Day 11 - The Soil

We feel very fortunate that the soil in our neighborhood is deep and rich. Although there have been many people living in our property over the years, the story about the old Italian lady that grew HUGE onions sticks in my mind...that coming from my "Old Italian Guy" who lives directly behind me and grows an Italian garden each year.

Soils will deplete over time and I have tried to do some things to reverse that. I believe that the soil here in my garden plots have actually gotten better over the years. I do the following:

1) The first thing I did was a double dig from the John Jeavons book, "How to Grow More Vegetables: Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine". He is a Northern Californian and has a website.

2) I plant a cover crop in the winter. I have been using this Soil Builder Mix and have found to have improved the next years crops.

3) I have two worm bins that I started with the help of Rick of The Compost Club. I add compost from these into my garden on a regular basis as the bins fill up.

4) I do a little spot fertilizing with an organic mix that I buy at a local nursery.

This is what I do with my veggie boxes. I will discuss the fruit trees in a future post.

Harvested today:
1) Three Zuchinni ($1.50)

Totals (Year-to-Date): $42.00