Loading…
3
DAE remember when we all grew tomatoes in plain dirt and they did fine?
I have been keeping a veggie patch behind my garage in Akron for about 17 years now, and the thing I see new gardeners get wrong over and over is they treat soil like it is just something to hold the plant up. When I started out in 2008 I had one raised bed, a shovel, and a bag of cheap potting mix, and my tomatoes still gave me more than I could eat. Now folks on my street spend $60 on fancy soil blends, root boosters, and a little meter to check moisture every morning, and their plants look about the same as mine did with almost nothing. The part nobody wants to hear is that soil is a living thing you feed over years, not a one time purchase. I dump my kitchen scraps in a pit out back, turn it maybe twice a season, and toss in crushed eggshells when I think of it. My neighbor bought a $200 compost tumbler in April and by July it was holding a dead fern. So what gives, are we all just overthinking dirt now, or did something actually change with the seeds and mixes they sell these days?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
mary_foster9224d ago
Used to roll my eyes at soil talk, but now I feed my dirt yearly.
0
cameronn6224d ago
Feeding dirt sounds like the kind of chore that makes you feel crazy until the tomatoes show up. Now you're out here bribing soil like it's a pet that might run away.
0