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Chicken Soup for the SoilJean Fritz Keeping Your Soil Healthy Your soil is the most important part of your garden, but too many people forget to nurture their soil. Soil is a living thing, containing microbes, fungi, insect life and general "creepy-crawlies" vital to plant health and vigor, as well as a receptacle for chemicals and trace elements. Doing a little soil prep every fall pays off each and every harvest. First, add more organic matter. Use your rototiller or your spade, and dig under frostbitten plant material, grass clippings, leaves, wood chips, and compost. Avoid using any diseased plant material as compost – burn it first if there are no local restrictions on burning. If you live near any livestock, cover your garden with 1 – 2” of uncomposted manure, then disguise that with other organic materials, and let the whole thing winter over. A blanket of snow from December through March will turn all of it into about ¼” of the most beautiful topsoil you can imagine. It’s also time to think about soil pH, or the acidity or alkalinity. The addition of organic materials can lower the pH, or make it more acidic. If your soil is already high in acid and you’d like to neutralize it, you can also add lime or wood ashes to your garden. Wood ashes are wickedly alkaline, but after a season or two, create an excellent haven for earthworms and add enough potash to the soil to grow wonderful root crops. Finally, feed your fungi. Really. Many stores specializing in products for organic gardening and sustainable agriculture sell micorrhizal spores, which is a fungus that helps soil release its nutrients more easily. Micorrhiza needs to be fed in order to reproduce and survive the winter. Use a hose-end sprayer, and fill it halfway with gooey, blackstrap molasses. If you can find the sulphured kind, so much the better. Fill the rest of the sprayer with flat beer, and spray the solution over your garden beds. The sugar in the molasses feeds the existing fungi and beneficial bacteria in the soil, and the yeasts and enzymes in the beer add more. You’ll literally make your soil come alive, and that will help your garden thrive next year.
| | | | RELATED ARTICLES Tiles are the foundation stone for your stylish bathroom! Tiles can increase the value of any home. Ceramic tiles, mosaic tile, floor tile all add an extra quality to your home. Tile can be found throughout a home from the kitchen, bathrooms, and even the flooring. Tiles are widely available in most home improvement stores and also in specialty stores throughout the company. Finding the right tile for a home with the right color, design, and even pattern can seem overwhelming. But, the results of this project can be beneficial for years to come. Fountains of Refreshment When hot, sticky days hit, try to use all your senses to keep cool. Sight and sound have amazing psychological effects, even when the thermometer soars. Finding a Color Scheme - Decorating with What you Have If you feel helpless when it comes to picking and blending colors, your answer could be asfar away as your nearest pillow.Check out this quick way to create a color scheme for your home with our PICK - SEE -LMD method. Quick And Easy Bathroom Decor Changes Are you tired of the way your bathroom looks Dont feel bad, a lot of folks are in the same boat. The bathroom is one room in the home that can look drab and run down very easily. And what if you dont have an unlimited budget to make changes in the fixtures and plumbing Well take heart, there is lots that you can do for very little money that will totally and radically improve the decor of your bathroom. A Beautiful Rose Is Natures Gift Roses are one of natures most beautiful and splendid gifts. Roses come in a variety of colors and scents, from deep, deep red to the brightest yellow. The many pedals on roses offer a texture and fullness to roses that far outshine any other flowers. Black roses, red roses and white roses have all been used in historical writings. Even Sherlock Holmes paused from his busy work while solving the case of "The Naval Treaty" and said, "All other things …are really necessary for our existence…But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers. Painting and Decorating Tile Ceramic tile can be beautiful and elegant. But it can also be bland and uninspired. If you want to add a little color or creativity to your tile, heres how! Fall Pond Cleaning Great question.The answer is it really depends.Doing a full pond cleaning during the colder winter months can be very stressful on your fish.However, if the pond is really dirty and full of muck - then you may want to consider it because all of the decaying organic matter in the pond can cause problems if the pond ices over, and this begins to de-gas and rot. Bathrooms are a Homes True Underachievers Research shows Americans are slow to invest in major bathroom remodels, but new products can enhance an existing bath A to Z Guide In Getting Your Free DirecTV Satellite System What is DirecTV satellite TV Window Shutters on a Budget While there is great value in installing custom-made interior wood window shutters, sometimes they are still too expensive for certain applications.Some alternatives – including poly or vinyl shutters – are less expensive but also much less attractive.For a high-quality solution at a lower cost, look for a company that sells individual solid wood shutter panels that can be installed in any configuration. Reduce Your Heating Bills This Winter Imagine leaving a window open all winter long -- the heat loss, cold drafts and wasted energy! If your home has a folding attic stair, fireplace or clothes dryer, that may be just what is occurring in your home every day. Which KitchenAid products are right for your Kitchen KitchenAid is a popular brand of appliances. They are known for their kitchenaid mixers, but also for their quality. Any appliance you are interested in, you should consider replacing with a kitchenaide. From washers and dryers to built in warming draws, kitchenaid has it all. A Sofa Slip Cover Will Add New Life To Your Tired Furniture! A sofa slip cover may be just what you need to add some life to that old, tired looking couch of your.There are many advantages to owning a sofa slip cover.One is that you can easily change the cover of your sofa without the expenses of a re-upholsterer. Sectional sofa slip covers come in many different attractive designs and can be changed in a matter of seconds.Another advantage is the fact that it is very simple to replace a sofa slip cover. If you have children, pets, or any other potential cause of mess in your house, you can keep your sofa clean for guests by keeping a stock of sofa slip covers on hand, ready to interchange. Light up your Kitchen with the right lighting! The proper lighting in a room can make or break it. With lighting, you can create a soft, cozy room for reading and relaxing. With bright, brilliant light you create a sense of excitement and energy. When looking for the right lighting for a room consider what you will do in that space and what you want the lighting to do. If you plan to install lighting fixtures in your kitchen, you will want to use kitchen lighting that is bright and clean. You need to see what you are doing without shadows and haziness. The String Algae Blues... Now that Spring is upon us and things are coming back to life in your pond with the warmer weather, many of us are battling with string algae. String algae is caused primarily by a combination of the buildup of organic nutrients in the water, and sunlight. All You Need To Know About The Feng Shui Bagua Map The feng shui bagua map is an octagonal shaped map which allows you to evaluate in feng shui terms any living or working space. The feng shui bagua is a very important feng shui tool and indispensable when we wish to harmonize a place and the elements in it. Discover Electric Radiant Heat Imagine – you have just enjoyed a nice, hot, relaxing shower and the stresses of the day have seemingly melted away – until you take your first step onto your beautiful ceramic tile floor, the unbelievably cold ceramic tile floor. Scented Candles – Take Me AWAY! Remember the old Calgon commercial—"Take me away Calgon!" Theres only one thing that can take you away faster than a Calgon bath, and thats a scented candle. Whether you want a breath of fresh spring air, or you want to transport yourself to a South Sea paradise minus the hassle of airport security, crowded, delayed flights and lost baggage, grab a scented candle, and travel wherever your imagination leads. Smell is a powerful sense, and you can use it to alter your mood within seconds with the flicker of a candle. In fact, why not keep a supply of scented candles in the bathroom when you dont have time to luxuriate in the bathtub. Envelope yourself in fragrance while you shower, dry and blow-dry. How To Choose The Right Television For You Watching television has progressed from a luxury that only few had in their homes in the middle of the last century to the point where most consumers not only have one television, but often they may have several. And television programming has expanded greatly from just the three big networks to a whole host of other channels as well. Replacing the Irreplaceable Theres Hope for that Broken Tea Cup or Lost Fork |
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