Where to use compost for the best

One of the problems that many organic growers face is not having enough compost for their plot. They are ways to over come this.

One of them is to find out from your local council if they have any and if so can you have some.

Another way is to look about in your local community and see who is likely to have spare compost. Schools, hospitals, Collages ext. (because I live in Oxford I have just managed to get a lorry load of two year old compost from one of the collages) If you really want it you should be able to find it.

Another problem that organic growers have is what to do for the best with the compost that you have. 

What plant will benefit from them the most?

You must have a crop rotation plan in your vegetable garden; at the very least not to grow your potatoes on the same plot for three. That in itself will keep thing moving around.

The loin share of any compost should go to the beds growing any of the following vegetables:

1. Potatoes

2. Brassicas

3. Tomatoes

The above crops will benefit from both the food and increased water-holding capacity that the compost will supply. Onions will also benefit from a dressing of compost if it is available.

Rather then be sparing with you compost because you do not have enough; it really is worth the effect to spend time researching a source of compost outside of your own garden. Many people today do not know the real value of compost to the soil and would be only to willing to let your have it to get it out of their way.

So, spend your time looking after the soil and do a little research.

This is from a cardiologist at UW, Dr James Stein. COVID-19

 update as we start to leave our cocoons. The purpose of this post is to provide a perspective on the intense but expected anxiety so many people are experiencing as they prepare to leave the shelter of their homes. My opinions are not those of my employers and are not meant to invalidate anyone else’s – they simply are my perspective on managing risk.

In March, we did not know much about COVID-19 other than the incredibly scary news reports from overrun hospitals in China, Italy, and other parts of Europe. The media was filled with scary pictures of chest CT scans, personal stories of people who decompensated quickly with shortness of breath, overwhelmed health care systems, and deaths. We heard confusing and widely varying estimates for risk of getting infected and of dying – some estimates were quite high.

Key point #1: The COVID-19 we are facing now is the same disease it was 2 months ago. The “shelter at home” orders were the right step from a public health standpoint to make sure we flattened the curve and didn’t overrun the health care system which would have led to excess preventable deaths. It also bought us time to learn about the disease’s dynamics, preventive measures, and best treatment strategies – and we did. For hospitalized patients, we have learned to avoid early intubation, to use prone ventilation, and that remdesivir probably reduces time to recovery. We have learned how to best use and preserve PPE. We also know that several therapies suggested early on probably don’t do much and may even cause harm (ie, azithromycin, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir). But all of our social distancing did not change the disease. Take home: We flattened the curve and with it our economy and psyches, but the disease itself is still here.

Key point #2: COVID-19 is more deadly than seasonal influenza (about 5-10x so), but not nearly as deadly as Ebola, Rabies, or Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever where 25-90% of people who get infected die. COVID-19’s case fatality rate is about 0.8-1.5% overall, but much higher if you are 60-69 years old (3-4%), 70-79 years old (7-9%), and especially so if you are over 80 years old (CFR 13-17%). It is much lower if you are under 50 years old (<0.6%). The infection fatality rate is about half of these numbers. Take home: COVID-19 is dangerous, but the vast majority of people who get it, survive it. About 15% of people get very ill and could stay ill for a long time. We are going to be dealing with it for a long time.

Key point #3: SARS-CoV-2 is very contagious, but not as contagious as Measles, Mumps, or even certain strains of pandemic Influenza. It is spread by respiratory droplets and aerosols, not food and incidental contact. Take home: social distancing, not touching our faces, and good hand hygiene are the key weapons to stop the spread. Masks could make a difference, too, especially in public places where people congregate. Incidental contact is not really an issue, nor is food.

What does this all mean as we return to work and public life? COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon. It may not go away for a year or two and may not be eradicated for many years, so we have to learn to live with it and do what we can to mitigate (reduce) risk. That means being willing to accept *some* level of risk to live our lives as we desire. I can’t decide that level of risk for you – only you can make that decision. There are few certainties in pandemic risk management other than that fact that some people will die, some people in low risk groups will die, and some people in high risk groups will survive. It’s about probability. 

Here is some guidance – my point of view, not judging yours:

1. People over 60 years old are at higher risk of severe disease – people over 70 years old, even more so. They should be willing to tolerate less risk than people under 50 years old and should be extra careful. Some chronic diseases like heart disease and COPD increase risk, but it is not clear if other diseases like obesity, asthma, immune disorders, etc. increase risk appreciably. It looks like asthma and inflammatory bowel disease might not be as high risk as we thought, but we are not sure - their risks might be too small to pick up, or they might be associated with things that put them at higher risk. 

People over 60-70 years old probably should continue to be very vigilant about limiting exposures if they can. However, not seeing family – especially children and grandchildren – can take a serious emotional toll, so I encourage people to be creative and flexible. For example, in-person visits are not crazy – consider one, especially if you have been isolated and have no symptoms. They are especially safe in the early days after restrictions are lifted in places like Madison or parts of major cities where there is very little community transmission. Families can decide how much mingling they are comfortable with - if they want to hug and eat together, distance together with masks, or just stay apart and continue using video-conferencing and the telephone to stay in contact. If you choose to intermingle, remember to practice good hand hygiene, don’t share plates/forks/spoons/cups, don’t share towels, and don’t sleep together. 

2. Social distancing, not touching your face, and washing/sanitizing your hands are the key prevention interventions. They are vastly more important than anything else you do. Wearing a fabric mask is a good idea in crowded public place like a grocery store or public transportation, but you absolutely must distance, practice good hand hygiene, and don’t touch your face. Wearing gloves is not helpful (the virus does not get in through the skin) and may increase your risk because you likely won’t washing or sanitize your hands when they are on, you will drop things, and touch your face.

3. Be a good citizen. If you think you might be sick, stay home. If you are going to cough or sneeze, turn away from people, block it, and sanitize your hands immediately after.

4. Use common sense. Dial down the anxiety. If you are out taking a walk and someone walks past you, that brief (near) contact is so low risk that it doesn’t make sense to get scared. Smile at them as they approach, turn your head away as they pass, move on. The smile will be more therapeutic than the passing is dangerous. Similarly, if someone bumps into you at the grocery store or reaches past you for a loaf of bread, don’t stress - it is a very low risk encounter, also - as long as they didn’t cough or sneeze in your face (one reason we wear cloth masks in public!).

5. Use common sense, part II. Dial down the obsessiveness. There really is no reason to go crazy sanitizing items that come into your house from outside, like groceries and packages. For it to be a risk, the delivery person would need to be infectious, cough or sneeze some droplets on your package, you touch the droplet, then touch your face, and then it invades your respiratory epithelium. There would need to be enough viral load and the virions would need to survive long enough for you to get infected. It could happen, but it’s pretty unlikely. If you want to have a staging station for 1-2 days before you put things away, sure, no problem. You also can simply wipe things off before they come in to your house - that is fine is fine too. For an isolated family, it makes no sense to obsessively wipe down every surface every day (or several times a day). Door knobs, toilet handles, commonly trafficked light switches could get a wipe off each day, but it takes a lot of time and emotional energy to do all those things and they have marginal benefits. We don’t need to create a sterile operating room-like living space. Compared to keeping your hands out of your mouth, good hand hygiene, and cleaning food before serving it, these behaviors might be more maladaptive than protective. 

6. There are few absolutes, so please get comfortable accepting some calculated risks, otherwise you might be isolating yourself for a really, really long time. Figure out how you can be in public and interact with people without fear. 

We are social creatures. We need each other. We will survive with and because of each other. Social distancing just means that we connect differently. Being afraid makes us contract and shut each other out. I hope we can fill that space created by fear and contraction with meaningful connections and learn to be less afraid of each of other.

When to add compost

People often wonder when is the best time to add compost to they raised beds. Well to make the most of the plant foods that they contain and to reduce the risk of any goodness being washed out and wasted, the compost is best applied to the soil where the plants are or are about to be growing.

On light and medium soils, it is usually possible to do this. When the soil is cold or heavy it may be necessary to apply these materials to some areas in the fall, when conditions are more favorable.

Where plants are in the ground for time, such as onions or cabbage an initial application of compost could be dug in before planning with a top up dressing given as mulch after a few months.

You can always apply materials such as leaf mould and straw whenever the soil conditions allow.

I put compost on my raised beds all the time and whenever I can. The secret is to have enough compost in the first place.

Late Frost.

We have all been caught out, but never so bad as this year. 2020 is the year that three things lined up.

We were all ahead of ourselves. The reason is because of the covid-19 virus and lockdown. We had two much time on our hands, and all looked to the garden for some sanity.

The result of that, a lot of plants were planted a week or two ahead of their time.

We ( here in the UK ) had the hottest April every recorded......so lets go and plant.

Then Bang right in the middle of May we had the hardest frost for 35 years ( for this time of year ) six degrees below. Nothing stood a chance.

We were warned by the weather people and I netted everything and put horticultural   fleece everywhere and apart from sleeping down beside the crops, there was nothing else I could do.

I lost some of my potatoes however they might well spring back, because the frost was not deep in the ground.

My runner beans are all gone and I must replant.

The coquettes lost all their leaves, but the growing tips are still there. It is a question of wait and see.

Beetroot is a wipe out, so must start again.

Strangely, the leaves on my Ginkgo trees all fell off, however it does appear that they are growing again, the same goes for my vine.

They told me it was an ‘air frost”, which makes me ask, what is the different between an air frost and a ground?

Air Frost: The air freezes ( goes below 0 ) up to a height of 1.2 m above the ground.

Ground Frost: is ice at ground level and the harden the frost the deeper it will go into the ground.

Both types will harm soft growth and ground frost can damage roots if it goes too deep.

How To Use Your Compost:

How to use Compost in your garden:

There are two ways of using compost in your raised beds; you can either dig it into the soil or spread as a surface mulch, which will slowly be taken down into the soil by worms and other soil-living creatures. Both of these methods have their disadvantages and advantages. The choice dependens on what is being applied and in what circumstances.

Digging the Compost in:

If you go with digging the compost into the raised bed, you should mix it with the top 20 cm of soil only. The reason is that this is where most of the biological activity goes on.

This means that you should try not to dig too deep, remember that compost is not manure.

Your compost should be in such a state that it is ready to use by your plants right away; unlike animal manure which still needs to be broken down before your crops can use it.

The advantages of digging the compost in are:

Digging mixes materials in with the soil; this gives a quicker overall improvement.

Digging the compost into the soil puts any weed seeds that may be in your compost, below the level of germination. This helps if you sow your seeds into your soild bed.

When you dig your bed, often this will increase the speed at which the organic materials decomposes. But remember that this can be counterproductive if you have light soil where this operation is fast enough already.

The disadvantages of digging the compost in.

When you choose this method, you must wait until the soil conditions are suitable. This is not a good option in a wet winter or on heavy land.

Digging can be hard work

Digging is not suitable for materials that can causes nitrogen robbery.

The alternative to digging the compost in is to spread the materials in a layer over the surface. 

This is sometimes known as mulching. Mulch can have a very good insulating effect on your raised bed and with this in mind, it should be applied to your raised bed when it is warm and thoroughly wet. In other words late summer and give it a good soaking.

If you mulch a cold raised bed it will tend to stay that way. That being said, I find that you have to do what you do when you can.

I put compost onto my raised beds whenever they are empty whatever the time of year. However, I do make sure that the compost that I use is very fine and almost like soil. In the main, this is compost that is two or three years in the making.

I have been doing this for years and never had any trouble of any kind.

The advantages of laying the compost on top of the soil:

A mulch of compost will keep the soil moist.

Mulch will protect the soil surface structure from damage by rain and prevents it drying out.

Mulch is really the only way to apply soil-building and feeding materials to your fruit and shrubs after you have planted them.

Mulching is a very good method of applying materials that might otherwise cause nitrogen robbery of you soil.

Mulching is also very helpful in control weeds.

The disadvantages of applying mulches are:

1. Compost that is full of weed seeds can be a nuisance where you sow your crop seeds. The way round this is to sow you crops in pots/blocks and let the weeds in the compost germinate. Then you hoe them before they get too big and plant you growing crop from the pots. This way you will be ahead of your weeds all the time.

2. Material applied as mulch will take a lot longer to mix through the soil, so its effects will be slower. The way round this is to apply the compost mulch every year; thus, last years compost will be feeding this year’s crop.

Three Reasons To Have An Organin Garden

Below are three reasons why organic gardening can improve your quality of life.

You may insist that there is no reason to spend time learning about growing your own food, because you could buy at the local store anytime that you like. But what you might not know is that the food at your local store might well of come from thousands of miles away; be at least three weeks old and more then likely be grown with many chemically aided additives that it is hardly a vergeterbal and certainly not natural.

If you want a challenge and something that will be enjoyable, why not “grow your own?

Reason 1: It will teach you to not underestimate yourself.

If you do not know anything at all about growing or soil, that does not have to be an issue. You do not have to be skilled to get things done. You will find lots of books and how-to articles on the net about growing that you could study from.

Reason 2: Challenge yourself. If other people can do it, so can you.

This simple saying can truly work wonders for anyone. Never hesitate to do things you do not believe you are capable of doing. You will never know how to grow a carrot if you do not try to. Just think of the others who have done it. If you do some research, you will come across lots of personal success stories from grower enthusiasts.

Reason 3: Here is a way for you to make the most of your free time.

What do you do on your free time? If you are quite busy during weekdays, this does not mean that you will just sit back and chill out all throughout the weekend. Reports show that the more physical activity you get, the healthier you are. You will feel and look younger too.

When you find yourself tired of watching television or going down the pub, it is one way to keep yourself occupied in the winter season. You can master new skills and develop talents that you never thought you had, by creating something useful all by yourself. Just like cooking your own food - it is much more worthwhile and you will get exactly what you would like.

How many hours are you spending time on your PC? What do you surf most of the time? Are you just chatting with friends or browsing not so sensible reports?

You can study about gardening right now on line.

It is not difficult to grow you own veg even if you are a beginner. Yes, it will be a challenge. Think positive and be patient exploring about growing and you will find what you need.

Do not let “ I do not have any land “ be a reason not to start. You can grow carrots in an old bucket…just get out there and do it.

Organic Matter For Your Garden

Organic gardening is about working with nature: If you walk about and see what is going on in the woods and wild lands you will notice that nature does not dig or plough; she employs the earthworm and soil bacteria, together with deep penetrating roots to do her work.

Another thing, that nature does is, supply an automatic and ample application of organic matter which in the process of decay produces organic acids to act upon the soil minerals and so make them capable of absorption by plant roots.

If we fail to follow the example of nature, we will find that the soil in our care has apparently become incapable of providing sufficient good food to sustain our population in health.

Do not burdened the cost of your gardening with chemical fertilizers, but take the wise step of making compost with which to feed your soil.

The earth is the permanent possessor of everything contained in it and which grows on it; they are loaned to the human and animal kingdom for bodily sustenance for the duration of life, but nature decrees that they shall, after use, be returned to the earth.

So, treat the earth in your care with respect and care the way that nature does.

Benefits of Making a Compost Heap:

Benefits of making a compost heap:

The process of composting plant and animal materials is not something that people have invented or made up. This goes on in nature and it happens naturally all the time.

What people who garden have done is, taken the natural process and refined it by making it quicker and productive to suit the needs of the garden.

The first thing to do is to gather all the ingredients together into a heap, rather then just leaving them on the soil where they fall.

The simplest compost heap can be made with no more containment that an old carpet to cover it.

However, many people go to great lengths to make some form of container or bin because it will look neater and be more effect then a loose heap with the result of a better product at the end.

Compost containers can be purchased ready made but it is also quite easy to make one yourself at home

The Benefits of making a compost heap are:

It allows mixing of different organic materials, which will give you better and quicker compost at the end.

The making of a heap will keep the materials moist, which again will speed up the process.

It allows the heat process to build up which will kill the pest and diseases and weeds, the heat will also speed up the process.

Making a proper heap will make your garden look much neater and tidier.