Gardening & Landscaping
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Raised beds - what to add to soil before new crop?
I grow veggies in raised gardens. I had a spring garden using potting soil, mushroom compost, and miracle grow (which I have been told by a few gardener's now to not use). Before planting for summer, I just added more soil. I'll be transplanting kale, collards and brussels sprouts soon. I imagine that I really need to mix some things into the soil before planting again. A friend recommended adding more soil and mixing in 10-10-10 and that's it, but I wanted to see what other people do.
Thanks!
Re: Raised beds - what to add to soil before new crop?
There is nothing better in my opinion than good old fashioned manure.
You can buy this fertilizer in bags at your nursery. I mix it in with the soil and I get great results. That and compost are all I mix into the already existing soil.
If you are short on time- Steer Manure. Mix it into your existing soil (I rake it in) and then water it-basically for a week or more before planting in it. Planting directly into it may burn your plants from the high acid content (mixing it in and watering it ahead of time allows the acid to neutralize a bit).
If you have a month or 2-Chicken Manure. This is extremely acidic and requires multiple weeks to neutralize the acidity. Chicken Manure is a better manure than steer, but it's extremely 'hot'.
In our old house I would plant straight into steer manure that had set out and neutralized for about 3 weeks. I always have the biggest and best veggies in my family. This year we actually are raising chickens and we let them eat the old garden and while they do that they are pooping directly into my garden (which means I can plant directly without delay and get all the benefits of chicken manure). I am a big supporter of composting also-which gives us perfect soil for immediate planting.
It's interesting that everyone is commenting manure here. My neighbor is a master gardener and she told me not to use manure for veggie gardens and fruit plants because the bacteria can make you sick, even if you wash them well before eating. I'm still a novice gardener though and it's possible I misunderstood her, but she also has two bins for the same reason.
I have two compost bins, so I use manure from my neighbor's horse in one for flowers beds and other plants and one manure-free bin for my veggie garden.