Yard and Garden Secrets to Success (and Saving Money)

Managing the Alpharetta Community Garden for the past 3 years has been one of the great pleasures of my life and very educational. We have about 50 gardeners and I've had the benefit of seeing many different approaches to gardening - some good and some not so good. Here are several things I've gleaned from my 3 years in the community garden. I hope this will help you with your yard or garden. 

Cylinder Tomato Cages  

I don't really like them. You know the ones I'm talking about: the cylindrical tomato cages that stake into the ground at the small end and are bigger at the top of the cage. Problem is, they aren’t big enough for many tomato plants and so they end up falling over. I prefer anything more sturdy. One of our community gardeners made a wooden cage and sank it into the ground fairly deep. Holds up just fine. I also like the Florida Weave method of sinking two stakes into the ground and running wire or rope from stake to stake and tying up your tomatoes as they grow. That’s a quick and unfit description of it, but you can Google it and find out more. 

The New Retail Organic Fertilizers

Oh, I use them, but I’m not happy with the way most folks use them. What people don’t realize is that gardening organically is a whole “soil-life-web” kind of thing. The organic fertilizers are dependent upon the microorganisms in the soil to do their thing in order for these fertilizers to work. To make matters worse, most folks don’t the read labels on these products and are not re-applying appropriately. In my experience, when no compost is being added to enrich the soil and the gardener falls behind on fertilizer application, there is almost no catching up. The result will be lackluster vegetables and plants that are more prone to disease and harmful insects. The solution, when using organic products, is to follow label directions and to add lots of compost to the garden soil. Short of this, you should probably give up on the organic route and just use a synthetic fertilizer, but again, read the label and follow it.  

I Don't Want to Pay for Mulch 

Why pay when there is free mulch from tree companies? At our community garden we use arborist tree mulch on the garden paths, but at home I use it around trees and shrubs and perennials. The weeds have a real hard time getting through 5 inches of mulch (but don't have the mulch right up and next to your trees, shrubs and flowers!) Ultimately the mulch breaks down into organic matter that will benefit the soil. I love it. As for the vegetable garden bed, the tree mulch is not such a good idea for several reasons that time won't allow me to explain. Just go for less bulky products such as pine straw or wheat straw. Yes, you'll have to pay but at least these products have the benefit of being local (to our region) and sustainable.

What Is This Stuff They Call Topsoil? 

I really want to know. In the meantime I prefer good old red clay amended with lots of compost. Please know I’m not talking about the stuff we put in containers. Containers require a bagged soil-less mix. I’m talking about the soil we add to large, raised beds or that we amend our gardens with. I’m a real believer in not spending money I don’t have to spend. If red clay is what I’ve got to work with, then red clay it is and I will amend it and improve it with my own compost that I made out of kitchen scraps and yard leaves and grass clippings. OK, there are some good bagged amendments for the garden, but my emphasis, in this blog anyway, is to spend less money. Do you have trees that lose their leaves? Do you eat? Do you have a chemical free lawn that you mow? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you too can compost and can use this compost to amend your soil. Which leads to this...

Everyone Should Compost

It's cheap. It's easy. Anyone can do it. We do it at the community garden. But this deserves a whole new blog which I promise I will give you in the not too distant future.