Organic matter organic matter organic matter.
Can you explain this to me like I don't know what I'm doing? Because I don't know what I'm doing ;)
For sure. Organic matter is the sponge component of the soil. It is any type of plant material that has finished breaking down. Wood chips take longer to break down. Grass clippings are pretty quick.
Before you plant anything, add 2-3 inches of compost or manure to the soil surface. Work it into the upper 4-6inches of your soil. Do this step only once.
Before you plant, add 1 inch more compost over the entire bed. Do this every time you change over the bed.
After your plants come up, spread a very thin layer of mulch over all the bare soil but don't smother your baby plants. You can use dried leaves, manure, compost, straw, grass clippings. The mulch will become a layer of organic matter as it breaks down over the course of the growing season and resting season. Soil bugs etc pull it down into the soil horizons as organic matter. It also helps retain soil moisture. This step is every time you plant something new.
Don't pull out your plants at the end of the season. Cut them off and leave the roots in place to break down into organic matter in the soil. Chop up the material on the surface that you are not eating and spread it out as future topdressing. When you weed, lay the weeds down before they set seed, roots not touching soil, as a green manure mulch to become organic matter on the soil surface.
Ideally you never have bare soil. You plant it or mulch it. And keep feeding the soil organisms that in turn feed your plant roots.
This is soooo helpful. Thank you.
I have been doing literally everything wrong, so now I know what to fix.
@Frugal Lizard Great explanation:) and I am just as fascinated as you about the fungi experiment you mentioned in your other post. Showing that the seedlings, since they do not yet have a strong enough root system to absorb and benefit - do not benefit at all.
I will definitely discuss this with my new garden helper (he is totally into that type of gardening) I've bought some of his plants last year and they are strong and healthy.
@LifeHappens What works for me, zone 9 and 10 in Tampa Bay - FOR VEGGIE GARDENING:
I buy moisture control soil (expensive but worth it) and occasionally the Jungle mix at my favorite garden center. I use very large pots, thick plastic ones that I bought twenty years ago and still look good - I line the bottom with two to four inches of leaves depending on the size to keep the moisture in.
The pots are tall and wide enough to garden comfortably and I can still move the pots if I want to - sometimes near the end of season, I will move them to a shadier spot.
In our climate, it is crucial to always keep the soil covered, whether it is a garden bed or a pot with tomatoes - keep that moisture in. Chop and drop - is a permaculture thing, but unless it is a weed I chop and drop almost everything. I use chopped-up banana leaves and big old elephant ear leaves and palm leaves - mother earth does not like to be naked. In the back of the garden I don't even chop it up, I just lay the banana leaves and palm leaves down to break down naturally.
COMPOST
Of course, by now I've graduated to doing my own kitchen compost and I have plenty of tree leaves to use for mulch on top of all my pots, big or small.
If you keep layering leaves in between the compost there is no smell either.
I also have three huge old compromised planter pots that are near falling apart that I use for my compost.
One compost pot is new and placed next to my planting bench, the other two are kept in the back of the garden.
Once my first pot is full, I pour it into an empty one - layered with five-inch leaves then keep adding and alternating leaves to compost in five-inch layers. Top with leaves, moisten well and let it sit for about two to three months before using.
Voila - very easy and only requires my attention when I set up a new pot (kept moist and covered with a saucer). No rotating a drum and no building anything and I can move it all any time I want.
Whenever I want I just drag the pot where I want to use it or fill up a bucket or two to add to a big window box planter.
I've even used the compost before it was really ready - no digging, spread it on top of a weeded bed and placed palm leaves on top. Worked fine and there was minimal odor for a week or so - worked fine.
100% organic leaves - I no longer buy mulch (partially because I noticed I brought in bugs and diseases into my garden that way and it seemed to leach from the earth instead of protecting it, some even got hot and dried out the earth) I only use the extra pine needles and leaves from two of my neighbors who also garden organically and do not spray.
In our area big pots no less than 14in min or raised garden beds or smart permaculture are your only solution to succeeding with veggies.
HOW I SAVE MONEY AND END UP WITH GOOD SOIL - this year I need only two bags of moisture soil instead of eight or more like when I first started out.
Yes, that moisture soil is ridiculously expensive but every year I need less. Because:
I add my own compost and line the bottom with a layer of leaves that will slowly decay and feed the plant roots. Once the planting season is over I weed the pot and add more leaves on top and set it in a shady area and let it be for several months.
Then
by the time I want to plant again I have worms and the soil is naturally moist, I take out the topsoil about 25% to 30% percent depending on how it looks then I add a mix of compost and moisture soil on top.
The tomatoes are the only crop I will give some extra organic fertilizer or compost during the season.
Everything else - may or may not get a handful of Osmocote or specific fertilizer like for citrus or whatever.
Summer heat is the enemy and as plants mature they often need shade to survive the last two weeks before harvest, like cabbage. Celery can survive all year long if it gets partial shade. So now I have trees and bushes that leaf out in Mar/Apr and give shade to the veggies.
The only other thing I have to do is make sure the pots have saucers and stay moist/mulched or make sure I remove the saucer if too much water is an issue.
Herbs are a different story altogether. Some are super easy and others not so much. Many of my herbs are perennial and while I keep trying I still don't have many perennial veggies.
Hope that helps:).
The only easy things that require minimal care are the papayas, bananas and passionfruit and lots of native, tropical plants and of course palms...
Sweet potatoes are easy too except I keep missing the right time to plant - and so it goes...
Half of my spring planting is done, and the other half will commence mid to end of Feb, the rest is spring garden clean up and maintenance, hopefully ending with a garden party in late April. I will try to get in at least an hour or two here and there but I have an upcoming trip and other priorities that I can't ignore - sigh.
Now that the weather is nice I'd rather be gardening...:).