Is Gardening Really Worth it?

By Dennis on May 17, 2010

That seems like an odd question to be asking here on a gardening and plant blog.  But I am an accidental gardener and a full-time marketing and communications person. So, ultimately, every question in my career comes down to an ROI, or return on investment, question.  You know, the stuff they teach in Business 101 classes; things like state your goals, make sure they are measurable, blah blah blah.  So, with that as my filter and with summer produce starting to appear in the grocery store at sale prices, I started wondering, “Is all this really worth it?”

First, as a primer, I recommend you check out these web stories.  The first from Purdue University then there is this one from our friends over at MSN.  Both come to this conclusion, it depends.

I must say that I would agree.  Some vegetables, from a purely economic standpoint, just are not worth the time and investment.  Once you account for your time, the equipment necessary, the land that could be used for something else (opportunity cost, thank you Adam Smith), etc., it can be hard to break-even on a modest size garden.  As you move to a larger garden and if you have family members to help you, then you can get some economies of scale but the costs can still be rather high for some fixed inputs like seed.

Here are some things to consider:

  • A good tool is worth it’s cost.  Don’t settle for cheap tools.  Buy quality, Buy Once.  I, myself, have opted to only add to my tool collection a little at a time.  My first year I only bought what I absolutely had to have.  A shovel, hoe, rake, two hand tools, and two garden hoses (later that fall after learning the need for one, I splurged for a wheel-barrow after an unexpected windfall left me with an extra $75 in my pocket.  It was ‘found money’ and i would have used it on Dr. Peppers, or i-tunes anyway…I figured this was a better use.)  By buying nicer tools, I am relatively assured that they will be here for several seasons and will perform as desired, hold their edge, and not break down. Y0u can get some really good heirloom quality hand tools here. (after three seasons, I have zero complaints).  I am still hoping to be able to splurge for a tiller in the near future from craigslist but so far I have not found what I am looking for at a cost that seems reasonable for a tool I would use a handful of times throughout the year.
  • When figuring your costs, some things can be spread over several seasons.  Garden hoses for example (each of mine were contractor grade and cost between $25 and $30) will not be used up after one season.  If taken care of, they should last for at least 5 seasons so my real cost is only $5-6 per year.  My wheel barrow was almost $75 dollars but I expect to use it more than a decade so again my costs will avg less than $10 per season.
  • Your consumable inputs – things you use, use up, then have to replace – are the real budget busters so look to save wherever you can.  If possible buy seeds rather than plants, buy seeds in bulk rather than pre-packaged, shop on-line or from catalogue centers.  I also highly recommend one in particular, Berlin Seeds in Berlin, Ohio.  They are Amish, so don’t expect to e-mail them an order or have online shopping capabilities.  But their catalogues are wonderful and their quality is very high.  Plus their integrity above impeachment.  Call and ask to be put on their mailing list @ 1-877-464-0892. The catalogues are not only full of seeds, bulbs, etc., but also have loads of gardening tips passed down from generations of Amish families and farmers. Finally, look for natural remedies with household products for controlling weeds and insects.
  • Improving your soil should be looked at as a process, not a quick fix.  Sure, you can do the quick fix thing, but it will be VERY expensive.  Compost and manures are availble for free if you are willing to do your homework. Monty’s Liquid Carbon can also help expedite the process.  Work with your county extension agent to do a soil test, and to find out what plants perform well in your area.  Some plants, or some varieties of plants, just won’t grow in your climate/soil.  Start by working with what nature gives you and amend your garden to your needs a section at a time.

Here are the break-outs of some costs  I have incurred while getting my gardening lifestyle up and going.

  • Hoses (3)                           $  25.00 ea
  • Seed packets                    $    1.29 each
  • Seed (bulk)                       $     1-3 per pound  1/4 to 1/2 pound has been more than enough for anything I have grown.
  • Hoe                                     $  19.00  Local Hardware store
  • Rake                                   $  22.00 Local Hardware store
  • Hand-tools                      $ 7-21.00 plus shipping from Wilcox All Pro Tools
  • Wheel Barrow                $ 72.00    From Local farmer’s Co-op
  • Compost and manure $ FREE     worked with county gov. and some local farmers. All it cost me was time.
  • Chemicals                        $ 24.00 qt.   I use these very sparingly, and mainly for weed control in spring or fall. Once I have crops in the garden I hand weed.  Insect control,  I use household products, hand remove slugs, beetles and eggs and pray alot.
  • Water                                 $   3.00 per month – This is about the difference in my water bill once my garden is in.  I make sure my garden receives at least 1 inch of moisture per week.  I would rather pay for a little bit of water and make sure I get to harvest a crop.  For example, last season, my neighbor who is an old-timer and firmly believes that God will send all the water that the plants need and he “ain’t about to waste money watering no plants” got about 1/3rd – 1/2 less produce last summer than I did, even though his garden, by all rights, looks better than mine.
  • Fertilizer              $  75.00 per season.  I use Monty’s three formulas exclusively and the quart bottles are more than enough to get me through the season. Even though I spoon feed them at least twice a week.
  • Pump Sprayers  $10-25   I own two.  The first one cost me almost $25  last season and nothing goes in it but herbicides.  I strongly believe in segregating between ‘death chemicals’ – herbicides etc… and ‘life chemicals’ – my liquid fertilizers and soil conditioners.  This season, though, when I bought my second sprayer the price had fallen dramatically to only $10.00 for the same size/same brand/same store.

In season, it may be hard to feel like it makes financial sense to garden, after all produce is coming in from producers who have economies of scale and can sale things more cheaply than you can raise them.  BUT, keep an eye on the savings in the fall and winter because that is when you savings will really add up.  For example, this year at Christmas all of our side dishes came from our own garden.  Tomatoes and onions that were near two dollars a pound and kinda mealy at the store were fresh, ‘free,’ and as close as my pantry and freezer.  Ditto that for my daughter’s recent birthday.  Plus, there is a sense of pride that overwhelms you when you sit down to fresh frozen okra at supper while the snow is piling up outside.

Now, I realize that this has reduced things to a mere economic question and there are myriad other reasons like health, quality, accessibility, exercise, and sheer enjoyment that are hard to quantify.  But if you garden smart, and grow slowly, you can make gardening worth it, not only for the food you receive but for the pleasure and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Posted in , , , Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

More Uses for Grass Clippings

By Dennis on May 1, 2010

Short entry today.  Storms are moving in this evening and I have a lot of work to do.  Weather man says we are expecting 4+ inches of rain.  We’ll see.

Anyway, mowing season is in full swing and I have found another use for grass clippings.  My son and I are using them to create paths so we can walk through our garden, even after a rain, without bogging down in this god-forsaken E. Tennessee clay.  Additionally we are using it around the tomatoes to help suppress weeds.

One word of caution that I learned the hard way last season.  DO NOT try this if you have a Bermuda grass lawn and your grass has formed seed heads.  The seeds will germinate and you will spend the rest of the summer fighting to keep Bermuda grass out of your garden.

The benefit of using the grass clippings like this is that it does give us the paths and the weed barriers that I am looking for with the added benefits that I can till it in in the fall to add organic structure into the soil, plus unlike using bark mulch, which is expensive and semi-permanent, I can reconfigure the layout of my garden each season so that I can easily rotate my crops to keep disease and insects in check.

Happy gardening.  I’m back to work.

Posted in , , , , Tagged , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Reduce, Reuse, Retire

By Dennis on April 30, 2010

I am undertaking three experiments this year in an effort to not only garden well, but garden sustainably, easily and in a way that helps out the environment.

I have long been intrigued by the concept of square foot gardening ever since I first heard about it while doing a news story in my former position as a Farm Broadcaster (agricultural journalist for radio…you know those guys who wake you up in the morning with pork belly prices and news about farm conditions). 

The benefits of square foot gardening are manifold.  You can produce more with less space, weeding in the raised beds is easier, if even necessary, and you have more control over the environment in which your plants are growing.

My problems with the system number exactly 2.  Number one, philosophically I am a cheapskate.  One of the reasons I garden is to save money on produce.  So spending money on the lumber or railroad ties to build the frames ran my cost per plot up and lowered my ROI.  Number 2, I am a REALLY bad carpenter.  I did not trust myself to build the frames to begin with and the thoughts of piles of mis-cut, mis-measured, mis-constructed piles of lumber and the awkward looking, almost-square frames did not thrill me.

So I have created my own concept for square foot gardening made easy and cheap.  The local tire dealer in my small East TN town had piles of old worn out tires just sitting around.  I knew these were bound for the local dump at some point and would add to the environmental problem.  So, I called him up and asked how much he would charge for some of the ‘junk’ tires.  He told me I could have all I was willing to haul away, for free! 

Never one to shirk at anything that is free, I loaded up two dozen tires (I am getting more this weekend) and returned home.  Once home, I mixed compost and top soil 50/50 in a wheel barrow then misted the mixture with Monty’s Liquid Carbon to improve its organic structure further.

I arranged my tires in three locations for three distinct experiments, the first is my “tire-farm” on the edge of my traditional garden, the second is a ‘kitchen garden’ just outside my back door so my wife can have ready access to them, and the third is my “Tater Towers” out in the garden area.  I will show pictures of each and describe the process below.

First, let me say that each wheel barrow took about 7 shovel-fulls of dirt and 7 of compost to fill.  Once filled, mixed and treated, each barrow-full of my created dirt is enough to fill two tires.  I fill the tires, including the area inside each tire till it is just about flush with the rim.  This new soil mixture is far richer and looser than my native East TN clay and makes a better growing medium without having to overhaul my entire garden. 

One benefit of using these tire gardens is that the black of the tire attracts early spring sun and acts as a heat sink, warming the soil quickly.  The plants in my tires are germinating much faster than those in the actual garden. The soil also drains better than the heavy clay in the garden.  The two factors are a benefit, but also a cause for caution; you will need to water more frequently.

“Tater Towers”

I have planted my potatoes in tires (four seed potatoes per tire) and I may thin them later as needed. As I planted them, I soaked them overnight in Monty’s Liquid Carbon and Monty’s 4-15-12. They have emerged and are looking good.  My next step will be to place another tire on top of the existing one and filling it again with the soil/compost mixture.  Each time the plant is covered, it will send it through a stress which will cause it to send out more lateral roots, each one of these laterals will start producing more potatoes.  The plant then, in an efort to reach the sunlight, will continue growing toward the top of the new tire in the stack. By the time I am done layering the tires, I will have four feet tall towers that should be full of potatoes at each level.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  So far, things are looking good.

The Kitchen Garden

My wife and I both love to cook.  I prefer to use as many fresh ingredients as I can and having them at the ready will be convenient throughout the summer.  In order to accomplish this, I have arranged a row of tires just off of our back porch and have filled them with my soil mixture as described above, then planted onions, tomatoes, basil, oregano, thyme, parsley and other goodies bound for sauces, spice racks, and fresh salads. 

The tomatoes, because they are heavy feeders, and due their mature size  have been planted one plant per tire.

The onions are planted intentionally too thick, so that I can thin them for green onions while letting some of the bulbs mature to full size.  As this planting plays out, I will plant more throughout the season.

The herbs are planted two varieties per tire to make the most of my space.  Again, I will keep you posted, but the ‘crops’  have been planted for one-two weeks and are all looking good.

The Tire Farm

One section of my garden , toward the back and out of the way in case it fails miserably :-), I have dubbed my “Tire Farm”  I have groups of four tires arranged by crop.  Again, these are filled with my dirt mixture as described above.  Although I am not, I suppose you could use just a straight potting mix or regular top soil. So far I have planted broccoli, lettuce (leaf), spinach, carrots, and watermelon with others to be seeded as time and weather permit. 

This was my first year to plant carrots and I had no idea those little seeds were so small.  I eventually gave up trying to separate out the little buggers and just scattered seeded them then covered them with a layer of compost.  They have germinated well, but I am going to have to thin them heavily.  The other crops have all starting germinating this week after being in the ground about 7 days.

As with all of my seeds, I soak them in a solution of Monty’s seed starter and Monty’s Liquid Carbon.

Again, with words and pictures I will let you know how my experiments work throughout this season.

Enjoy, and write/post back any stories you may have or recommendations for successfully gardening in square foot style.  I would enjoy hearing your stories of success and difficulty. Plus, the other readers might benefit as well.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to the results, knowing that I have taken something bound for the dump, that will not break down in my lifetime, and found a useful new purpose for it; one that will benefit my family and the environment (and save me some money.)  Who knows, if all goes well, I may expand.  I have already threatened my wife with an entire garden full of tires next season.

Posted in , , Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

New way of planting onions, They are up and looking good.

By Dennis on April 30, 2010

After only marginal success with my onions last year, I decided to try something different this year.  So far, so good. 

For those of you following this blog, you know I harvested some free compost this winter. My soil here is extremely heavy clay (more on that in another post), but my onions just would not develop fully in the tight soil.  So this season I (okay, honest moment, mainly my protesting son) scraped up some of the better top soil from unused corners of the garden and mixed this 50/50 in a wheel barrow to create a lighter, more organically rich type of soil.

Once this was accomplished I (another honest moment, my daughter, pulled back the soil about 1 foot wide by 75 feet long on the south facing side of my garden.  I put this strip on the south so that my corn, okra, beans, and tomatoes would not block the sun from my ground dwellers.  This strip is serving as the home to my onions and cucumbers this year.

As the dirt work was being done, I soaked my onions sets in a mixture of 1 tsp of Monty’s 4-15-12 and 1 TBSP Monty’s Liquid Carbon in 16 ounces of water. (I did this for both my white and yellow onions. 

Once the soil was pulled back, I (okay, this time it was me) dug one inch deep holes in the earth spaced 1 inch apart in all directions in a grid about 1 foot by one foot.  Then I placed my onion sets in the indentations.  Once they were in place, I covered them with 3-4 inches of my newly created soil/compost mix.  Two weeks later they are up and looking good.

Without having to fight through the hard East Tennesee clay, the onions are emerging early.

For those of you who grow onion regularly, you will know that onions spaced only 1 inch apart will not develop fully as the bulbs will crowd each other.  However, my plans are to make my first harvest in about two weeks.  This will give us some good, early spring onions, or green onions, and leave those remaining with the space they will need to develop into good sized bulbs.

If you are doing the math, you know that my 2 onions patches must look awfully lonely in a 72 foot row.  Indeed, they do.  But my plans are to plant similar subsequent patches every three weeks into early/mid June so that I will have a continuous harvest of fresh onions this season.

Keep checking back and I will keep you posted on how this experiment is working, but so far, so good.

Posted in , , Tagged , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Garden Cheaply, Garden Well

By Dennis on January 18, 2010

Welcome to a Monday morning.  I am a little sore this morning from an unexpected opportunity to get out in the garden and lawn this weekend. It’s not too often that we get sunshine and 50+ degree weather in January in the mountains of East Tennessee.

This weekend I had the chance to compost and line out some of my flower beds, prune some bushes, etc.  But it was the composting that I wanted to talk to you about.

Free compost My kids and I unloaded this weekend. It recieved about 1.5 inches of rain over the weekend

Free compost My kids and I unloaded this weekend. It received about 1.5 inches of rain over the weekend

Many of you want to compost but you are afraid of the process, have heard horror stories or don’t have enough plant material to get your pile started.  For me,these reasons and the fact that I live in a neighborhood and don’t really have a place to establish the size pile I would need got me searching and asking questions.  The question I asked:  What does the city/county do with all of those leaves and Christmas trees they collect throughout the year?

The answer:  In many communities, they have established FREE compost areas.  In my community, they have a location about 5-10 miles or so outside of town where they take dump-truck load after dump-truck load and pile up the leaves in long rows.  The trees and limbs they pick up through the year are run through a chipper/shredder and blown onto the same piles.

There are rows that are three+ years old and some rows of fresh (this season) and everything in-between in various stage of decay.  The only thing it cost me was the gas to travel out there, and a few hours of work loading and unloading this free source of good quality compost.

When I used to live in Frankfort, KY they had a similar program but it was located in the heart of town so it was more accessible. This brings me to a couple of points to consider.  In many cases this is a ‘free’ or tax-subsidized program so its existence in your area may vary.  I had to call several agencies from city hall, county government, park and recreation department, and sanitation until I found someone who could tell me about it.  Strangely enough, none of these bureaucrats knew anything about it…they all told me that we did not have anything like that in our area.  It was not until I met one of the truck drivers for a leaf collection crew at McDonald’s that I got the answer I was looking for.  Point is, you are likely going to have to look for it to find it.  I have also discovered that some cities charge a nominal fee for the compost while others operate it as a completely free service.  Further, (especially in the free service areas) management of the piles can vary widely. So, know what you are looking for when you go pick it up so you can tell if it has been turned regularly, etc.

Like anything there are some things to consider:

Since these piles are created from leaf-collection services their focus is collection NOT creating perfect

This close-up of the compost after we had pile it around our dogwood tree shows the texture of the free compost and the fact that it was made of various materials which are in different stages of decay

This close-up of the compost after we had pile it around our dogwood tree shows the texture of the free compost and the fact that it was made of various materials which are in different stages of decay

mulch/compost.  Therefore, I had to sort out some various bits of pop bottles, plastic, wires, small scrap metal.  All in all though, I only sifted out enough garbage to fill a small plastic grocery bag so its a small price to pay.

The compost is made of various types of plant material with various acidic conditions like oak and pine so your pH levels can be all over the place.  Therefore, I recommend testing it with a pH meter.  I am taking mine to a friend this week to have it tested.  I will update you once I have the numbers. Plus any info I have on amending it as needed.

Some areas will have staff on hand with a front-end loader, others will not and you will have to load it yourself.  One area I am aware of, does not have a front end loader, but they don’t mind if you bring your own.  For just a few dollars you could probably hire a farmer to meet you out there and load it for you.  I used a pick-up truck to haul my mulch and it held three front-end loader scoops.  It took far longer to unload it than it did to load it.

I used a standard shovel to unload it and it took approximately 20 heaping shovel loads to fill my wheel-barrow.  That will give you an idea of the time and effort it will take if you are loading it by hand.

Bottom line,  this is a good, though not perfect, system for many of you to be able to access compost in volumes that most home-owners/gardeners could not.  This compost is similar to the quality you would have to pay $40+ per front-end loader scoopful at a retailer and it is free and readily available.  Additionally, it is a good use of material that, ten years ago, would have simply ended up in our landfills.  This is the essence of  Reduce Reuse Recycle and is an example of where it works efficiently and effectively.  For these reasons, and because I am always looking at ways to save money on my gardening projects, this is one I wholeheartedly support and recommend.  If you’ve got the time and the labor available and you don’t mind waking up sore on a Monday morning, do the research find the location and go get yourself some good, free compost.

We were able to get most of the compost spread in our flowerbeds and around our trees before the rains began. This pile is adjacent to our garden we will get it spread when the soil is dry enough to walk on. Hopefully we will be adding to it with another load of free compost next weekend, if the dry weather continues.

We were able to get most of the compost spread in our flowerbeds and around our trees before the rains began. This pile is adjacent to our garden we will get it spread when the soil is dry enough to walk on. Hopefully we will be adding to it with another load of free compost next weekend, if the dry weather continues.

Posted in , , , , , Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Build Your Own Home-made Automated Irrigation and Fertility Injection System for Under $50

By Dennis on January 17, 2010

Brent Coffee’s farm in Northern Arkansas is a testament togreen production techniques and the cost saving nature of what we used to call ‘southern ingenuity.’  Both he and his wife work full time and his job has him on the road through most of the summer.  He wants the benefits of his home garden but can’t always guarantee he will be home when his crops need to be watered or fertilized.  So, using a recycled chemical drum and some common parts, he built his own watering system that also applies Monty’s Liquid Fertilizer to his garden as it waters.

When we spoke Brent showed me how simple this is to build for under $50.  These applications of Liquid Fertilizer are the only nutrients the garden receives apart from what is available naturally through the compost-based raised beds.

 Home Irrigation and Automated Fertilizer for under $50

Learn how you can build a similar system by watching this video segment from Brent.

Posted in , , , Tagged , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Time to Work Those Glutens

By Dennis on January 15, 2010

So, you’re looking out the window, snow on the ground– a little stir-crazy–waiting to start your spring projects out in the garden.  After you have spent as much time dreaming and planning and going through seed catalogs as you can bear, you just want to DO something.  I understand.

So, here is a project that you can do long before your soil is ready for planting and it will save you hours of weed-work later this season.  As an additional benefit, it will control weeds and serve as a fertilizer while maintaining a natural approach to gardening.

Corn Gluten Meal makes an excellent organic or all-natural weed and feed fertilizer but the trick is to get it

Corn Gluten Meal is an effective all-natural pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer. It is available in bulk (shown) and in bags or cannisters

Corn Gluten Meal is an effective all-natural pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer. It is available in bulk (shown) and in bags or cannisters

 out before the weed seeds begin to germinate. Corn Gluten Meal is a by-product of the wet-milling process of corn.  Ethanol plants make it, liquor distillers make it and for years it has been used as a high quality feed for cattle, especially dairy cattle.  In the 1990’s those some enterprising students from Iowa State University discovered its benefits as a pre-emergent herbicide.

You will want to apply approximately 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet between Feb 15th and March 15th, depending on your climate.  A second application can be made around June 1st for late flush weed crops, and again post-harvest for any winter weeds that may appear in your garden.  If you are using ‘green manure’ cover crops, wait until after these plants have germinated and started growing before applying Corn Gluten Meal.  The key is to get the product down before the seeds germinate.

Additionally, at 10 percent N content, Corn Gluten Meal also makes a good supplemental source of nitrogen and a nice organic fertilizer

Various sized packages of Corn Gluten Mealcan be purchased at your local independent garden retailer in either a natural powder form or, combined with binders, in a pelletized form.  the powder form is farm more effective and cheaper, but they will be very dusty and messy and a bit harder to work with in most situations. 

As many of you know, there is money to be made catering to the zealous nature of many green gardeners and enterprising business owners have capitalized on this by elevating costs of these products compared to their synthetic counterparts.  So, you can purchase the commercially available forms of Corn Gluten Meal, however, if you are willing to put in the back work and do the research, many of you can find it far cheaper in bulk.  Look for a feed store or feed mill in your county or an adjacent county, this is the place where local farmers will go to purchase raw feed-stuffs for their livestock.  Around Monty’s home office Burkmann Mills is a good source of Corn Gluten Meal.  In your area, just look for a location that will either custom-mix rations or ask a local farm store if they sell it.  Once you find your source they will either sell it in super-sized bags or may even be able to fill up your pick-up bed with lose bulk meal.  Also, if you live near a distillery or an ethanol plant, give them a call and ask if they sell the meal direct to the public.  Most do, but be warned, this is a great cattle feed and many of these locations have a waiting list for everything they spin-off from their distillers.  Finally, if you have a dairy farm in your area and you do not need much, you might talk to the farmer.  He may be willing to sell you what you need, and while you’re at it, you can ask him about picking up some free manure (trust me they have more then they know what to do with!)

That’s really all there is to it.  Just a few notes on using and storing it.

  • Make sure you lightly incorporate it into the soil as it will attract animals if it is just left on the surface
  • Do not let it get wet, and make sure you clean your wheelbarrow, spreader, (and back of your pick-up if buying in bulk) well.  If not, when Corn Gluten Meal gets wet the resultant fermentation leaves an odor reminiscent of REALLY strong stale beer. It is more than a bit overwhelming.
  • Do NOT apply within 2 weeks of planting from seed.  This stuff does not know a weed-seed from a beneficial and it will damage your vegetable/flower seeds.  This is a non-selective herbicide.
  • Do NOT use this in conjunction or simultaneously with traditional herbicides, the synthetic herbicides will cancel out the benefits of the Corn Gluten Meal.
  • Soil sample until you reach a comfort level with using this product but this should take care of most of your Nitrogen needs for the period in which application is made.

Now that you know what to do, how to do it, and where to get it.  You have an activity that can get you outside and get you started on your garden.  Just follow these simple guidelines and precautions and you will be one step closer to the all-natural, weed-free garden you always wanted.

For additional information on the original study and on corn gluten in general, check out this article.

Posted in , , , , Tagged , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Making Dirt From Manure in Just 6 months, one Arkansas Gardener Shows You How

By Dennis on January 13, 2010

Brent Coffee lives in Northern Arkansas where he and his family are building a small subsistence farm.  he shares my passion for one day living ‘off-the-grid’ and raises almost all of what he and his family consumes throughout the year from fruits and vegetables to cattle, even the goat milk that they drink is provided by the herd he maintains.

As I was speaking with him, he showed me how he is recycling the manure that comes from his farm.  Each year when he cleans out his stalls in his barn (built almost exclusively from recycled barn wood from an old dilapidated barn he found), he piles the manure in one of his raised beds.  Then he begins treating the manure in the fall with Monty’s Liquid Carbon.(available here)  By the spring, what once was hard-packed cakes of manure and fodder is rich, loose, arable soil.

Learn more by watching this video.Brent Coffee Makes His Own Dirt for Raised-Bed Gardens

Posted in , , Tagged , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Monty’s Plant Food Brings Sweet Success to Gardener

By Dennis on October 16, 2009

For us at Monty’s harvest time is particularly enjoyable.  Not only are we busy packing, preserving, and canning our own gardens but we get to find out how our hints, tips, advice, and products have helped y’all throughout the past year.  It’s the time of year that we get to harvest stories and pictures.

Well, this fall is no different.  Darryl from Indiana sent us these pictures of his sweet potatoes. 

Sweet_PotatoSweet_potato2

He planted his potatoes on May 10th and harvested them on October 4th.  He is fortunate to have deep soil (about 14″ till it hits solid clay).  He planted these sweet potatoes in 6″ hills and then sprayed them three times with Monty’s 2-15-15. These particular sweet potatoes weighed in at 7 lbs., 14 oz.; now that’s a lot of sweet potato pie!  For Dennis’ complete directions on growing great root crops you can read more on the website.

If you have pictures of your results using Monty’s in your garden, flower beds, or on your landscape we woul love to hear your stories. Post your information in our comments section here on the blog or visit our website to contact us for our e-mail address.

Posted in , , , Tagged , , , , , , , Leave a Comment