Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

It’s feeling a bit like Fall here in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Time to start thinking about Fall and Winter proofing your gardens, cleaning and putting up your tools and harvesting those last but not least vine ripe tomatoes. It’s also a great time to get those cover crops and wildflower seeds in the ground while the soil is still warm enough to get the seeds to germinate and put some roots down to hold them in place for the winter. Then they are ready to “take off” when the warmth of Spring wakes them up again. Then you’ve got a great start on your garden soil building, and wildflowers will be mature enough to put on some flowers for beautiful spring and summer color! Don’t forget to plant your greens, brassicas, garlic, onions and potatoes too!

If you haven’t gotten your potatoes in the ground you’re late. I always have the last of them in by Passover. Here’s the quick fix. Lightly till a patch of ground, spread out some bone meal or soft rock phosphate in spots about 1.5 ft. apart, sprinkle some Biozome to decompose things quickly, set potatoes on those spots, cover with compost and soil and sprinkle with Nutri-Rich.

I bury mine 8-10 inches but this time of year you may want to do that in stages so the soil warms more quickly at the seed point, then run a line of soaker hose. As plants emerge begin covering them with straw until you have a good six inches of straw mulch. The little spuds will grow in the straw with just the right amount of moisture (not too soggy) at the seed potato. Never let the new spuds see the sun. They turn green and un-eatable.

And if you want your long season heirloom tomatoes to come in early get them in the ground now with Walls O’ Water. You’ll be amazed.

Stay tuned for the 2009 Chicken Watch updates.

Read our “How to grow potatoes” page here.

I used to scoff at lawns… I thought that a real, lush, soft, bed of grass was only possible with lots of chemical fertilizer and far too much water. Despite my past prejudice I decided last fall to give this organic lawn idea a try. So we dug up a small patch near our house, flattened it out the best we could, added Soft Rock Phosphate, CalCM+ Gypsum and Peaceful Valley Compost and tilled it together. We spread Tough Turf Lawn Seed at the suggested distribution rate once in fall, then again in winter and then one more time in spring. The reason for some of the extra seed was that we had some run off that would carry the seed away. But I would say that even without the run-off issue I would have doubled the suggested distribution rate (I really wanted a lush lawn).

A lush lawn I got! See for yourself:

This lawn was planted in the fall of 07, this picture was taken in April of 08… no chemical fertilizers used, just a little compost tea every other month or so. I water with a Gardena Hydro Fan Sprinkler for 5 minutes a day. I have to admit it turned out better than I thought it would… especially in the first year… now if I could get out of that hammock long enough to mow it (maybe next year).