Thursday, November 16, 2017

What my backyard looks like now


This was my backyard again. Every year I do soil building. I plan to transition to no till gardening in a year or two. Our soil is sandy and nutrients and organic matter is lost quickly.
This year I am experimenting with adding even more manure and compost. So far I added around 15 kgs of compost from Tadweer and around 15 kgs of manure (this year I added sheep and cow manure) per square meter. This is so much more than before. I don't know what the results will be but I'm positive and enthusiastic. I asked the gardener to dig it into 20 cm of soil at least. I also plan to add chicken manure (5kgs per sq meter) and Sustane fertilizer. To help with water and nutrient retention I plan to add more coco peat. To bring the pH a bit down I plan to add peat moss (I try to use it less, but it has given me good results before, but I'll add it only once). I didn't test my soil but I read that sandy soils tend to be alkaline, and peat moss helps a little. If I am still within my budget by then (after all I have around 90 square meters to fill, plus pots, plus trees that I need to fertilize, I've already spent way too much, but I believe it's worth it) , then I'll also add perlite. After research I have become convinced that it does helps with water and nutrient retention (I strongly believed it didn't, well it's never too late to learn). Even though vermiculite it better, it costs at least 3 times more, so I'm passing on it for the moment. 
Let me know what you're doing in your gardens now, and show a picture.

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