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Wha a lovely post! Thank you! I need a mentor like you. Wish I had some mentors around here. I do ask advice of people all of the time, but quick answers to questions like "what can I use to combat whatever it is that is eating my Salvia leafs?" is not really mentoring in the way I need to be mentored. Sadly, I started gardening very late in life, but it is so rewarding. I hope I can attract a lot of honey bees and more birds to the new garden. I also hope I can remain in the new property for enough years to see the garden truly matured.
I call my style "The inattentive gardener."
My property would never win an award for "best in show" because it can look a bit overgrown and unkempt, but I would challenge anyone on my street to a biodiversity contest.
Plenty of others will have very different advice, but I try to live by the rule that "less is more" when it comes to taking out plants and killing critters. The best solution I ever found to those nasty squash bugs was planting a cultivar that the garden ants loved to patrol. I have no clue what, if anything, they got from hanging out on that plant, but no pests attacked it. I suspect any that tried ran into angry ants! Still got big pumpkins from it too.
But yeah, love your soil first. All good things come from taking care of your dirt and the critters who live in it.
Soil building is a real joy in life. I think I enjoy working with the dirt as much as the plants that live in it! ..... < snip > ........ Good luck! Do this for a few years and your new concern will be how to keep from hurting the worms when you spade your garden, or dig up your potatoes!
I have to spread some more love around before I can rep you again but wanted to say I think that entire post is all great advice that many new gardeners would do well to heed.
With regard to not wanting to injure worms when spading the soil a little trick I learned was to get as many as possible of the ones in the area that is going to be dug into to come up to the surface so I can move them out of the way.
I do that by repeatedly thumping the soil all over the given area with the flat of my hand or the back of a garden trowel or a spade before I start digging. Then wait 2 or 3 minutes after thumping and up will come a bunch of the bigger, longer, faster ones to investigate and start crawling across the surface of the soil and I pick them up and move them out of my way. I do not know what it is about the thumping that attracts worms to come to the surface, to completely expose themselves and crawl across the surface of the soil but it works for me so I'm not going to question it. I couldn't ask them why they do it if I wanted to anyway.
I noticed ants will do the same thing if you thump the soil above their nests but I think they have a different reason for swarming up to the surface. They are most likely looking to defend the nest and cause trouble for whatever disturbance is thumping and shaking up their tunnels
...... Sadly, I started gardening very late in life, but it is so rewarding. I hope I can attract a lot of honey bees and more birds to the new garden. I also hope I can remain in the new property for enough years to see the garden truly matured.
Are you still in Texas or did you move to another state further north like you mentioned last spring that you were hoping to do? If you moved, what state did you move to? I ask because you mentioned you thought your soil was dead but it might not be dead. Not all places on the continent have earthworms and all of the known worms in continental North America today are not actually native to the continent. Most species of earthworms that we value for gardening today were brought to North America by immigrant settlers, farmers, and homesteaders and were introduced to areas that were to be cultivated.
Worms have been gradually spreading throughout the continent since then but there are still some places that simply don't have earthworms yet. If you really think your soil is dead or just very deficient you should have it tested to find out what the mineral composition is and also to determine if there are toxins in the soil before you introduce worms to the property.
I have to spread some more love around before I can rep you again but wanted to say I think that entire post is all great advice that many new gardeners would do well to heed.
With regard to not wanting to injure worms when spading the soil a little trick I learned was to get as many as possible of the ones in the area that is going to be dug into to come up to the surface so I can move them out of the way.
I do that by repeatedly thumping the soil all over the given area with the flat of my hand or the back of a garden trowel or a spade before I start digging. Then wait 2 or 3 minutes after thumping and up will come a bunch of the bigger, longer, faster ones to investigate and start crawling across the surface of the soil and I pick them up and move them out of my way. I do not know what it is about the thumping that attracts worms to come to the surface, to completely expose themselves and crawl across the surface of the soil but it works for me so I'm not going to question it. I couldn't ask them why they do it if I wanted to anyway.
I noticed ants will do the same thing if you thump the soil above their nests but I think they have a different reason for swarming up to the surface. They are most likely looking to defend the nest and cause trouble for whatever disturbance is thumping and shaking up their tunnels
.
Maybe they think it is an earthquake?
I want to try this at some point. I always thought you had to dig to find them, but if thumping works, I might just have to cruise the neighbourhood with a torch and a bucket at night.
If you really think your soil is dead or just very deficient you should have it tested to find out what the mineral composition is and also to determine if there are toxins in the soil before you introduce worms to the property.
.
Yes, this is a good idea for several reasons. I definitely want to take a much more systematic approach to the new garden starting from the bottom up with the soil. After all, the soil is arguably the most important thing to address in any garden.
I have to spread some more love around before I can rep you again but wanted to say I think that entire post is all great advice that many new gardeners would do well to heed.
With regard to not wanting to injure worms when spading the soil a little trick I learned was to get as many as possible of the ones in the area that is going to be dug into to come up to the surface so I can move them out of the way.
I do that by repeatedly thumping the soil all over the given area with the flat of my hand or the back of a garden trowel or a spade before I start digging. Then wait 2 or 3 minutes after thumping and up will come a bunch of the bigger, longer, faster ones to investigate and start crawling across the surface of the soil and I pick them up and move them out of my way. I do not know what it is about the thumping that attracts worms to come to the surface, to completely expose themselves and crawl across the surface of the soil but it works for me so I'm not going to question it. I couldn't ask them why they do it if I wanted to anyway.
I noticed ants will do the same thing if you thump the soil above their nests but I think they have a different reason for swarming up to the surface. They are most likely looking to defend the nest and cause trouble for whatever disturbance is thumping and shaking up their tunnels
.
That's one of the reasons why I always started digging with a broad tined fork. The other one is that I don't think that I could have gotten a solid edge into the compacted soil.
Phinney, at least throw your coffee grounds and tea leaves out in the yard.
That's one of the reasons why I always started digging with a broad tined fork. The other one is that I don't think that I could have gotten a solid edge into the compacted soil.
Phinney, at least throw your coffee grounds and tea leaves out in the yard.
I have resolved to do so, Gerania as soon as I can get settled in somewhere. Looking forward to it.
I agree with what Westsideboy (hello fellow Cumberland lover) and Zoisite said.
I tried composting for years trying any and all sorts of methods. I have had the most success digging holes for leftover veggie slushy yucky stuff and building separate compost piles for leaves and grass clippings. All attracted earthworms. I thought hard about spending money on dedicated vermicomposting commercial stuff until I found a bunch of articles on Free Range Catch and Release Vermicomposting. I achieved all of that. For free.
Last edited by ersatz; 10-04-2022 at 09:56 AM..
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