea, except the cats might knock them over and then they wouldn't get watered while I'm on vacation.

Someone in another group suggested that the compost I bought might have been tainted with picloram, which is an herbicide used on hay and straw. I checked the contents of the compost bag and it says it does contain "local straw," so I need to call and ask whether picloram is a possibility.

Drainage is a good possibility. We debated whether to retain the plastic liner when building the bed. Several folks said that if you remove the plastic you'll lose all your soil as it ebbs away with rains and watering.

So we poked gazillions, and I mean trillions of gazillions of holes in the plastic liner... I don't have the energy to take all that soil out and remove the plastic liner at this point.

I have wondered why shallow-rooted, cool weather crops do best?

 

[GardenGeisha]

I have chickens, and the compost I bought was from a commercial chicken farm. I do have friends with horses, but I have read scary things about what is in horse manure, such as tetanus. I am growing an experimental garden in the horse manure right now, but, frankly, I'm afraid to eat the crops. I researched what diseases you can get, and it wasn't pretty. I thought tetanus was the scariest.

 

[desertlady]

I dont think I ever heard any one get sick from horse manure tetanus !, Farmers have used them for years including store bought ones, when growing up we used all kinds of manure and our produces tastes great . Maybe someone else may know more than I do !!!

 

[GardenGeisha]

Here is one discussion. I'm glad we don't live in Hawaii and have to worry about leptopspirosis? I had never heard of it before:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/organic/msg0516235216224.html?34

 

[ducks4you]

There are 2 things going on. Your soil has not been amended and therefore, has little bio-diversity to feed your plants. And, it's probably HIGHLY compacted. When gardeners are talking about "no-till" methods of planting, they mean, don't constantly till, put in your seedlings (or seeds) and leave an empty desert around them. If the dirt is literally hard as cement, ONLY the toughest weeds can penetrate it with their roots. Your vegetables have no chance. You must till to start amending your soil. I recommend raised beds bc you don't walk on them, and therefore, your plants can stretch their roots out.
I live on 5 acres of what was once a 50 acre farm, since subdivided. My horses continue to compact their 4 acres of pasture. Before that, one of the previous owners raised young steers, grazed them on the 5 acres surrounding the house and sold them in the fall. ALL of my 5 acres were highly compacted when I bought the property. For my GARDENING I own a good tiller, and I do use it. I also pile up what I clean from my horses from their stalls (they are stalled November-April) and their shelter and use it for my gardening, along with waste from my chickens. In the winter my beds get blanketed with manure and bedding bc it takes about 4 months to begin to break down and I don't want to burn my crops, although roses loves fresh horse manure.
You can bring in your compost and replace your dirt with it. It's a little late for the 2012 gardening season, but you can prepare for next year by composting THIS year.
Get on the phone and find a close-by horse stable. Ask where their manure pile is and locate the oldest debri. Ask them for grain bags, which are almost all plastic now, and volunteer to fill them yourself. You can tape them closed with duct tape and prevent it from spilling in your car. You need to mix THIS with your dirt, but you will get instant compost. Few plants will grow in the manure & bedding straight, but I had a volunteer pumpkin that came up in April from one of MY piles that was on top of last year's pumpkin patch, after I had tilled it.

 

[GardenGeisha]

Ducks4You,

The area of my garden that was tilled before I planted looks terrible. The plants are puny and wilty and just don't grow.

As an experiment, I planted an adjacent patch of veggies in compacted soil that horses trampled in April. I had no hopes for it, but I thought I'd experiment.

Well, the plants in the nicely worked soil are going nowhere, but those in the compacted soil are growing great guns and look just beautiful-- chard, sunflowers, potatoes, peas, beans, lettuces, squash, you name it.

Now, explain that one? Sure was a big surprise to me. I think I'll have prize-winning mammoth sunflowers.