David Wall/Contributing Writer
I start to get antsy every January, wanting to have everything for my gardens ready and in place for the soon-to-be growing season, onions excepted, which were put in the ground I mid-late January. One of the biggest items every year is the soil. Have I improved it from last season without resorting to tilling? Is there enough food for the vegetables to use in growth and producing?
During the January/February time each year, for the last several years, I drive some 45 miles to a compost manufacturer and purchase, depending on my needs, anywhere from 1-7 cubic yards of high-quality compost with a pH of 5.5-6.5. The pH is critical, because compost can have a pH of up to 8.5, which won’t do your vegetables much good!
There are three home gardens (11 X2 3, 9 X 17, & 38 X 4) that welcome the compost. Depending on how much the underlying firewood, leaves, mulch and compost were used last season, 2-4” of new compost will be added, with 2” being the minimum.
Putting 2” of new compost provides several accomplishments. First, it provides a top cover that simply lays there undisturbed. There’s no telling how many weed seeds got into your garden last fell, and this top covering will help them to not germinate.
Now, when spring rains filter through this layer, they’ll pick up and pass along “food” to lower layers in the garden, thus making the food available to microorganisms who will, in turn, feed it to your vegetables. After a couple years, the need for fertilizers becomes less and less. I haven’t used fertilizers in these gardens for several years.
Last season in these gardens, okra was 10’ tall and cayenne peppers were 6’ tall. Both produced heavily, and the same for purple hull peas.