oh, i'm from there!............. cept I'm not a farmer :P

Hey Chuck I have a question for my garden;

 

Because in my back yard the grass doesn't grow well I can only assume the soil is bad so someone recommended building a box and adding new fertile soil in it and that way grass and/or other plants couldn't try to steal nutrients from my plants. If I do that do I go to Home Depot and get soil for it, something like miracle grow?

Hello Nick!

Grass not growing well could be for several reasons, such as the pH being too far from neutral, or low light levels, but most likely it's the poor soil that's causing poor growth. Creating a space without grass by removing the sod, and encircling it with edging - weed barrier - is a quick way to start a garden, and the soil you've got already is probably fine - it just needs to be improved with yearly amendments of compost and tested for nutrient levels, to see what it needs. You could go to home depot and add some rich soil to it, for a quick start; miracle grow soil brand I'm not familiar with, but if you're aiming to grow organic veggies, it's best to go the compost route. Making compost is simple and reasonably fast, especially in warm Florida! Just take the sod lifted from the garden bed, chop it up with a shovel, and mix it with about an equal part of dead leaves, untreated wood shavings or sawdust, fine bark chips or stump chips, add some soil if you're adding extra grass clippings, pile it up, and water it! Water often, & turn it after a week or so, and in a few weeks, you'll have the finest compost - ideal garden soil!

Most sandy soils drain well, so the nutrients are often washed out of the soil - to replenish the nutrients, simply water with compost tea, and I like to add a little kelp meal to the soil before planting, as it's an excellent source of trace minerals. The biggest shortcoming during the growing season is fixed nitrogen, so adding a weak solution of nitrogen helps growth immensely (dilute urea, dilute fish emulsion, etc.), or side-dress the plants with some cotton seed meal, alfalfa meal, soy bean meal, etc.. If you've fertilized the lawn, it might have plenty of potassium and phosphorous in it already - worth the test to a soil testing lab, or just take it into the county extension. One quick, organic solution for fertilizing is to dilute urine (cow, horse, human, etc.) - use about one quart per 5 gallon pail, and the also provides plenty of moisture. Florida's reputation is the rainy state, but sandy soil is fast to dry out - our's get's parched in just 3 days in the heat, so watering is a must after a few days of sun & heat. Unlike lawn grass, which can go dormant in long dry spells, garden veggies are fussy - water is the key ingredient to success.

Best of success to you, Nick!;)

oh, i'm from there!............. cept I'm not a farmer :P

 

Hello my other fellow North Carolinian! :D

Damn hippies.

:disappointed:

Not you. You're fine. Wait--are you a long-haired hippie friend of Jesus?

:embarassed:

I saw that edit, hippie.

Which edit are we talking about? :rolleyes:

The better of the two.

:dance: :uhoh: :dance:

:dance::uhoh2::dance: FTW!

:sad:

Cheer up, hippie kid.

I need some hippie drugs then.

Have some. They're in your pocket.

*smokes some pot*

Hippies creep me out. One day the went to Harvest Foods and washed their hair at the fresh produce with the little sprinklers :vomit: