Quote:
Originally Posted by SwampYankee
The "compost" our town gives away is pretty crappy stuff, lots of plastic and detritus mixed in (they still vacuum up leaves curbside so some litter invariably gets into it). Ideally you have to dig in deep and screen it to make it worthwhile. Some municipalities do offer some nice stuff, mine just isn't one of them.
Most state extension services/ag experiment stations here offer soil testing for free or very little money. I recommend it to every customer that comes through our door, whether they're a garden or a lawn customer. Homeowner or lawn care operator.
Some random person comes in off the street and asks how much pelletized lime do I need for my lawn? Knowing our soils are naturally acidic, I tell them at miminum 50 lbs. per 1,000 sq.ft. if they need to change the pH but it could be anywhere from 25 lbs.-175 lbs. A soil test will tell them exactly how much.
It takes all of the guess work out of soil management. In addition to pH levels, the test results will let you know what nutrients are deficient and which ones are already at adequate levels eliminating the application of unneeded fertilizer components (saves money and better for the environment).
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We have that here. its a mix of old garbage composted down (40 years old) Horse and Cow manure from the Federal Prison and police stables and rabbit jellybeans from a few schools who have them and the chips that are with the rabbit beans (pine/cedar) that composted down for a year... this stuff is pretty potent. I have 5 buckets of it to fill a planter I am installing on the back porch for herbs.
@Swamp, Yes! plenty of light. I spent a week doing timelapses of the yard seeing where the sunniest places are and mapping out where certain pants needed to go and where others can be planted... this is about 2 months of planning and finally got to the execution part
