garden prep

It's spring and I've been working in the garden. The fact that I am messing in the dirt makes the chickens happy. Every time I push the spade in there is a good possibility they get to eat a worm. It is a happy time of year. It's just so much work to get the garden ready! I've got about half the garden squares good to go, which means I still have half that need a lot of work! I can only put in about one square (16 sq feet) a day. First I pull out all the quack grass that has invaded from last year and then I put in a layer of homemade compost (full of worms), then I put in the ORMI compost, which is a beautiful dark black, but it is mainly made of chipped up wood and grass and doesn't have the worms. That is about it. If I have any other soil add-ons I'll put them in too, but I've sort of run out (I had some granite dust last year and used the last bits of it up early this spring). I use more a lasagna method of adding to the dirt. Other then removing the quack grass I really don't dig much. I have my garden squares set up so no one ever (EVER!) steps in them, so the dirt is pretty fluffy. I'm concerned my garden doesn't have enough biological activity going on in it. I'm still working on improving the soil. If anything I'm probably over doing it.

So am I a good gardener? No, but I keep learning more each year. They always say the best fertilizer for a garden is having the gardener puttering around in it. If that is the criteria then my garden has wonderful fertilizer.

I can tell you a lot of gardening tricks/techniques that DON'T work.