Post-Thanksgiving, pre-winter holidays...it's been raining and now the sun is out; it's a perfect time to visit your garden. Guess what's growing in the gardens? Weeds! They're everywhere-plots and paths- and now is the time to disrupt them before they get established. Many weeds just need to be "cultivated" when small- lightly till the soil to dig up the roots and leave the weeds to decompose in your garden. However, it's important to be able to ID your weeds and dig up the more invasive ones or any that are already making seeds. While weeding Monday I went after any cheeseweed seedlings, Oxalis, and bindweed first with a hori-hori and then tilled the soil to kill the annual grasses and forbs coming up. Next, I'll mulch to reduce the next round of sprouts.
Other work in the garden is cleaning up the cold sensitive plants- we just cleared several beds of tomato vines and zucchini plants. Not leaving debris in your garden helps reduce the amount of pests and disease that can carry over into the new growing season. We also harvested all the green (and the few red) tomatoes and ended up with around 30 pounds! Can't wait to see what dish the chefs create to use them.
The last fun winter garden chore is looking over seed catalogs and planning your spring garden! The main planting season is just around the corner- but we can't wait, so right now we're planting peas, kale, chard, spinach and fava beans to take advantage of our secret 4th growing season-winter. What are you excited to grow?
We look forward to seeing those of you who have RSVP'd for our Winter Wreath Making event at the Presidio Native Plant Nursery on the 9th. Interested in joining us? RSVP here!
Our Sustainability Team and the folks from Presidio Foods (kitchen and catering staff from the Golden Gate Club, Arguello restaurant, and management) took a field trip to see the Garden at AT&T Park recently. Farmscape manages the garden, produce is used in the two cafes (one is gluten free and makes tasty pizzas, the other is vegetarian/vegan), and there are regular education programs bringing kids to the ballpark and introducing them to delicious and healthy veggies. It's a great program and we had fun doing a scavenger hunt in the garden and making our own pizzas with veggies and herbs we had picked.
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Taylor's Blog Post #4: Organic Fertilizers
Hello community gardeners! A few weeks ago I promised that I’d write a post about supplementing your raised bed with organic fertilizers, and here it is…
I’d like to start by saying compost is not an organic fertilizer. Compost is an amendment that
can be added to your bed to build up overall soil health. In addition to compost,
your plants also need an organic fertilizer with a healthy balance of the major
nutrients NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium) in order to produce a
bountiful harvest. Organic fertilizers can provide your plants with healthy,
fast-acting doses of NPK or with slower release during the season. Nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium are all essential to a plants growth and it is
important to remember that each of these nutrients nourishes a different part
of the plant. Below I’ve outlined which part of the plant is cultivated by each
nutrient of NPK. I’ve also listed organic fertilizer options specific to the
various types of growth you may be trying to target.
- (N) Nitrogen- your plants need nitrogen to achieve leaf growth. Organic fertilizers rich in nitrogen help your plants with leaf formation. If you are trying to grow leaf vegetables (lettuce, chard, spinach, etc.) or trying to facilitate leaf growth in your plants, fish emulsion, bat guano, and blood meal are good nitrogen-rich organic fertilizers to utilize.
- (P) Phosphorus- your plants need phosphorus for root formation, stem growth, and fruiting. Organic fertilizers rich in phosphorus help your plants in early stages of development as well as in fruit production later on. Organic fertilizers such as bone meal, crushed shellfish, and rock phosphate are all great options for giving your plants a healthy dose of phosphorus.
- (K) Potassium- your plants need potassium for flower growth, fruit growth, and immunity. To help with blooming, fruit production, and plant immunity, organic fertilizers high in potassium such as kelp meal, seaweed, and wood ash are effective supplements to add to your raised bed.
It’s important to remember that too much of one element of
NPK and not enough of the others could be a serious limiting factor for your
plants. Excess nitrogen in the spring encourages rapid growth which often attracts
pests like aphids. Too much nitrogen (without enough phosphorus and potassium)
could cause your plant to grow too many leaves while limiting flower/fruit.
This could pose a problem for fruiting crops (such as tomato or strawberry
plants), but might actually be helpful when growing leaf vegetables like
lettuce, chard, and spinach. It’s important to cater to your plants needs
especially if you want to get the most from your harvest. Finding an organic
fertilizer that is rich in all three of the NPK nutrients can also be an
effective way of making sure that your plants are getting a balanced dose of
nutrients.
Organic fertilizers also have the benefit of providing
essential micro-nutrients. We’ll talk about them in a future blog post.
Don’t forget that we are limited to using only organic fertilizers in our beds so
keep this in mind when choosing a fertilizer for your plants! Organic
fertilizers are made from naturally derived materials as opposed to
conventional fertilizers (i.e. MiracleGro) which are processed or manufactured;
nitrogen heavy ones are derived from petroleum.
Want more information? Check out these websites:
