What we fed the soil to get Today's Harvest ~ Mariella

This is our harvest for today! Granted we were away for a few days! But still! I’m quite excited! It serves as confirmation that hard work over time pays off, and reminded me to not feel discouraged when the birds total the tomatoes or the caterpillars consume the basil. 

When we started our garden on this hill of Fynbos exposed to harsh salty weather coming off the sea, the soil was tired and acid, and my husband worked hard to enrich the soil. 

Here’s a list of what we used and why:

-Dolomitic lime: Lime is produced from limestone, mined, crushed and processed into a granular form used to neutralize acidity in the soil, provides an inexpensive source of calcium and magnesium, improves microbial activity, improves nitrogen availability, promotes root growth, increases soil structure and increases rates of air and water infiltration.

-Manure: Organic Matter used to fertilize the soil and add nutrients such as nitrogen.

-Horse manure: We filled the bakkie with loads full of horse manure which was then allowed to compost for a couple of months before use. It’s an incredible fertilizer.

-Green Manure: Any garden clippings or crop leftovers like stalks and leaves. They help to nitrogen fix, and add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. The green manure principle started as a natural consequence of crop rotating, the bits left over in the fields after harvest are churned into the ground and allow the soil to recover.

-Compost: Anything organic from the garden and kitchen. Try to avoid throwing any cooked food it as it attracts pests like rats. If you have a compost heap in the back of your garden, you can throw any kitchen scraps in it but if you have a compost bin filled with worms, there is a list of foods that cannot be thrown in, like pineapple, onions and garlic.

- Bounce back pellets: An effective easy to use organic fertilizer based mostly on Chicken manure.

-Comfrey Tea: Comfrey is every gardener’s best friend, it’s prolific and a great source of nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, potassium, fruiting vegetable love it! Fill a bucket with leaves and weight them down with something heavy like a brick, put a lid on the bucket to keep the flies out and allow to compost for about 3 weeks. It comes out foul smelling and dark and your plants will thank you. Dilute by at least 50% and spray on leaves to suppress foliar diseases, increase the amount of nutrients available to the plant, and speed up the breakdown of toxins. Using compost tea has even been shown to increase the nutritional quality and improve the flavour of vegetables.

- Bone meal: A mixture of finely and coarsely ground animal bones and slaughter-house waste products used as an organic fertilizer for plants It’s a slow-release fertilizer and very good as a source of phosphorus.

We have been working on the garden for about two years and the benefits are starting to show. There’s always lots to do but there’s always lots to harvest!