Our Keyhole Vegetable Bed: What Worked and What Didn’t Work

...but other veggies did not appreciate the high carbon content of the bagged soil. It would have been better to make my own soil with high quality compost, but I was in a hurry. Clover in the keyhole bed did well and produced some pretty spring flowers. Conclusions Despite my mistakes, I heartily endorse the keyhole bed concept. I’d just make the sides higher and take more time putting the bed together. My neighbor Anne Hars layed her keyhole bed ou...

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Blueberries in a Self Watering Container

...es, “Oneal” and “Misty” in bare root form earlier this year from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply. Blueberries require an acidic soil, of the sort you’d find in a wet forest climate, so we planted them in a self watering container with a home made soil mix made up of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 wood chips and 1/3 azalea mix. Their special soil requirements and shallow roots make blueberries an ideal plant for self watering containers. And attention apa...

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A Warning About Straw

...often applied at such high rates that certain plants won’t grow in garden soil dressed with finished compost from a mix of sources, if one of those sources is a treated lawn or field. A quick bioassay will test for this in straw: peas sprouting from soil mixed with that straw will look deformed if the field that grew the straw was treated. Browns of a similar texture from a source you know to be clean should probably be used for a control group.”...

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A Self-Watering Container in a Pot

...strident post about how we don’t care if our patio looks like a methamphetamine lab, and have dressed up one of our SWCs. Here’s how we did it: First we stuck our three gallon self watering container inside of a large pot we had sitting around. Next we filled the SWC with potting soil (note: you must use potting soil in a SWC). We filled the void between the SWC and the pot with rocks. We used a plastic garbage bag as a mulch layer to help hold i...

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104 Erin Schanen the Impatient Gardener

...e. The folly of taking shortcuts with your soil. The importance of testing soil. Where to have soil tested. Deer! Messina’s Deer Stopper. Planting a memorial tree. Sweet peas. Grow lights. A lavender lined path. Websites: The Impatient Gardener, Impatient Gardener on Facebook and Instagram, @impatientgarden on Twitter. Special thanks to Eric of Garden Fork for introducing me to Erin! If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast pl...

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