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| Is your summer garden a mess? |
This advice from gardening expert, Nathan Ballantine, the Man in Overalls, is a great reference at this time of year as we survey the demise of summer crops and itch to get our fresh new fall crops started, or it works anytime your garden needs refreshing.
How to ReFresh your garden, step by step.
- Via a quick scan of the garden, group what you find there into 3 categories
2) Things that should stay - unless you definitively say otherwise. Think oregano, rosemary, thyme and other perennial herbs.
3) The maybes: Crops that are still producing well but that are a) past their peaks; b) out of season; or c) soon to be out of season and are in the way of replanting. Keep this list short. Anything 80-90% through its crop cycle should probably just go. Exceptions can be made for crops you just can’t bear to part with.
- Clean up: Remove all crops on the “it’s gotta go” list, right away. Don’t think about it. Cut things off at the base with the pruners. Cut off ties (e.g., tomatoes) with the weeding knife. Cut, hack, pull, make piles of debris for hauling off. Be careful around “Things that should stay.” Be minimally careful around maybes. (The clean-out process itself may help you identify which of the “maybes” actually should stay based on which are still in good shape after you clean out the “gotta go’s.”)
- Prune & begin eliminating items on the “maybe list” by removing any crappy/ unproductive branches thereby opening up space/sunlight. If there are multiples of the same variety, start by eliminating the a) crappiest and/or b) the “most in the way” first. Assess the “things that should stay” to see if they could afford to be pruned back (oregano, rosemary are often in this category because they far outpace most families’ appetite.) Note: goal is at least 2/3 of garden opened up for new season’s crops.
- Now that everything’s out of the way, give the garden a thorough weeding.
- Topdress: Apply Magic Dust to the now (mostly empty) garden beds. (Magic Dust is Nathan’s special mix of granite dust, kelp, Azomite and organic fertilizer. An organic fertilizer like Garden Tone and your own amendments would work here. A soil test would give you clues as to what amendments to add.)
- Using the turning fork/broad fork, “lift” or pry-up the garden soil (but don’t turn over) to aerate.
- Add and spread smooth at least 1-2 inches of Magic Mix. (Magic Mix is Nathan’s special compost mix. He has shared the components on his blog. You can mix up something similar yourself. His formula: For every yard of compost add 48 lbs. organic fertilizer, 16 lbs. granite dust, 4 lbs. Azomite, 3.2 lbs. kelp, 2 lbs. worm castings.)
- Now you’re ready to plant new seeds and seedlings. Good luck!
More good advice from Nathan Ballantine “The Man in Overalls” can be found here: http://maninoveralls.blogspot.com/.
Note: How much is a yard of compost? A “yard” refers to a cubic yard which would fill a cube 1 yard or 3 feet wide on each side, or 27 cubic feet. A standard short bed pickup truck will hold approximately 1 yard of compost. If your pickup bed is approximately 6 feet long, 4 1/2 feet wide, and 1 1/2 feet deep, when filled to the top it will hold about 1 yard. A full size large pickup truck will hold about 2.5 yards.
How much compost will you need? Suppose your bed is 4’ x 8’ and you want to add 3 inches of compost. Multiply 4 x 8 x .25 (since 3 inches is one-fourth of a foot) = 8 cubic feet. Divide by 27 since there are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. 8/27 = .296 cubic yards, or about a third of a (cubic) yard of compost. So one yard should top off three 4 x 8 beds with about 3 inches of compost.
Note: How do you mix up that much compost? Lay down a large tarp, put your compost and amendments on it and lift the corners to move the compost back-and-forth until it’s thoroughly mixed. Be careful with using any kind of shovel or fork because it’s easy to cut the tarp. Or mix it half at a time in the same way for easier handling.
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