Kitchen garden tour. TOUR DAY!! 9-3. Bring it!! I am ready.

[damummis]

We have a problem. One of my gardens is too fertile. What do I do?

 

[nachoqtpie]

how can you have a garden be too fertile??

 

[damummis]

I think I let the chickens free range in it too long. My fertility meter is pegged past "too fertile". How do I unfertilize?

 

[digitS']

Oy!

Well, peat is essentially sterile. But, your soil is probably acidic and that would add more.

Water flushing is irresponsible and you've gotten all the rain, anyway!

I hate to think of adding other fertilizers to achieve a better balance . . . that just seems too ridiculously American.

Shovel and wheelbarrow 25% of the soil to another location??

Dang !

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

What do you mean by too fertile Damummis? Too hot? Or too fertile for garden veggies?
Could you plant a heavy feeder in there like corn maybe?
How about some sort of cover crop that you could mow down and use in the compost pile? Is this a bed you had planned for specific crops this year?

 

[lesa]

I would plant a few "test" plants. You might find the plants don't read soil tests, and will do just fine. Did you till chicken poop in, or were the chickens just scratching around? With all the rain you have had, I doubt the soil is too hot. If you have some compost laying around, you could mix it in. If it were me, I'd plant it...

 

[damummis]

Well I am going to have to go with my gut. I am thinking pumpkins and winter squash. Let's see what happens.

Steve, that is ECXACTLY what I said when I read the meter. OY!!

UPDATE:

So here is what I did.
Steve- I dug 6 big holes out and filled them with compost.
Thistle- I planted pumpkins and winter squash because they are heavy feeders.
That was on one side. On the other side
Lesa- I planted beans as a test. I figure beans are easy to replant if necessary.

Thank you for the help guys. I am starting to get nervous. The weather is crazy. Plants are not doing well and I am swamped taking care of other peoples gardens to the point of insanity. Today is for me. I have to figure out these challenges. I am smarter than a cave-woman and I can do this. I just need you guys every once an a while to help me think straight.

 

[damummis]

See, I go and edit last post forgetting that it won't show up under "recent post".

*after a cup of tea I make my way out to fight the garden demon*

 

[journey11]

You'll do well with the pumpkins and squash. They're gonna love you for it. I planted my watermelons last summer over a plot of garden that I had penned my broilers on the year before and I got 17 watermelons off of 5 vines and they were all 15+ pounds.

Be sure to post pics for us when you harvest your prize-winners.

 

[damummis]

Well yesterday was a bust. So TODAY is for me.

There is this one street where I work that started with one client. Well that one client has a BIG mouth. DH and I now do everyone on the streets yard and garden except 2 houses and they are not back yet for the summer. Yesterday, we got a call, "Will you come mow and weed my property?" So we went to take a look. Way over grown. I mowed, DH took all the stepping stones out of the garden, we dug up what plants we saw and then tilled the whole thing and ploped the plants back in. We have dug up so many plants, weeded and replanted so many gardens this year. It must be the year of the weeds. The up side to this method is I get the plants that need dividing because there is no room in these gardens.

We also get to get about 6 Rhododendrons because the deer ate them and the client can afford to have them dug up and replanted with new ones. The deer eaten ones are growing back but not fast enough for the client. They want color NOW. The new side yard is going to be the nursery for all these plants, trees and shrubs. YAY!!