Question:

Answer From Pat:
If you have already read and are following the instructions on compost in my book (pages 97 to 99 and other references in index. Also the chapter in my memoir “All My Edens” called “Romancing the Compost Heap”) and composting still doesn’t work for you, here is my estimation of the problem. First it really would help if you gave me a little more information on such items as the size of your compost pile (for hot compost 3 feet X 3 feet x 3 feet is best) and your method of composting or what you have put into the pile. Without knowing all that it is a little difficult for me to provide accurate advice, but I certainly can guess what the problem might be. So here goes:

If a gardener has a compost pile that never heats up nine times out of ten the cause is one of two problems. The first problem is that the compost pile is being kept too dry or too wet. Wet sloppy piles cannot heat up. Wet piles are sometimes putrid and smelly. This means too much nitrogenous waste has been added. Fix this by adding a few wood shavings (carbonaceous waste.) But dry piles without adequate moisture can’t heat up either. You need to keep the pile properly moist and spongy, not soppy wet. Also, a dry pile that is moist on the inside and cooking on the inside can catch fire so one does need to monitor compost piles and toss and turn them so you put the dry stuff inside and mix the inside to the outside again to cool the pile and keep it cooking.

Another major problem folks often have is that the pile contains too many dry woody ingredients (carbonaceous materials) and not enough nitrogenous waste. Nitrogenous waste is like sloppy garbage left from veggies and fruits at the kitchen sink or it is manure or grass clippings or wet green stuff from the garden. (For more details see my fertilizer chart on my website and also my soil amendment chart on page 28 of my book.) Woody ingredients are dry wood, dry leaves and twigs and left-over plant materials like corn cobs. (These are difficult or impossible to compost). All the leftover at the end of the veggie season, the plant matter may be dry by the time you pull it out, chop it up, and compost it. You will need a lot of nitrogenous ingredients, like soft green leaves of tomato plants, to heat up these layers of carbonaceous ingredients.

Then if you want to create a hot pile and not a slow pile you also need to toss and turn the pile to keep air in there, to cool the pile if it gets too hot or to heat it up again if it begins to cool down. This is a lot of work and I personally can’t do it myself, so there are other ways to do this, such as the drums companies sell for composting. When you use a drum you need to follow the instructions that came with it exactly and also you need at least 2 of them or even 3 of them or you will be continually adding more ingredients while it’s cooking. That’s not the right thing to do. When creating hot compost the fast-composting way, you want to make just one pile at a time and then let it work.

Slow composting is different. You just pile stuff up and keep it moist and make sure there are no tree roots in it and eventually you will get lovely compost out of the bottom and this kind of pile can be any size. I have written about this many times. (See both books and other places on this website.)

If the problem is too much carbonaceous waste and not enough nitrogenous waste, and this is usually the problem when compost doesn’t “cook”, my recommendation is to use human urine to heat up the pile. Just pee in a bucket and pour it straight onto the compost and keep the compost damp with water from the hose and you will get a nice hot compost pile. Then toss and turn it. Human urine is clean healthful stuff and a great source of nitrogen. (It also contains phosphorus and potassium. See comments on page 32 of my book and on my fertilizer chart.) Just pee in a bucket or (If you are a man) straight onto the compost and that will heat up the pile eventually. This is the organic way. (The inorganic, synthetic fertilizer way is to add sulfate of ammonia to compost to heat it up, but as organic gardeners we don’t use synthetic fertilizers.) Of course, you could use blood meal, but blood meal comes from cattle and some folks don’t like using it. Also it’s expensive. Why spend money when you are throwing a perfectly good, free nitrogen source down the drain? Urine contains salts but you will be adding enough water from the hose to wash out most salts. And by the way, human urine makes great rose fertilizer. Just dilute it 8 or 10 to one with water. Pour it on the ground, not on the foliage, and continue to irrigate roses regularly to wash out the salts. You will have super roses. (You can use the stuff straight as a weed killer so remember to dilute it well when using as fertilizer.)

Related posts:

1. Spent Brewery Grains as Compost or Soil Amendment
2. Compost Pile Too Hard to Turn Over
3. Horse Manure Compost

Question from Chris:

Answer from Pat:
Thanks so much for writing. First, I want to encourage you in your desire to get an internship in Panama on a new sustainable community.

A glance at the site indicates that this community may be early in its development, may offer great learning and service opportunities, and may be an exciting adventure as well as one of lasting value. When and if you arrive there, you will doubtless have opportunities to learn a great deal about the area and the work required of you to make your 5 acres into a productive farm or garden while growing plants adapted to the climate in Panama and recycling back into the land all the organic waste products from the animals you raise and the plants that you grow.

I’m sorry I do not know of other organic farms in Panama, but once you arrive there I would suppose you will have the opportunity to meet other gardeners and learn from them the rhythm of farming and gardening there, what crops to grow, and when to plant and harvest. Every climate offers its advantages and drawbacks, but timing is all-important. The best way to learn these things is to talk to long-time organic farmers in the area. If there are none then you will have to rely on books and scholarship to know what to do when. In the 1940′s, my mother purchased and then ran an organic farm mainly by reading “Rodale’s Organic Farming and Gardening Magazine” and also a current, multi-volume encyclopedia of farming. Then she would have us all do exactly what that magazine (which was very good in those days) and also the encyclopedia said to do. She also wrote lists of tasks and then crossed them out as we accomplished these items. Another way she learned was from the County Agent, which was the name in those days of the Farm Advisor. I doubt you will have anyone like that in Panama, but it is important to listen to experts whenever you can and to learn from them.

When we had our farm we were living in a cold-winter climate. You will be in a tropical one and tropical gardening offers totally different and new challenges. In Africa several years ago I flew over a large area of small individually farmed and owned “strip farms” Each one was about an acre in size. These were hugely productive, but this one area (near Lake Victoria) had a nearly ideal growing climate with ample year-round rain. Torrential rains can ruin crops and rot seeds and roots, just as longtime drought can kill crops also. Dealing with insect and animal pests and plant diseases organically in Panama may also present challenges and be quite different from anything you have faced prior.

You say the soil is good and that is excellent news, but your task as an organic gardener will be to put back into the ground at the end of each season and before the next season, whatever nutrients your plants subtracted from the soil. In this way you can eventually leave it even better than you found it. You also have a chance to learn the economics and time management of farming. I wish you good fortune in all these endeavors.

With good wishes for your success and happiness in this project.

Related posts:

1. Vegetables for Southern California
2. Raised Bed Planting
3. Companion Planting Has No Scientific Basis but Planting a Wide Range of Crops Works

Question from Tressa:
I love your month by month gardening book and have read it almost cover to cover.

My problem is armies (literally of snails) I live in Claremont, Ca. (new Pomona not San Diego) in the foothills and have snail attracting ground covers which I can’t easily remove. I have tried every organic method – my favorite was trays of beer which everything but the snails liked. I can pick buckets of snails every time I water. Sluggo works somewhat, but everything is eaten up. the only thing that really works is deadline or something other strong poison which I don’t want to use. do you have any suggestions?

Answer from Pat:
I am very familiar with Claremont, California and wonder if you live in Padua Hills? I graduated from Scripps College after four memorable years and a great college experience. (I was an English and Art Major.) My husband whom I married on graduation day, and I later lived in Claremont for a couple of years, during which I returned to Scripps as the Teaching Assistant in Freshman Humanities. (The History, Religion, Literature, Art, and Culture of the Ancient World, a double-credit course.)

I agree that organic controls for snails are not totally successful, whereas Deadline is highly successful, but I hasten to say I’m with you. I don’t use it any more. A few years ago before I returned to my roots and became so totally organic as I am today, I used to put one drop of Deadline on the base of every cymbidium flower spike as soon as it had grown tall, just before the buds opened. (Cymbidium blooms are a magnet for snails.) Also I climbed around in my large drifts of clivia (Clivia miniata) and put one drop of Deadline at the base of every bloom stem before the flowers opened. Dogs and cats did not come into contact with the Deadline since it was deep within the leaves, not in a place frequented by animals, but by doing this once every year in late February or early March, my snail problem was largely solved for the entire year. Since snails love cymbidium and clivia blooms better than almost any other plant, they acted like a traps, attracting snails from the entire garden. Deadline cut them off at the pass. Getting them early is what counts.

People who have an orange grove have an opportunity to use the trees as an organic trap. In areas of seasonal frosts every year, such as where you live, the snails on orange trees all congregate in winter in the center of the tree. If you have an orange tree yourself, just take a look in the crotches of the branches in the middle of the tree in December or January. This is where the snails go to hibernate, protected from freezing by the foliage surrounding them and by each others shells. Sometimes there will be fifty or a hundred snails or more all congregated together in the center of the tree. It is not a pleasant or easy job, but go in there wearing gloves and carrying a large sack, pull them off the tree, bag them, smash them, and send them to the dump and snail problems on orange trees are done for the year.

I do, however, have another suggestion of an organic control that really works, but I am not sure if you are going to like it, and that is ducks. Ducks eat slugs and snails by the thousands and then you would collect the eggs. (I find the eggs too strong for my taste, however.) But ducks are messy and they do want a bit of a pond to splash around in. Slightly less good as slug and snail control but almost equal to ducks at eating slugs and snails, and a lot less messy and noisy, are chickens. These days you can even purchase an inexpensive, ready-made, moveable chicken coop designed for moving around on a lawn, but why not on ground cover? Or make your own enclosure out of chicken wire. You would just move it around on your ground cover and the chickens would clean up the snails and give you simply delicious, nutritious eggs in return. If your ground cover is inside a fenced yard you let the chickens run free.

People these days are learning that chickens make very nice family pets. Children love them but so do grownups. When you are home you can let them out and they gladly clean up all the pests in the garden and give you delicious eggs to eat yourself and share with friends. Many good types are appropriate for family use. Rock Cornish hens are among the most popular right now but there are some other incredibly beautiful ones besides these and you can have lovely green and blue eggs from Araucana chickens if you want. If you introduce the chickens as chicks and keep them penned at first, smart dogs and cats will learn they are part of your pack. (Or at least they should. Only a very dumb dog won’t learn this, and unfortunately years ago I owned such a dog and lived on a farm so that dog had to go.) Also the coops with tops on them can protect your chickens during the daytime from hawks and such that might attack if you aren’t home. At night lock them into a compact but stoutly made chicken house so they are safe from foxes and coyotes. Chickens come home by themselves in the evening, since they can’t see at night. Kids love them and you will too.

Keeping a few hens is fun and is all the rage right now among organic gardeners and with people who believe in eating healthy homegrown food. There are many books on keeping a few back-yard chickens and there’s loads of free and helpful information on the internet. You might even find helpful club in your area of chicken owners.

Related posts:

1. Baby snails killing our Blue Star Creeper
2. Snails
3. Tree dahlia (Dahlia imperialis) with leaf miners

Question from Jonnie:

Answer from Pat:
Without seeing your crape myrtle (Lagestroemia indica) or a photo of the bark I cannot tell if there is anything wrong with it. However, though it may look a bit messy now, most likely nothing is amiss. People plant crape myrtles not only for their spectacular summer flowers but also for their interesting mottled gray, taupe, pink and fawn bark. Like sycamores, the bark of crape myrtle does not stretch or become furrowed as most tree bark does. Instead, as the tree grows its bark peels off in patches, revealing the new pink bark beneath. This mottled look is actually one of this tree’s most interesting characteristics.
With this tree you get a triple whammy: spectacular fall flowers, fall leaf color, and handsome bark that is especially
attractive in winter after leaves fall.

Crape myrtles grow best in interior climate zones where summers are hot and dry. They do not like water-logged
soil and perform best in well-drained soil with deep but infrequent irrigation, and light pruning in late winter or early spring to encourage new growth for summer bloom. Crape myrtle blooms on new wood. Letting the tree go slightly dry in late summer and withholding summer fertilizer will increase the display of blossoms in late summer and early fall. It is not a good idea to plant this tree in a lawn.

Crape myrtles are not good choices for Sunset Zone 24 where coastal fog and June Gloom blankets gardens in moist air. In such conditions crape myrtles tend to succumb to mildew. Mildew doesn’t affect the trunk. It affects the leaves and sometimes also the flowers. The general guidance for planting all trees is to plant them straight into unamended native soil, since the tree will eventually have to grow there anyway. That said, crape myrtles thrive best in soil that is well drained. Gardeners who plant them in heavy clay soil would be wise to provide a raised bed.

Such a bed does not need to be very high. Even four inches will save the crown of the tree from becoming water-logged. Fill the raised bed with good quality top soil mixed with nutrients and well-composted organic matter, but before doing so apply gypsum liberally to the native soil. Next dig some of your fill into the hard ground below, to create a marriage of soils instead of a hard line between the two. Then dig the planting hole straight through the top soil and mixed soil into the native soil beneath. Add more gypsum in the bottom of the hole and some slow release organic fertilizer in the bottom of the planting hole. Then plant the tree and refill the hole. Make a watering basin and keep the roots well watered until established then gradually lengthen out the times between irrigations.

Related posts:

1. Chinese Fringe Tree or Crepe Myrtle
2. Fruit Drop From Peach Trees
3. Planting California Native Plants

Question from Trinidad:

Answer from Pat:
Terr-O-Vite is no longer available. It has not been made for at least fifteen years. I mentioned this product in my first book published twenty years ago. Ten years later when I revised my book a second time, Terr-O-Vite was no longer made. It was a good product, it made plants grow like mad, but it did cause run-off into the ground water. Now we know we shouldn’t use products that get into the groundwater. But years ago we weren’t as aware of that problem as we are now. These days we are much more aware of environmental hazards and how we should avoid them. Terr-O-Vite contained a penetrant and that’s one reason why it worked well because Western soils are dry and alkaline and often shed water, but that is also one reason why it went through the upper layers of soil quickly and contaminated the water in aquifers deep down in the earth.

But times have changed. Now as a liquid fertilizer I often recommend fish emulsion, which is organic and does not cause massive problems of run-off. This is another possibility for using on your brunfelsias (Brunfelsia ‘Royal Purple’.) As I have stated in all my books, one can stimulate heavy June bloom on brunfelsia ‘Royal Purple’ by fertilizing twice in winter, in December and again in January, by fertilizing with a nitrogen fertilizer mixed double strength. Used this way it will not burn roots, largely because nitrogen is not as active in cold temperatures. So fish emulsion is another possibility to use for this technique. Mix it double strength for feeding Brunfelsia ‘Royal Purple’ in winter as described in my book. Fish emulsion does not burn.

Related posts:

1. Terr-O-Vite vs Organic Fertilizers
2. Patio Plants For Partial Shade
3. How to Fertilize Organically

Question from Trinidad:
I just read on one of your books that Brunfelsias can take two shots of high nitrogen fertilizer in December and January. What kind of fertilizer do you recommend? Do I do a soil drench or spray on leaves?

I care for a garden that has approximately 100 of them. I would love to try this.

Answer from Pat:
I used to recommend using any synthetic liquid nitrogen fertilizer for this task but now that I have gone back to my roots as an organic gardener I think organic fertilizer is best since it causes less run-off. Blood meal is one organic nitrogen fertilizer that is strong and fast acting it contains iron also so it would be very beneficial to brunfelsias. No I would not spray the leaves, only drench the soil. I don’t know how large the plants are or how large the containers are in which they are growing, but maybe you could give each container one or two tablespoons of blood meal according to size and then water it thoroughly into the ground. Applying an organic, yucca-based wetting agent might help too since blood meal seems to shed water.

Related posts:

1. Crew with Brunfelsias
2. Problems with Unrotted Wood Products in Soil
3. Vegetables in Raised Beds: Problems with Yellow Leaves

Question from Mary:

We listened to another youtube lecture by Darren Doherty last night–he’s the Australian that I mentioned in regard to carbon sequestering and the special plow, which is called a yeomans plow, after the agriculture and water engineer who invented it, and who had many theories and practices that were later adopted by permaculturists in Australia, especially regarding water capture and conservation. Here’s a pretty good synopsis of his ideas and the plow: http://agwaterstewards.org/txp/Resource-Center-Articles/21/keyline-design and here is yeomans’s web site: www.yeomansplow.com.au

In the youtube (if you google yeomans plow, several Doherty youtubes come up), Doherty confirmed our assumptions that the increase in carbon sequestering actually comes from ground-cover roots being able to grow longer and deeper as a result of the special plowing, which brings moisture, air, and beneficial bacterias and fungi deeper into the soil, and also breaks up compacted soil BENEATH the surface. As you will glean from the article, the plow has special properties that prevent up-turning/over-turning the soil–which is the main problem with conventional plows. Of course, you would plow when the land is dry to prevent (further) compaction. When I first heard about this, I said, well, you can just sow sweet clover, whose roots grow 2.5 feet deep and break up any hard-pan in the process to achieve the same effect, as far as the carbon sequestering goes–the water retention improvement may be further improved by the yeomans plow; also, depending upon how you plow, you can direct the water, which you cannot do by simply planting sweet clover.

Regarding the no-till approach, I love the concept–and just loved the book One Straw Revolution, which was the first I believe to promote it. HOWEVER. We have gophers, so we have no choice but to dig, in order to line the growing areas with gopher wire. We dig as much as 4x4x4 holes for trees. All row crops are grown on gopher-wire-lined raised beds that are first dug between 18 and 24 inches deep, etc. Even so, they killed a greengage plum tree this past summer. We have lots of snake and owl habitat that is working (many owl pellets with gopher bones), and I am beginning to get selective about the ground covers I use (gophers love the daikon radishes in my brassica mix, I found), and limit their range, because they can attract and feed gophers. Gophers are about the only creatures that eat velvet grass, one of the worst exotic-invasives in our area–so getting rid of that will also help. They also love Queen Anne’s Lace, which is hugely invasive (bees love it too, but we can compensate there). We are not into trapping and killing.

We have been inoculating the roots of everything we have planted with mycorrhizal fungi since Day One, over six years ago. I am glad that you concur with the benefits. Do you have a favorite product (there are so many now–when we started, there was one, and it was and is very expensive)?

A trip to the Mendocino Botanical Gardens ignited a passion in us for heathers and grevilleas. I recently got a wonderful book on heathers (so beautiful, and a great favorite of bees–and evidently heather honey is quite a delicacy. Why I bring this up is because these acid-loving, poor-soil plants (Ericaceae–including bluberries and cranberries, which we also grow)) require completely different fungi. I haven’t delved into that yet, but this book says that giving the wrong incoculants can adversely affect the plants…

I read about the devastating results that worms have on forest duff and forests in a New York Times article that I was using for sheet mulch (I have read many great articles in the process of sheet-mulching!) This was an eye-opener and very good to know! I have done a lot of reforesting of the riparian zones and ridges that surround our growing areas, and have used compost and mulches in the process, but did not add worms from the bins, as I do in the cultivated areas. Still, evidently significant damage is done by worms that escape from people who are fishing in forest streams…

Answer from Pat:
Thanks for sending so much helpful information on intriguing organic subjects and solutions. I also have visited the Mendocino Botanic Gardens years ago and marveled at the health of the azaleas growing in the acid soil, just right for them under pine trees. Regarding the expense of inoculants, I think it’s just a matter of time when lower-cost products will be available. Meanwhile hunting around often brings results. Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply often is less expensive than some. Gardens Alive may be feeling the pinch of tight economic times and has more frequent sales than formerly.

Related posts:

1. Organic Solutions: Manure, Compost, Rhizobia, CO2 Sequestering
2. Avocado Trees, Mites, and Gophers
3. Gophers and Fruit Trees

Question from Mary:

I am so very sorry to hear of your riding accident that left you physically compromised, and especially after having been obviously very active out of doors! That must be hard. One consolation is the many people you have helped through your blog that perhaps you would not have had time to help, had you been gardening. I know the latter typically takes all my time from sunrise to sunset.

My partner recently read your article on compost, by the way. We have been wanting to make our own (we import OMRI-certified from local vendors, 15 yards at a time). We have a lot of weed piles, but were stymied by the problem of finding a recommended, affordable, safe, and effective chopper/shredder machine. Your solution to just machete it was a good one that we intend to try. Though I saw a hand-crank shredder recently–in the great permaculturist Geoff Lawton’s video on soils–that intrigued me.

I went to Bancroft Junior High while my sister went to Hollywood High. But after that year, my mother was disillusioned with the public school system (as were we, despite making great lifelong friends at both institutions) and we were sent to an “experimental” high school in the San Fernando Valley based on the principles of Summerhill and other innovative education experiments–this was the late sixties–the heyday of hope, progress, and experimentation on a societal level.

It sounds like your parents were innovators too, open to what must have been at the time the radical ideas of Albert Howard and Rodale. I also think you were blessed with that early farming experience that helped establish your amazing connection with growing things at an early age!

I am so glad you strongly corroborate my nascent impressions of chicken manure! The reason I tried it is that I noticed after cleaning out one of our barn owl nesting boxes, the ground cover in the area under it, where all the waste had fallen, grew at least five times as big and a deeper, richer green than anywhere else in the field. I went on a mission to see what I could get that was kin to barn owl manure. I ended up trying bat guano and chicken manure, the latter being easier to apply, the best results, and cheaper to boot!

Thank you so much for the tips on the horse manure and alfalfa, when to apply, etc. You mention the horse manure must be “clean” (salt-free)–how do you ascertain that? We have many stables in this rural part of West Sonoma County who give away horse manure if you pick it up. We made a compost out of manure and rice straw the first year after we bought the land, but have not done it since. This is because I had heard from several sources that horse was not the best choice in manures. However, I see it can be boosted with alfalfa, and that another useful property is that it can be applied year-round. My tetanus shot still has another 3–4 years to go! Thanks for the concern!

Here’s one for you: Have you heard about the University of OR study of coffee grounds–supposedly as rich in N and effective as cow manure, without the pathogens? We have started getting organic grounds from a local cafe to see for ourselves.

I have read a couple of articles about the charcoal-making of older civilzations. I want to understand it better and read more. There is another Aussie permaculturist who does deep, thin-lined plowing of pasture land on a very large scale, innoculating the soil 2.5 feet deep with good bacteria and fungi, which he says, if done on a vast scale, will counteract global warming by absorbing CO2. Not totally sure how this works, even though I have viewed seven of his 21 or so videos on the subject! My guess is that ground-cover roots can grow deeper and better with the innoculant applied that deeply, and therefore absorb and sequester more carbon (???)… Any thoughts?

Answer from Pat:
You are certainly a devoted organic gardener. Thank you for this informative email including many facts of help to other organic gardeners, and thanks for ordering my book!

A few quick answers to your queries: You asked how to find salt-free horse manure. Of course, there will always be some salt in any manure or urine of humans or animals. But what I meant was manure that is largely free of salt from salt licks. My experience is that good horse owners “muck out” their stables and corrals daily. That is, every day they go around with a pitch fork and wheelbarrow and scoop up all manure. This is the sort of horse owner or stable you want to find. Don’t get the manure from a messy, badly kept barnyard or corral. One reason sheep manure and goat manure are fine to use is because this is usually clean manure simply because of the way the animals are kept, usually on pasture. And by the way, I’m sure you know not to used pig manure because it contains dangerous pathogens. We didn’t know that on our farm in Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, we used it on the fields not on the vegetables, simply because of the smell.

Mares drop their manure wherever, but stallions and pride-cut geldings stack it neatly in a corner. When a horse owner or stable owner doesn’t care, the animals begin not to care either and kick the manure around and bits of salt may get into it and lots of bedding may get mixed into it too. The same thing happens when steer, cows, and other cattle are kept in a feed lot. It’s a horrendous situation and usually there are chunks of salt getting mixed into steer manure, and sometimes you can see it in dry bagged manure.

When getting horse manure, it’s okay to include the bedding (sawdust or straw) and to include it also when spreading manure like mulch on top of the ground, since the sawdust particularly contains the urine which is a strong source of nitrogen, it’s good to use, but then one cannot combine it with the garden soil without letting it age because it won’t be fully rotted. This, in my opinion, is why we are told to age manures in manure piles, when actually it’s fine to spread it fresh and let rain wash the goodness into the ground. The reason for the aging caveat is that folks might dig fresh manure into the ground and that is a no-no for several reasons: Fresh manure can burn roots and un-rotted bedding will subtract nitrogen from the soil in order to rot. But an Extension Advisor in Ohio wrote an article that I once came across on the Internet that agreed with me. His point was why should we waste all that good nitrogen pouring down into the ground under a manure pile for three months and incidentally causing runoff into the ground water, when you could have been aging it along on top of the ground surrounding plants so that the nitrogen, which he pointed out mainly came from urine, could be going down into the ground to feed plants, not just to be wasted while actually harming the environment.

Thank you for mentioning the Oregon University study on coffee grounds http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/node/1009

. I had not heard of but at my talks recently several folks have asked about them. I usually suggest using them and tea leaves also on acid-loving plants, now I know since reading this article that they are not acid, but neutral. Also, they are not a source of nitrogen, nor are they fully rotted, of course, so it’s best not to dig them into the ground unless you add plenty of nitrogen. The article suggests using them as a nitrogenous waste in the compost pile but they cannot be considered a nitrogen fertilizer.

Regarding sequestering CO2, I find it a little difficult to understand also, since after all none of these methods allow one to grab carbon dioxide or methane from the atmosphere and stick it into the ground. The only good it does as far as I can see is to prevent a current or future source of carbon dioxide from escaping into the atmosphere, such as the methane in coffee grounds, for example, which would be released from a dump if they go to a dump.

Regarding rhizobia and inoculants in soil and for plant health, I am totally convinced of their benefits. Deep plowing, however, is today a controversial subject. Some experts believe in such practices as double digging and deep plowing. Others believe in shallow plowing or even no digging at all. Many experts now feel it is unwise to disturb the natural mechanisms that exist in the ground which can create a web of beneficial bacteria, rhizobia, fungi, and other organisms out of sight in the soil and that one should not disturb the soil horizons either. I believe that the lasanga or Ruth Stout no dig method of gardening is a perfectly workable system, but that it works better in a wet climate than a dry one, which does not mean it can’t be done. In fact, I have included basic instructions in the latest edition of my book, the one you are getting. But basically I am still of the old school that digs up or plows the ground and adds organic amendments of various types to enrich the soil. Also, European earthworms are most likely not a good thing out in nature where they destroy leaf cover, but fine on farms and in gardens where they help to combine organics with the soil. They are especially helpful in sandy soils.

Related posts:

1. Organic Solutions: Rhizobia, Yeoman’s Plow, Carbon Sequestering, and Earthworms
2. Horse Manure Compost
3. Chicken or Horse Manure

Question from Ica:

Answer from Pat:
Spent brewery grains are an excellent additive to the compost pile, but they vary in characteristics. Some beer companies are learning to use them to make compost and other companies are also recycling them for use as mushroom compost. They can also be used to feed worm bins. Composted brewery grains are one of the ingredients in Milorganite and contribute a lot of its nitrogen.

Most spent brewery grains when used in the compost pile can be classed as a nitrogenous waste (a fast, hot, “green” ingredient, like grass clippings). Layer with some carbonaceous materials such as dry leaves to make a nitrogen-rich compost. Brewery grains can be especially beneficial if you have a bin composter since they are nitrogenous and are easy to compost but need tossing to maintain their warmth. You may have to add some wood shavings to keep the compost from getting too smelly. Brewery grains are likely to be very smelly already when you first pick them up, so get them as quickly as you can after use. Some grains also have allelopathic qualities, that is, like corn gluten meal, they can prevent seeds from germinating. Composting them may not kill this action. Thus I would use this compost in areas of the garden where you don’t intend to plant from seeds and where you would like to prevent weeds from growing. Before using this compost in the vegetable garden, try planting some radish seeds in a container of potting mix mixed with the compost to make sure the seeds germinate easily.

Spent brewery grains are not a good material for mulching due to the fact that they are too smelly and also attract animals. Spent brewery grains that are very soft, wet, and smelly can be dug directly into the soil, as you asked, since they are already well on their way to breaking down and will release nitrogen in the form of gas directly into the ground in a form that plant roots can absorb. On the other hand, spent brewery grains that have been allowed to dry out or cake and get hard should not be added directly to the garden soil. These would subtract nitrogen from the soil in order to rot. Also they will act more like carbonaceous waste in the compost pile. You will need to add water to them so they can puff up again and get going. (When brewery grains are hard and dry some gardeners even recommend layering them with grass clippings to add nitrogen to them, but this does sound odd since the grains themselves are classes as nitrogenous. Under normal circumstances the grains should provide the nitrogenous waste and what you would need to add, if anything, is carbonaceous waste.)

One easy way to compost these left over grains and increase the organic matter in your soil is simply to dig trenches, for example between the rows in your vegetable or cut-flower garden, pour the grain in there, cover it over with soil, and let the worms do the composting.

Related posts:

1. How to Create a Hot Compost Pile
2. New Gardener – Composting for Two
3. Horse Manure Compost

I am just installed a raised 13 1/2 foot by 5 1/2 foot veggie bed in mu back yard that will get great amounts of south facing sun. I have filled the bed with good quality organic soil. I am using a soaker hose that is hooked into the irrigation timer.

I would like tomatoes on the north side and want to plant good companion plants this time of year. I know you dont recommend soaker hose for tomatoes but I want to use soaker hose for the rest of the bed. I am a bit confused as to what to do. I just purchased your book, Southern California Organic Gardening and I realize I have a lot to learn but if you could point me in the right direction as to how to lay out my box I would greatly appreciate it.

Answer from Pat:
What you have done so far sounds fine. Now what I would do is purchase a bag or a box of organic fertilizer recommended for vegetables and work this into the top 6 inches of soil according to package directions. Next you will need to provide a trellis or stakes for tomatoes at the back. Your bed is quite long. It sounds as if you could grow 5 or 6 plants along the back. (The north side.) Maybe in one of the spaces you’d like to grow a cucumber plant. (Burpees Burpless is my favorite, a tall vine that is very productive. Any mild, long, Japanese variety will do well. These are expensive to buy so worthwhile growing. In front you would have room to plant your choice of summer vegetables. See the list on page 199 of vegetables you can plant now. These include such warm-season crops as bush beans, eggplant, radishes, carrots, leaf lettuce, beets, peppers and summer squash. (Choose a compact variety.) Plant a selection of these as soon as next weekend. Loosen up the roots a little before putting each plant in the ground and firm the soil around them. Of course if planting carrots, beets, or radishes, you will have to plant from seeds. Since you are starting a little late I would purchase most crops already growing as plants. Put in some basil too to eat along with the tomatoes. As soon as you plant you should water really well at first so the little plants take hold. Then water with the soaker hose enough so the ground is evenly moist. The plants will tell you if they don’t have enough water since they will wilt.

You are not the only first-time gardener who is at first a little intimidated by the whole process of growing vegetables, but just plunge in and try. Soon you will discover your summer crops are just as anxious to please you as you are to help them grow. Yes, there is a lot to learn but simply by getting going with it, you gradually will learn everything you need to know. In a couple of years you will be an old hand at this and wishing you had more space. But your raised bed is a good size and shape for a great start and since you put it in full sun, in September or October, you will be able to switch to winter crops. Best of luck and don’t hesitate to write again if you want to.

Related posts:

1. Tips for Building Raised Beds and Planting Vegetables with the Seasons
2. Planting Summer Crops
3. Soil Preparation Before Planting in a Raised Bed That Has Been Used Before