Backyard soil rejuvenation project

Awesome, thank goodness for fathers :wink:

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Iā€™m 46 and still Daddyā€™s girl! :heart_eyes: #daddysgirl4life :fist:

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Just a side noteā€¦ I love this project! Iā€™ve been pouring over all the outdoor growers threads on here and watching all you organic farmers and it so inspiring! Canā€™t seem to get enough of all the research, farmers almanac, organic gardening, soil websites etc etcā€¦ Iā€™m up until all hours of the night just reading about it. As soon as I watched my very first seed emerge from the dirt, Iā€™ve been hooked. Something about bringing it to life and nurturing it thrills me in a way that Iā€™ve never felt about any hobby. Being outside and in the dirt does amazing things for my depression/anxiety, the sun of course, but also it gets me completely outside of myself and motivates me. My plants donā€™t care if Iā€™m depressed, they want water and attention or they will die. Drags me up at times when I would otherwise retreat into my shell. A little hard work never hurt anybody and Iā€™m gonna have an amazing garden at the end. :seedling::tulip:

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Hereā€™s another option

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You know, they have done studies that show the microbes in the soil are good for depression. Gardening, literally, makes you feel better. :+1::seedling:

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I bought a gorilla cart today. Pulled it out of the box, thinking this is easy to assemble. Donā€™t laugh, but I guess I donā€™t know how to use a wrench. lol so itā€™s still in pieces in the garage. Now Iā€™m sweating my ass off shovel by shovel moving dirt from the soon to be bulb garden to the compost pile. This is gonna take forever or at least until Friday until dad can come by and assemble this thing.

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Did a bunch of digging today, starting with the planters that line the entire yard. Figure I can break up this dirt and throw it over to all the composting holes and such in the veggie patch. The planters are gonna be just flower beds so I can afford to buy some organic topsoil there to fill in the top 4 inches or so. The 20x20 foot veggie plot however has to be the rest of the dirt and soil and organic matter from around the yard and obviously much of that has to cook before itā€™s worthy of spreading around. Iā€™m not sure if planting a cover crop right now even makes sense in there yet as I still need to finish at least turning all the dirt in there which will take a month or two at the rate I can work all by myself. Let me know if Iā€™m wrong, but shouldnā€™t I at least break down at least 4 - 6 inches of the soil and turn it before I throw in a cover crop??

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dunno. :thinking: some covercrop species actually break up soil on their own(radish)ā€¦with big & deep rootsā€¦ not like a mattock though :smile:

:evergreen_tree:

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Yeah, the cover crop will be the last step before letting it rest until spring
Which probably shows up a good three months sooner for you than me. :joy: :sweat: :sob: lol

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Hallelujah, my boyfriend came over and assembled the gorilla cart for me. Heā€™s been sort of a self involved son of a horseā€™s ass lately, so Iā€™m happy he decided to offer up help on his own. Iā€™m not good at asking or nagging so I was just gonna wait for dad. This is gonna make the earth moving much easier! Yay!

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ā€¦next year:

:laughing:

:evergreen_tree:

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Cracking the f**k up! :joy::joy::joy:

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Cuz if Iā€™m gonna be a gardener I needed a cute floppy hat!

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Dug up another 6 feet or so of another planter for bushier flowers. Gonna throw most of this dirt in the compost tmw. How much dirt do you think I should dig up and replace for flowers? A foot? 6 inches? Before I throw some top soil down.


Been working this patch for my flower cutting garden, basically a big bulb gardenā€¦ threw a lot of this dirt in the compost already, maybe another 4 inches off the top here then Iā€™ll throw down new organic bag soilā€¦ Iā€™m thinking this is like 8 or 9 ft

Not only is the veggie patch huge, but I have planters for days tooā€¦ So, I turned the huge holes of compost today as well, I keep watering the hell out of it and the bottom is still pretty dry. Looks are incredibly deceiving too, I thought I was on a solid patch and fell right through about 2 feet. OOPS! Itā€™s pretty airy even though the holes are filled. Good news is there were patches that I turned that have that really good earthy smell now as opposed to just dirt smell or the horrid hot chicken shit stench. Itā€™s pretty much looking like this but for many many feetā€¦

On another noteā€¦ found a shishito pepper plant at Lowes, stuck that in a bucket. Another crap shoot this late in summer. Iā€™m allergic to something in the organic outdoor potting soil though, crazy itchy rash for a few hours every time I work with it. Probably some type of bark they use as I am allergic to quite a few trees.

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honestly, everything looks good except that Bermuda grass. Itā€™s a #%$^&*( to get rid of. roundup works(just lost some karma).

:evergreen_tree:

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I admit every once in awhile, I ask my gardener to spray it in my front rose bush planter. He hates doing it. Probably more cuz that crap is expensive. I hate the idea of it too, but that Effing grass!!! :scream:

I just learned today that I should be making tea out of weeds. It makes perfect sense, they snatch all the nutrients. Why didnā€™t this occur to me before? I had a ā€œDUH!ā€ moment when I read this.

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What color does this look to You? 6.5?

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6.3? Perfect? I hope youā€™re that lucky! :alembic:

:evergreen_tree:

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It looks a bit different nowā€¦

Iā€™m terrible with these charts. What does it look like to yā€™all?

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