Give Your Vegetable Seeds a Great Start

photo courtesy of Tom Mann via Annie's Pinterest board

Wouldn’t you like to increase the chances of your vegetable seeds not only germinating but developing strong roots in their early growth stages?

I have been vegetable gardening for over 30 years and a retailer of vegetable seeds with our Seeds of the month club for just over three years. As you can imagine I run into a wide variety of vendors in the vegetable gardening industry that make claims to be the best, the greatest and the only product you, your garden or your vegetable seeds will ever need to grow into big and strong vegetable and fruit producing plants.

Some of these vegetable gardening products are just ok, and many are complete duds, border lining unsafe to have near my family let alone spray on my seed starting soil. There is one vegetable gardening product though that I can’t brag enough about. It is safe, great for your vegetable seeds, inexpensive, produced right here in the United States, and quite frankly I don’t think you will find another person in this industry that is happier to sell a product of this sort, and her family has been doing it for decades. Now that is a track record.

I first learned of Annie Haven about 3 years ago when I was perusing an article in a magazine I subscribe to. Compelled by how well that article was written about Annie, I looked up her company and a phone number and gave her a ring. I wanted to learn more this vegetable gardening product line that she was selling, how in the world she got into the business, and what it can do for my own customers when they go to germinate their vegetable seeds. It took all of about 30 seconds on the phone with her to realize she is as genuine as they come in the vegetable gardening industry and is passionate about selling her product line.

Nestled in San Juan Capistrano, California, Annie Haven, owner of Authentic Haven Brand produces a special line of all natural soil conditioners. This soil conditioner, also known as manure tea, is harvested from Annie’s own livestock.

Since 1924, Annie and her family have raised only natural grass fed livestock. It has been about the last 20 years though where they have harvested their livestock’s manure, seasoned it and packaged it for the general public to be used as manure tea for the home vegetable gardener.

The process is very simple. You take one of the manure tea bags and steep it in 1 to 5 gallons of water for about 1 to 3 days. Then use the mixture to water your garden soil with. If the organic health benefits of using such a product line with your vegetable seeds were not enough, they took the extra step of using a manure tea bag that is biodegradable and can be thrown right into your compost pile, once you completely use up the manure tea bag of course.

The manure tea bags come in three varieties, Horse manure, Cow Manure and Alfalfa. Annie recommends using the horse and cow varieties for vegetable gardens and the alfalfa on roses.

While I will be the first to say that I did not conduct any scientific testing, I did use the manure teas on some black beauty eggplant and compared that to some I grew without the teas and the results were remarkable. The manure tea treated eggplants had a better root system, looked lusher and greener in the leaves, and the fruit itself seemed sturdier (although I had no other way to verify this other than feeling it).

Since that time (about two years) that I conducted my informal testing, I have used Annie’s manure tea in my garden ever since. I will soak my vegetable seed starter soil when I plant my seeds, then water my gardens with the manure tea every two weeks throughout the entire vegetable gardening season.

But you don’t have to take just my word for it. Here is Annie’s Pinterest board where users of the manure tea have posted their results for the world to see: http://pinterest.com/greensoiltea/authentic-haven-brand-soil-nutrients/

Sheet Composting

By now you already know that composting is a great way to add nutrients back into your soil.  Remember your vegetable plants are going to deplete your soil of its nutrients every year and if you are not adding nutrients back into your soil, eventually your plants will produce far less than what you are used to.  Composting gives you the ability to tackle this issue.

Today, we are going to talk about sheet composting.  Sheet composting is a specific composting technique, in which anyone can do, requires a little bit of effort and has wonderful affects on your soil. 

If you are someone that lives on a property where having a compost pile is virtually impossible, then sheet composting may be the way for you to go. 

As the name, sheet composting, implies, sheet composting is the process of layering (think in sheets) organic material on top of your garden bed and then mixing or tilling that organic material into your garden soil. 

Sheet composting works like this. 

First you cover your garden bed with a layer of leaves (or other organic material).  Second, using a garden tiller or pitchfork, work that layer into your garden soil.  As a side note the leaves (or any of your organic matter) will breakdown much faster if it is already shredded.  While “pre” shredding is not mandatory for sheet or other types of composting, it will speed the process along.   Finally, repeat the first two sheet composting steps using a different material.  For example, if you used, leaves for your sheet composting the first time, use grass clippings for your second sheet composting layer.

Two caveats you should know about when it comes to sheet composting so you are informed.  First, according the University of Illinois Agriculture Department, “The danger of sheet composting as a compost-making method is that carbon containing residues will call upon the nitrogen reserves of the soil for their decomposition. On the other hand, high-nitrogen materials may release their nitrogen too quickly in the wrong form. What may take a matter of weeks in a compost pile, given confined and thermophilic conditions, may take a full season in the soil.”

Second, sheet composting should be conducted in the fall to ensure that there is enough time for the organic material to break down prior to the spring planting season. 

So how much material should you layer in your sheet composting?  This number will vary depending which source you get it from, but what I am finding is the average sheet composting layering amount should be anywhere from two to four inches of material, then tilling it into your soil.

If you are going to conduct sheet composting in garden beds that have bulbs, such as flower beds, it is best that you do not use a power tiller.  Mixing in your material for your sheet composting in these garden beds would best be done by hand, with a small trowel, garden weasel etc.

Compost, Vegetable Gardener’s Gold

There is a lot of talk these days about gold and precious metals, but for the home vegetable gardener, nothing is more “gold” than compost.  Compost is the ultimate source for everything your plants need to grow and produce.

Compost is more than likely the answer to any vegetable gardener’s question on soil improvement.  How do I enrich my soil? Compost!  How do I make my soil more friable? Compost!  How do I make my soil better for water retention capabilities? Compost!  Yes compost is really the answer to a lot of vegetable gardening questions.

If you think compost is too good to be true, then all you need to do is go ask any fellow vegetable gardener that has been growing their own veggies for some time and they will be the first to tell you that compost is the answer.

So what is compost?  Where do you get compost?  Is compost safe to use?  

Compost is nothing more than taking organic material and letting that material breakdown naturally.  Such material would include, grass clippings, leaves, wood ash, your leftover dinner, coffee grounds, tea bags and so much more.  It would not include, aluminum cans, plastic containers and so on.  That stuff is called garbage, but you probably know that already.

As you can see from this basic list of materials you can make your own compost from the items that you already have in and around your house.  Forgo the garbage disposal and start composting (which is the act of creating and making compost).  I will get to more on composting in a second.

So is compost safe to use?  The answer is absolutely!  In fact I truly believe you would be missing out on a successful garden without compost.   Compost, as stated before, enriches the soil by adding nutrients, and compost has even shown in some studies to help your vegetable plants fight off disease and insects.

Composting, the act of actually creating compost, is easy.  The two easiest methods of composting, at least to me anyway, is a compost pile or trench composting.  

A compost pile is as it sounds, a pile of the organic material mentioned earlier.  You would take an area of your yard, property etc, and simply make a pile.  Over time this pile would break down into healthy usable compost.  Of course if you live in a suburb development, town home area and so on, a compost pile may look unsightly to “non” vegetable gardeners.  So you can either convince your neighbor’s to get on board with what you are doing (the harder path), or simply enclose your compost pile, to make the pile look “neater”.

The second composting method is trench composting.  This is where you will immediately bury your organic material about 18 to 24 inches into your garden.  The downfall of this composting method is that you cannot, actually I should say, you should not bury anything while your vegetable plants occupy your garden area.  You don’t want to disturb your plants’ roots.  In the end you will have to keep a compost pile anyway.

So here is a breakdown as to why you should have a compost pile:

• Compost provides nutrition for your plants
• Compost will improve the aeration, friability and water retention of your soil
• Compost will keep your soil’s pH in optimal balance
• Compost is free!  Ok, compost is virtually free.  You still have to add the material to a pile to make it.

Start your own compost pile today!