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Ellen, I just finished your book, Eat More Dirt. I totally enjoyed it. You have interesting and novel ways of getting your point across. Some ideas really struck home with me. I have had a garden all my life, (when I say garden it is a vegetable garden) and my folks before me. I used triple 15 chemical fertilizer and sprayed bugs with poison for many years. More recently, at the urging of my wife, we have gone all organic. No chemicals, no spraying poisons. WOW it really works much better than the chemical garden. FYI. I have been using Gardens Alive ( gardensalive.com) organic fertilizers and my plants are so healthy I can hardly believe it. If you haven't you should check them out.
After reading your book I do have several questions I hope that you will answer for me.
First, I know from the book that you are against rototilling but it wasn't clear to me if you are recommending not spading or forking turning over the garden dirt in any way. I have rototllied until I realized it killed my worms, then I dug up the dirt with a garden fork. Should I just leave the dirt as is (not turned over in any way) and spread my compost on top?
Second, do you know any creative ways to control the spider mites in my strawberries?
Thank you for encouraging me to continue and improve my organic garden gardening.
J_______,
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Dear J___,
I'm so glad you enjoyed Eat More Dirt! Thank you so much for letting me know!
I avoid rototilling for the following reasons:
1) The hideous noise;
2) The abominable stench.
3) The use of fossil fuels.
4) The unpleasant, bone-jarring vibration.
5)
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Oops! Accidental early sending...And then a long, unplanned session in
the garden: the rain finally let up.
5) The earthworm massacres.
6) The loss of soil structure, and depletion of organic materials.
7) The inefficient use of time.
I have been experimenting with a new way of dealing with my own garden
beds for the past several years, and I have been having wonderful
success. I have been digging trenches for paths, using the dirt to
make raised beds, then filling the paths with organic material such as
leaves, coffee grounds, and pine needles. Every spring I dig the
lovely, crumbly rich stuff out of the paths, and plunk it on my raised
beds, then smooth it out before planting. of course I also enrich the
beds with my lovely worm compost. Then I fill the paths with organic
matter again. It gets easier to dig the paths every year, and is
definitely much faster and easier than forking up, double-digging or
rototilling the raised beds. It takes me a total of about 8 hours to
completely ready my 30' x 60' warm weather veggie garden for planting,
which I think is pretty fast. The gardens where I have not
implemented this regime are way, way more work.
Ellen
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Thank you so much. Any experience with spider mites in strawberries?
J____,
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J_____,
I try not to turn the soil over if at all possible. The normal soil
structure, with the least decomposed organic material on top,
gradually grading down to more decomposed organic material and
gradually diminshing amounts of organic material as one descends the
soil column, really works best for plants and for holding moisture in
the right places.
Spider mite control in strawberries... Have you tried purchasing and
releasing ladybugs, lacewings, or predatory mites that prey on spider
mites? These insects and other beneficials are available online from
and Green Methods: http://greenmethods.com/shop
I hope this helps!
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Thank you so much for sharing your organic gardening knowledge with me. I am sure it will make a difference in the way I garden and the results I get from my garden.
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Again I would like to thank you for writing the books and tell you that I enjoyed reading it.
J_________
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J______,
Thank you for your enthusiasm! It's wonderful to get feedback!
Ellen
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Ellen, I am calling on your expertise again. Do you reuse your seed planting trays? If so, how do you prepare them to avoid fungus-es, damping off and other nasties?
Thank You,
J__________
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Hi J____,
Yes, we have been using and reusing the same planting trays for years! We don't usually have damping off problems, I'm not quite sure why, perhaps it's because we start adding a bit of worm juice to the watering can after the seedlings have developed their first real leaves.
However, if you do have damping off problems, you could certainly disinfect your trays after washing them thoroughly and letting them dry, by spraying them with white distilled vinegar, and then with hydrogen peroxide. (Two separate bottles, and the peroxide bottle must be dark and opaque, in order to prevent the hydrogen peroxide from degrading and turning into plain water!)
I hope this helps!
Ellen
