The other day I wandered over to my neighbors garden to see how their vegetable beds were doing and HOLY CANOLIES people, what a difference some really, really good compost can make.
Earlier in the spring I called around for prices on compost and was shocked some companies were selling it for upwards of $50 – $72 a yard delivered. I couldn’t believe it.
Yada yada yada… I ended up ordering from a local place that sold it for $23 a yard {or was it $25? I don’t remember}. Granted, the compost {50% loam 50% shellfish compost} had a few more crushed shells in it that I had hoped for, but at $23 a yard, the price seemed in line with what I had previously paid for compost back in Western Washington.
So when my neighbors mentioned they were placing an order for the $50 a yard compost I just shook my head. I just couldn’t believe someone would be willing to pay $250 for 5 yards of garden soil.
Well, the joke was on me because their garden, the one with the super jacked up compost, is WAY ahead of mine. My neighbor’s plants not only look healthier, but size wise they’re much larger as well.
Over the winter my neighbors offered me the use of their greenhouse, so when I started my seeds back in February and March, I planted double the amount I normally would so I’d be able to share.
Since we were both starting fresh this year with brand spankin’ new garden boxes, neither of us had the luxury of time to build up the soil for the garden boxes ourselves. We both had to buy soil this year. And well, since we both started with the same seedlings, the reason their plants are looking better than ours are 100% soil related.
Gaaa! I guess this means I’ll need to plant cover crops this fall and amend the soil so that I am starting off with better soil in my garden boxes next year. Has anyone tried using seaweed before? I might give it a try.
It’s not only the plants in the garden that are doing extraordinarily well, the plants in their greenhouse are on fire too! {The picture above is kale growing in an old recycle bin}.
Got kitties? Save those buckets!! Check out the plants they have in their greenhouse right now.
The leaves on the pole beans are HUGE!
They even have cucumbers growing in buckets… Can you believe it?
And last but not least… the tomatoes in the greenhouse are about DOUBLE the size as the ones out in the garden thanks to all the heat. I said I wasn’t going to get one… but I don’t know now, after seeing how well the neighbors plants are doing in their greenhouse, I may have to get a greenhouse of my own. A big one. A really, really BIG greenhouse.
Gardening, it rocks. There’s always something new to learn. š
Stay awesome everyone, and have a great Wednesday,
~Mavis
Jeanine says
My question is…do you use any fertilizer such as fish emotion or miracle grow? Or maybe cows manure? My sister-in-law has used seaweed and it seems to do well. She lives in British Columbia and has more sun than I do and that may help as well. Also, gophers, deer, mice, squirrels can be a problem. I have to make gopher baskets out of small chicken wire (far less expensive than buying those baskets from the garden shops) to keep the gophers from eating the roots. We have a double fence around our garden to keep the deer out. It can be a challenge. Since the Covid19 hit this year, I have been spending everyday out with sun hat, gloves, and a long sleeve shirt on, and it get hot and exhausting, but the reward is satisfying. Early mornings and after dinner is the best time for me. I am a rug hooker, stained glass artist, among other hobbies. But this year itās all garden. You have spurred me on and Iām no spring chick…71 years young. Thanks for all the encouragement from your blog! I may be giving all the zucchini away this year!
Tracey says
I also second fish emulsion. You can get a good sized gallon container on Amazon and dilute, They sell it everywhere: Home Depot, Walmart etc.
Deborah says
Jeanine, you give me hope. Iām 68 years young. Iāve been wanting a garden for the last several years. Hubby isnāt well, so he canāt do the tilling. Therefore, container gardening is what I going to have to do. Iād love some raised beds, too. Maybe one day Iāll be able to get some.
Diane says
Look up āno-digā YouTube videos by Charles Dowding. He makes garden beds right on top of weedy pastures by putting cardboard down first and then a load of compost over it. You might need help spreading the compost, but no digging or tilling! He has such a gentle way of speaking and itās very relaxing to listen to him. Iām trying for first time with bags of Black Kow since I garden on steep terraces.
Lace Faerie says
I recommend Charles Dowding, too! We are trying his seed thickly, prick out before true leaves come out, plant deeply, use his clumps of plants and harvest by twisting out so the others can grown larger. Makes sense, I seem to remember reading that seedlings grow faster when in groups as if they seem to know they are completing for nutrients.
I am also starting his no dig/no till methods. I bought a leaf blower specifically for vacuuming up leaves to layer onto my raised methods come this fall!
Lana says
I also recommend fish emulsion. Man that stuff stinks but it is a real miracle for veggie plants.
We have a 20 year old compost pile and I am glad to know how valuable it is since it does take work.
Carole Parker says
I have to agree with the good compost, but we make our own, Made a HUGE difference this year. I too want a greenhouse, so if you get one I hope you write about it. I have never had one before so I would really like to hear about how you decide on what to get.
Kim says
Ask your neighbor for a few handfuls of their compost and make compost tea! That will boost your plants.
Mrs. C. says
Straight seaweed is really high in salt, so you would probably have to soak it which will be extremely stinky as it breaks down. Easier to plant clover and till it in. Also, check out Deep South Homestead, Living Traditions, and Roots and Refuge on YouTube- all of them set up high tunnels (a type of greenhouse) and are very pleased with the results.
Jennifer says
Your price for soil killed our price for mulch, if you can believe it. But, like my dh loves to say, “If you want to play, you gotta pay”. My question is: with hindsight being 20/20, do you wish you had made a different choice on the level of soil you ended up buying?
Misty says
I planted tomatoes in buckets for the first time this year. They take up so much space in my raised beds that I thought I would try growing them in containers trellised to the fence around my vegetable garden. I was also hoping to avoid any soil-borne diseases that tend to happen here later in the season no matter how hard I try to prevent them. I do have a greenhouse, which is empty at the moment, so I might try growing a few inside to compare the difference. I was a bit worried about aphids or spider mites taking advantage of the conditions inside; did you ever have problems with pests inside your greenhouse in Washington, Mavis?
Mrs. C. says
They sell sticky traps for greenhouses.
Tracey says
I use seaweed as mulch and turn it over into the garden at the end of the season. The garden just exploded once we began this ritual. First year I was advised to wash the seaweed before laying it on the raise beds. Subsequent years we Abandoned that and it didnāt make one bit of difference. It is like gold! Free gold!
Mrs. C. says
Wow, thatās good to know!
Melissa says
Thank you so much!! We live in SoCal and I’ve been bringing home a gallon baggie of seaweed every week from our weekly beach trip. The Hubs is somewhat interested. We have a large established compost pile but I’m going to use your system.
Deborah says
Love your gardening posts! We havenāt gotten a garden started this year, but, I do have some large buckets, and seeds for next year. We need some soil for the buckets. They are about 10 gallon buckets. I still have some holes to put in some of them for drainage. I want some raised beds, but not happening this year. I love fresh veggies. We have a good spot for gardening, but, itās so wet. We havenāt even been able to mow it. We had it fenced off, but Iām ready to take the fence down and just mow it.
Kay says
We grow our all of our vegetables in buckets…we use to grow 10 acres of food on an acre of land hydroponically… we also used old guard rails (flipped over) to grow herbs, onions and garlic… right now we grow all of our vegetables in buckets …and we grow our herbs in containers that were either given to us …or I bought… for cheap.. at garage sales…. Check out Alaska Grow Buckets…itās a self watering grow system… heās a gentleman who lives in Wasilla, Alaska (We use to use his system) now my husband drills 6 holes in the bottom of the buckets and fills them with his own organic soil… that he mixes…. Iām blessed my husband was raised on a large farm in the Pacific Northwest (Washington state) ā …we now live on a barrier island in north Florida… I inherited all of my mothers hand written notes about vegetable and herb gardening…. (recipes) along with her gardening books… and all her notes about homemade herbal remedies… that her and my grandmother used…. thanks for posting about Grow Buckets… itās a very easy system for growing vegetables
KC says
Having a greenhouse in Maine would make a lot of sense, given the length of the winter! Extend the growing system on two sides – although to extend it *very* far you’d need heating mats, etc.
That said, your yard there is not very large, so I’m not quite sure where you’d put a greenhouse.
(also, that’s bad news for me; I always go for the cheapest compost and manure. Sigh.)
Daria says
Seaweed is great, I do rinse it first but it adds so much to your soil. I also second the suggestion for fish emulsion or other foliar feeding – it will give your plants a good boost.
Mel says
I second fish emulsion and compost tea. We mostly use fish emulsion when plants are young (or continuously for things like lettuce) and compost tea pretty much whenever. But, our plants are behind compared to this time last year because it was so cold for so long that everything went in the ground at least a week late. Also, my pepper seedlings have really struggled, so I ordered some extras to supplement what I started from seed, and I’ve had to reseed both beans and cucumbers. We are also dealing with flea beetles, bean beetles, and aphids. So, it’s just an off year so far.
Diane says
Didnāt your yard have a big compost bin in the back when moved in? At least you have plenty of room to make your own compost for next year. I would just love a big yard like yours! I have yard envy! š
Linda Practical Parsimony says
If you use fish emulsion, raccoons you did not know you had around will come and dig up the whole garden looking for the fish. I wish I had a greenhouse.
Tracey says
Thats sometimes true, even when the raised beds are fenced, but I am in the practice of putting out mouse traps randomly to surprise these little critters. Seems to work!
Marie says
Seaweed rocks!!! Check ur local city/state ordinances for a gathering permit. Mine was $5.
Pat says
Mavis, your friend in Tasmania, Lisa, uses sea weed all the time. It sounds like she mulches heavily with it. You might ask her about it. Sounds like she has been doing it for years!
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks for the reminder! I will have to email her.
Diane says
Oh how I would love a greenhouse. This was my first year gardening in Maine, and I put things into the raised beds too soon–I think until the soil warms up, they just sit there, and are bug and slug targets. I had to reseed some things, but once the soil warmed up, things got going. My tomatoes, which I planted under black plastic have done well, and curiously, I had planted 3 rows of beets next to this section of tomatoes in a 10 ft raised bed. The strip of beets right next to the black plastic is 3 times the size of the next row over. So next year, I won’t be in such a hurry to plant. But I am never happier than when dinking around with plants, so I would really love a greenhouse. So I will follow you closely to see what you do in that regard!
SUZANNE says
Hi all, For those of you just learning about gardening; I wanted to let you know that the very “bones of any garden” are in the soil that the plants grow in. This is true for raised beds, containers as well as in ground. I learned that the hard way many, many years ago while helping my mom. I was the only child in the family that liked to garden and my mom and I bonded over gardening. Now, I’m 82, and still gardening. Since I’m currently renting, I can only garden in containers. It has been very interesting, living in Texas where the summers are “hot as H___” which affects everything you try to grow due to the heat, relentless sun and humidity. Of course, this affects the humans too!
If there is anyway that it is possible to start working on a compost pile now please do so and your garden will thank you next year. There is something else that I would like to pass on, If you are not using “worm casting” and “coffee grounds” in your soil preparation and in your routine fertilization plan, You need to think seriously about doing so. Those two things will make all the difference in the world to your plants. They will love it.
Happy Gardening.
Dianna says
Yes to worm castings! I started a worm bin this spring (during the Covid quarantine) and those little worms are making some amazing “black gold” with my kitchen scraps. Wish I’d started long ago!
Dianna says
I used to use fish emulsion as a foliar spray but started using Spray N Grow a few years ago. It doesn’t have that fish smell, but works similar magic on plants. I recently ordered a new batch for this season and already seeing results. My husband has promised to build me a greenhouse once we move this summer — I love those DIY designs that use old windows and other repurposed materials.
Have you tried container gardening in Earthboxes? I’m obsessed with mine. We’ve been trying to buy a couple more each year to add to my collection, but this year I found a used one on FB Marketplace for $10 so I was thrilled!
Claudia says
Seaweed is a great fertilizer. Being that I live on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada I have all the seaweed I want, so we make seaweed tea. Just fill a large plastic garbage container with some seaweed and add water to make tea, it’s pretty stinky so keep the lid on at all times. This year I am experimenting with straw, compost, and worm castings. Even though we’ve had cool weather and lots of rain most things are growing well. If we didn’t have slugs and earwigs I would be very happy. I also have made tea from the compost and from the worm castings. In my holes for my tomatoes I put a couple of handfuls of compost, worm castings, egg shells and some coffee grounds. People say it makes all the difference so I’m giving it a try.
Kate says
Have you heard of Eliot Coleman? He’s the author of several books and has a farm in Harborside, Maine. His books talk a lot about compost and growing in the off season. They have a lot of information for backyard gardens even though they are focused on market gardening. Plus, they have a farm stand you could visit. It’s on my bucket list.
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes! We visited the farm back in 2013. š It was lovely. https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/four-seasons-farm-eliot-coleman-barbara-damrosch/
PollyS says
Look at their huge greenhouse!