making better garden soil

[Rustyinfla]

   I'm on a mail list for organic gardeners in my area and someone suggested a solution for building better soil I'd never thought of before. The poster spreads dry dog food out on his garden spot and digs it in. If you're using a tiller you could also till it in with that. The food breaks down really fast and leaves ton of nutrients behind. Better soil means better plants.

[bilmac]

Anything organic that you add to the soil will improve it, but adding dog food on anything but a tiny scale would be prohibitively expensive. Try to get stuff for free. Moldy hay, grass clippings, waste alfa alfa pellets, even shredded newspaper. Things like that all improve you soil. If you are going to spend money it is probably best spent on chemical fertilizer where you get more bang for your buck. I wouldn't depend entirely on chemical fertilizer because it does nothing to improve your soil's tilth, but it can help to keep your soil high in the nutrients that your plants remove.

It's kind of analogeous to the idea of folks taking vitimines. Sure quality real food is the best way to stay healthy, the vitimines are just a little added insurance that nothing is lacking.

[iiranger]

As long as money is no object, this will work o.k. But it is expensive. Very. Dog food is formulated to contain at least 29 nutrients (government mandate, your dog is protected from diabetes, not your kid, unless the kid eats dogfood...) and fiber and will break down... Then there is the question of small animals that will eat dog food digging and tearing things up... Possums. Cats. Foxes. Dogs (ya think).  Other ways more complete and cheaper...

Far better find the high MIX of mineral source... bone meal is one, green sand, etc. and work that in and cover it with a cover crop noted for lots of roots to take up, digest, hold, and release with breakdown the nutrients.

If you can get manure from free range chickens. Bugs from the bug zapper. Fish waste. Ocean fish waste is better. Sea weed. Grape/vineyard waste. Obviously this was the process known, pre WW II and modern "fertilizers" as compost/composting. In the better run operation things were added to the "manure pile." Then, after digestion, the "manure" was spread.

The problem with modern ag is that the farmer is paid for volume, NOT quality. Yes, the plants do "o.k." with 3 nutrients, N, P, K... the rest... ignored. The "eaters" need more than the 3, don't get it and modern medicine does "well" for itself... as in "big profits."

If you doubt, you can visit John Emord's web site. Attorney Emord has been suing the feds for permission to TELL THE TRUTH about nutrition and health. First Amendment issue. Winning so far. Decisions posted under "legal events." The one on omega 3 oils and heart health was there last I looked...(and the names of the litigants who paid for the suing...) The "doctors" have us under their "heel" and are "grinding" to their profit, big profit...

[Rustyinfla]

  Do you have his website?

   I did a search on his name and nothing came up that looked like it might be his. It was all white pages and news links.

  Thanks,

[patw]

If you want something cheap, get horse poop.  We have a pile of horse poop where we also use as a compost pile.  Last year we had a melon plant grow out of it that looked better than anything I had planted.  So... this year I built a planter, filled it with pure horse doo, and planted away.  Everyone told me that there would be too much nitrogen, that it would burn the plants.  Apparently no one told the plants.  The plants are about twice the size of my wife's garden which was planted the usual way.  BTW, the manure was from the last ten months, and I did not pay attention to what was fresh or what was old.  Here is a picture of my horse s#!t garden.

[Blue Duck]

I use rabbit manure.  I have a neighbor who raises rabbits and I can get all I want for free.  The garden loves it and you can't beat the price.....

[rex6666]

Patw
you will also have earth worms in and under that bed all winter when they
can't be found elsewhere, to use in that water hole in the background.

[Drilling Man]

  The best way i've found to build up my soil, is to mulch in my gardens HEAVY every year.  This is my front garden,



  I rotary cut my deer "food plots" to get the mulch, and move it into my gardens "loose".  I've been doing this for years and years, it works perfectly!

  I don't use chemical ferts, my gardens use less water, and there's NO weeding!!

  DM

[hillbill]

drilling man, whats your winter garden look like? do yu plant a cover crop or keep it tilled or what?jus pikin yur brain!thanks ! wade

[Drilling Man]

drilling man, whats your winter garden look like? do yu plant a cover crop or keep it tilled or what?jus pikin yur brain!thanks ! wade

  I chop everything down after the garden freezes down, and then till it once.  Here's how the front garden looks ready for winter,



  If i had any kind of bug problem at all durning the grow season, i wait until just before the ground freezes before i till it.  The tilling brings the bugs to the surface when it's cold out, and "hopefully" what ever gets by the tiller, will winter kill.

  DM

[hillbill]

thats bout what i do with mine. i do get kinda antsy and till it occasionally sum more on warm days dureing the winter.i still got green beans, taters and turnips produceing now so it mite be a lil bit afore i put it down for the winter.

[Drilling Man]

  A tiller can be your friend or your enemy, depending on how much you use it.  Most folks over use their tillers, and destroy the structure of their soil.  Leave your garden alone in the winter, and let the weather break down the soil.  Don't till more than necessary in the spring, and in the end you will have better soil.

  DM

[charles p]

I have a raised bed garden and a compost tumbler.  I add hay to the garden as mulch and all our vegi scraps go in the tumbler as well as a little hay.  It is amazing that the tumbler can be almost full (about 40 gal.) and two week later be down to less than 1/4 full - but very heavy.  Takes a log of scrap to make a very little soil in a tumbler.

[greg916]

Ive got pretty poor soil. A friend, who makes a living selling plants also recomends horse manure.