Soil for your raised beds

Soil is key to vegetables that actually have the nutrients to help our bodies become healthier.

Raised beds (actually Table Top height) really are the answer when it comes down to gardening with less pain. However raised beds cut off the mycorrhizal network that conveys nutrients from the soil into your plant.

The answer is to replace the soil every year with rich vermicomposted and thermal composted materials (we focus on non-chemically treated vegetable and leaf matter).

We build our soils this way and we use the ingredients to make compost tea to inject in the bins in July.

The result is better quality food. Organic labels just mean they have not used pesticides. Which is a step in the right direction but you have to actually have nutrient rich foods to feed your body to improve the immune system and get back into the correct organic loop.

Price is pretty inexpensive - there is a trip fee (we start in Eagle at the Fry Homestead Farm). Then we look at your soil with a microscope to see what you really need. Most soil costs are around 3 to $4 a square foot. Microbe injections are three dollars each.

Gardening into Fall and Winter

Hoop style garden covers do several things for us. One is they protect the plant from the desiccating fall winds. The second is that each cover will actually move your zone down one level south.

If you want to extend your garden time, this is an essential way to cover your plants.


So how can you do it inexpensively? It's actually pretty simple. Take electrical conduit and bend it into half hoops. To get the right bends this is the tool you will need.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search.aspx?searchterm=pipe+bender&isusersearch=1

http://quickhoops.net/

http://www.buildmyowngreenhouse.com/mh-3-low-tunnel-hoop-bender.aspx

Firewood contamination

Firewood can be very harmful to your landscape trees.

Last year I watched my neighbor across the street unload several cords of wood. The next day I was greeted by a long horn Asian invader, which I promptly disposed of but knew it was just one of probably many...

Your firewood can be a real problem in that it can bring in bores and invaders that can attack your trees and even your home.

Here is a video I took of an actual larvae caught while splitting fire wood. Click Here

The state wants to encourage us to get our firewood locally so we do not bring in invaders but sometimes that is not possible or you may already have wood that has been brought in.

Another option is to create a wood shed containment area and then spray the inside with a band as directed on the label of the product you chose, as you would for spiders, so a hatching larvae that flies out may be intercepted by the spray band. This includes Carpenter Ants, Termites etc., however with Termites you may need to do a ground application around the containment shed as directed on the label. Screens can be implemented in the shed as well to contain insects that may have crawled out of the wood.
Do not spray the actual wood with an insecticide in that you could release the active ingredient when you burn the wood affecting yourself.

Again, always follow the label and remember that the bore shown in the video will actual pupate into a flying insect which will lay eggs on your landscape trees so your containment area needs to control crawling as well as flying insects.

Correct Pruning Booklet

The Tree Guide for Landscapers and Back Yard Pruners is complete and ready to purchase just in time for this winters pruning season.

The booklet is a compilation of what I have taught in the field for over 20 years, explaining the basics of how a tree grows so you can make correct pruning decisions.

Brief and to the point, I would not let anyone touch your trees if they do not have this base of information.
Includes:
Tools Needed
Proper Cutting Methods
Correctional Pruning
Dominant Leader Pruning
Pruning Difficult Trees
Pruning Fruit Trees for Ornamental
Quiz and Review Page for the Field

If interested, contact me through the greenteam.ted@gmail.com email address

Preparing your Trees for Winter

Getting your Trees ready for Winter

Last year we saw the loss of a lot of trees from a combination of the quick freeze in November, and a long desiccating west wind in the spring, with little rain.

Why did some trees get through while others died?

Trees do not do anything fast...they build up health over time or they go through decline which leads to a process we call the death spiral.

You can not wait until a tree is dying, and then, try to save it. You have to be pro-active in keeping them healthy so they can withstand weather events, pests, drought and mechanical damage.

Decidua trees need to be well hydrated this time of year in that they are going through a process called reverse sink. This is a time period where the tree uses both the phloem and xylem to store as much nutrients in the root system as possible for the big push in the spring. Next spring the tree will need a root nutrient amendment, (NOT a high nitrogen fertilizer though), to insure the natural organic process is happening in the soil. This can be done by adding composted material around the drip area or dong a liquid injection.

Evergreens will continue to transpire through the winter. So they need water during the winter months. If there is snow and rain the tree will be fine, but months of dry weather are very hard on Evergreens. Being aware of that, and know it may be necessary to actually hand water them or use water bags to insure a slow release of water during the winter.

I also recommend adding root nutrients during the winter for Evergreens due to the fact that this is often their most difficult time of stress.

The point is to keep the tree healthy, so it can call upon its reserve system when a weather event creates stress on the tree.

Even though flocking looks pretty on trees, the freezing and thawing while covered in frost, damages the cell structure of the protective bark layer. If it is extreme, I will often use a leaf blower and gently remove as much of the frost as possible. For young trees it is important to wrap or use a cardboard tube around the tree trunk to prevent the bark from splitting, a process called  sunscald.


For Junipers and Arborvitaes it may be necessary to wrap them with twine so snow load does not split them down, just remember to remove the twine in the spring to prevent damage during spring wind.

Any questions on your particular tree can be sent to greenteam.ted@gmail.com

Tree's look sick in summer

This is the time of year my phone rings and rings with people wanting me to look at their trees - truth is, trees that are sick now are showing stress from a lack of health or improper watering.
With this in mind, I've put together a water testing page so you can know what is really happening with your trees water condition:

                     
                                                   Water Check on your Trees
Purchase a couple of inexpensive water meters from Home Depot or Lowes

Go around the perimeter of the tree stabbing the meter into the soil at least 6 inches (you may need to use a screw driver to make the hole if the soil is hard)

Do this starting 6 inches away from the trunk on small trees, 2 feet on large trees, with the first stab.

On small trees go out 2 feet on the second stab, on large trees go out another 2 feet then a third stab clear out to the end of the drip line or where the limbs end on the outside of the tree canopy.

Use a grid pattern and record the results each day for a week under your normal watering process.

Probe down in the ground 2 to 3 time All around the tree in this type of hub and spoke pattern

 Go as deep as you can with the probe Do this every day for 7 days and record the meter readings

START with the first number being the North spoke and move clockwise around the tree

Monday ______________________________________________________________________

Tuesday__________________________________________________________________

Wednesday_______________________________________________________________

Thursday_________________________________________________________________

Friday____________________________________________________________________

Saturday__________________________________________________________________

Sunday____________________________________________________________________

Water was set to run (# of days and which days)  __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Amount of time running on each station
___________________________________________________________________________________

Your trees should be wet once a week and more toward dry the rest of the week. otherwise you are filling the macropores with water and suffocating the tree's roots system...see the section under trees if you need to do an airspade job for drainage. __________________________________________________________________________________

Conclusion of straw bale gardening

 

Last year we experimented with straw bale gardening. Here are some conclusions...

As you can see in the photo, this spring the bales had denigrated to a gooey mass.

Surprisingly the strawberries did very well even as the bales are half the size they were when we started.

 

Conclusions: 

 

1. There is definitely an odor all summer long as these bales break down biologically.

2. Held moisture well

3. Tomatoes loved them but Spinach and other crops did not do well.

4. Compost (worm) tea did help in July.

5. Nutrients were lacking without adding compost elements.

6. Real mess to clean up at the end of the year.

 

I would not recommend putting these on your patio as being suggested on many sites online.