The term crop rotation seems like a daunting concept and something that only farmers need to think about. Well I have news for you— if you’re planting things in your yard then that makes you a yard farmer, and crop rotation is something you need to think about if you want a healthy yard! So let’s break down the basics of crop rotation together. First off, what is crop rotation? Simply put, it's planting your tomatoes in a different spot than you did last year. You are rotating the placement of your crops throughout your garden from year to year. Why rotate crops in my garden? By rotating where you place each type of plant, this reduces pathogens and pests in your soil. If a certain pest likes tomatoes, and you plant tomatoes in the exact same spot year after year, eventually that pest will set up shop because you’ve created a consistent place for it to live and thrive. Moving plants around also improves soil structure and nutrient levels. For instance, if you put peppers in the exact same spot year after year, the peppers will eventually drain your soil of the very nutrients they need to live. In a nutshell by rotating where you plant things, you will deal with less pests and diseases and have healthier soil. How do I rotate the crops in my garden? Simple: note what you planted where this year, so that next year you can move things around. Draw a picture of your garden before this season is done, so when you go to plant next spring, you won’t have to guess. It’s helpful to note which biological family each plant belongs to since members of the same family are susceptible to the same pests and diseases. From there, design your garden based on these guidelines:
Finally, not sure how to shake things up? Good Sweet Earth offers a personalized Garden Pro Service. Click here to learn more. As always happy gardening!
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This spring we put two new raised beds in our garden and filled the beds with a mixture of our own Living Worm Compost and a topsoil blend that we purchased from our favorite local supplier. I planted my early crops, weeded and waited. About a week before my pak choi cabbages were ready to harvest I noticed they were not growing as well as they should have been. So being a curious gardener, I investigated, both above and below the ground! In the soil I noticed a small reddish-brown worm-like creature that I had never encountered before. Folks, my lovely topsoil blend that I bought from our favorite local supplier came with its own batch of wireworms! And wireworms, it turns out, are bad news. They eat the roots of plants, attack seedlings, and bore holes into potatoes, radishes, and carrots. I promptly called the local supplier to let them know they sold me tainted soil and asked them for suggestions on ridding my garden of these nasty critters. Unfortunately their only solutions involved chemicals, and lots of them! No thank you! So like any good Master Gardener worth her weight in compost, I did a bit of my own research. I soon discovered that beneficial nematodes would do the trick and clear these things right up. Now, what in the world is a beneficial nematode you ask? Let me explain. Beneficial Nematodes (Steinernema feltiae) are effective killers of any pest that lives in or on the soil, but they’re safe for humans, pets, plants, and earthworms. These amazing microscopic parasites continue working in your soil for 18 months after application. Some of the 230 pests that beneficial nematodes can destroy include wireworms, white grubs, fungus gnats, and black vine weevils…just to name a few. I ended up ordering my nematodes online since the discovery was made on a holiday weekend and I was unable to find them locally. While I waited for my order to arrive I did try an old-time remedy I found online: I cut a potato in half and stuck a stake in it then buried it in the soil. The wireworms were attracted to the potato and ultimately left my plants alone while I waited for my beneficial nematodes to arrive. (In my opinion, the potato trick was a nice temporary fix, but would not have saved my garden; the beneficial nematodes were absolutely necessary to fix the problem. However, seeing that potato draw in the wireworms did help me feel like I was being proactive while I waited for my nematode delivery.) Like all organic remedies the beneficial nematodes took a few days to work, and I will have to apply them again next season just to be sure I don’t see wireworms again. But that’s a small price to pay for a pest-free, and chemical-free, garden. -Corey Veldheer, Certified Master Gardener and owner of Good Sweet Earth Before we put anything into our own garden, we research it. We find out what each ingredient is for, we learn about how it's produced and we look to see if there are local sources we can use. So we thought it would be a good idea for our customers (and potential customers) to know what goes into a batch of our Living Worm Compost (which is found at the foundation of all of our products and services). So here it is: First we've got tens of thousands of hungry red wiggler worms, kept at a comfortable 60-80 degrees year-round. They're compost worms, not nightcrawlers or earthworms, although you'll often see other little critters in our compost bins, helping out-- roly-polies, beetles, pot worms, etc. They're all great, they're all welcome. We feed them a wide variety of locally-sourced produce, organic coconut coir, shredded newsprint, finely crushed egg shells, coffee grounds, alfalfa meal and occasionally oatmeal. Now ask yourself: Is there anything on that short list you wouldn't want sitting on your kitchen table? Probably not, and that's the way we like it. Everything we use is "house safe." Some worm farmers feed their livestock a mixture of animal manure and chicken feed. Those are fine things, but they don't offer the nutritional variety we look for when we produce our vermicompost, and they don't meet our strict "house safe" standards.. Now here's how the composting process works with worms: When worms eat, they break down the food, but their digestive process leaves behind a lot of the nutrients found in the produce they eat. That means their compost will still contain some of the potassium from the bananas, iron from the spinach, etc. And that's good news for your soil! So without further ado, here's a list of produce we've fed our worms recently, helping to create some of the richest, most nutrient-dense vermicompost you'll ever use:
So, yes, we're very particular about the stuff our worms eat-- mainly because the end product will eventually end up in gardens growing food that our family and friends will eat, as well as growing food that our customers will eat. These things matter to us. If you're interested in buying some of our Living Worm Compost for your own garden, flowers or ornamentals, click here. When we moved into our Zeeland Township property last year, our lawn was in need of a little restoration. To be honest, some spots were in need of a lot. The thing with going organic in your yard, there are no quick fixes; it's always a process. But without chemicals lurking beneath your feet, it's always worth it. One of the things we did was to overseed a few areas last fall that were largely bare and rapidly taken over by big, nasty, hairy, thorny, weedy plants. We spent a better part of the summer pulling those things, and then in late August we threw a seed blend down in order to begin the restoration of that part of our lawn. And now this spring, this section of the yard is thick, lush, deep green and healthy. Those nasty plants that were sprouting up in the bare spots last year? Gone. Now we've got a nice healthy blend of grasses...plus a hefty dose of clover. And you know what? We put put those little clovers there on purpose. Yep, our seed blend was about a third Dutch white clover seed. And no, we're not crazy. Clover is an amazing ground cover! Plus, it pulls nitrogen out of the air and deposits it into your soil-- it fertilizes itself and the rest of your turf! Honestly, a weed is only a plant you don't want. And clover is only unwanted because the chemical industry has told us we should get rid of it. But this little ground cover should be a welcome addition to any healthy, beautiful lawn. Rodale's Organic Life magazine published a story last year which talks about both the aesthetic and scientific benefits of clover in your lawn. Here's an excerpt: The secret to having a great lawn without using harsh chemicals? It's Dutch clover. For the past 50 years, clover has been considered a noxious lawn weed, but before that it was an important component in fine lawns—and for good reason. Clover is drought-tolerant, virtually immune to diseases, and distasteful to common turf insects. And it generates its own food by fixing nitrogen in the soil. So how did this lawn superstar get such a bad rap? Blame the broadleaf herbicides introduced after World War II. Used to kill weeds such as dandelions and plantains, the chemicals also destroyed the clover that was used in many lawn mixes of the time (leaving ugly bare patches in their wake). Today, virtually all seed companies omit clover from their mixes. But that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the advantages of this great green. Eliminating herbicides from your lawn regime is incredibly easy. And once you do it, most clover you introduce into your back yard will thrive. Here's where to start: Kick The Fertilizer Habit If your lawn is already in decent shape—no big bare patches, less than 20 percent weeds—you can make it organic without adding any new clover or grasses. Conversion is not so much what you do as what you stop doing. In other words, throw out your [chemical] fertilizer... Add Clover + Other Grasses If you're lucky, you already have some clover in your lawn. If not, it's easy to add it by overseeding, or planting on top of what's already there. In spring or autumn, rough up the surface of the lawn with a metal garden rake. Mix the clover seed with sand or finely screened compost to ensure even distribution. Sow two ounces of clover seed per 1,000 square feet for a moderate clover cover, or up to eight ounces if you want the clover to dominate the turf. After sowing, water your lawn deeply and keep the soil surface moist until the clover germinates. The result will be a soft, cushy, deep-green lawn that stays lush through spring, summer, and fall. If you live in west Michigan and you'd like to kick chemical habit with your lawn, get in touch with Good Sweet Earth's turf guy, Steve Veldheer at Steve@GoodSweetEarth.com. We can fertilize your lawn without one drop of chemicals-- check out our lawn fertilization service. Let's get the chemical industry out of our yards and go back to doing it the way nature intended! “To be a successful farmer one must first know the nature of the soil.” -Xenophon (430-354 BC); historian, soldier, philosopher. “The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.” -Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945); president. “The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.” -Wendell Berry (1934- ); writer, activist, academic and farmer. “If I wanted to have a happy garden, I must ally myself with my soil; study and help it to the utmost, untiringly. Always, the soil must come first.” -Marion Cran (1879-1942); first female gardening radio broadcaster, author. “The thin layer of soil covering the earth’s surface represents the difference between survival and extinction for most terrestrial life.” -John W. Doran (1945- ); University of Nebraska agronomy professor, author. “Soil is the last necessary thing. With air and water, a person can live 30 days; add but a comely pile of dirt and life expectancy expands a thousand times.” -Justin Isherwood (1946- ); fifth-generation Wisconsin farmer, author. “You can’t chemical your way out of soil infertility” – Joel Salatin (1957- ); holistic organic farmer, author, lecturer. “If you think organic food is expensive, have you priced cancer lately?” -Joel Salatin. “Each soil has had its own history. Like a river, a mountain, a forest, or any natural thing, its present condition is due to the influences of many things and events of the past.” – Charles Kellogg (1868-1949); Vaudeville performer, naturalist. “We abuse [soil] because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see [soil] as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” -Aldo Leopold (1887-1948); author, scientist, ecologist, forester, environmentalist, University of Wisconsin agricultural economics professor. |