Soil Amendments and Pesticides in my Organic Garden

I have two best friends in the garden.

OK, I have many best friends in the garden. The garden is like da club and I'm chilling with all my bffs popping bottles and whateva and bees and buzzing and all that BUT when my girls Neem Oil and Fish Emulsion come in we know it's finna go down.

Neem Oil is pressed from the seed of the Neem tree, which is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. Neem oil is typically used as an insecticide and is especially useful against aphid infestations but is also useful as an antifungal and antibacterial agent in the garden. The active ingredient is azadirachtin, so when purchasing be sure to check the label that it has that in it. Some products available in your big box stores that are advertised as neem oil sprays or extracts do not contain this or do not explicitly state that they contain it. I've found a few bottles that list "Clarified Hydrophobic Extract of Neem Oil" as the active ingredient and since they don't say azadirachtin I don't typically trust them. Instead, I purchase unrefined, organic, straight neem oil that I dilute myself. Because we are using an oil, we need to add an emulsifier so that it will dissolve in to water so that it can be distributed in to water. Neem oil tends to be solid at room temperature so might benefit from a dip in a warm bath first, followed by a good shake. I use it at a 1% dilution along with a good squirt of Dr. Bonners or another biodegradable soap and spray on foliage, stems and branches, and the dirt around the base of the plant. It works as an insecticide by inhibiting reproduction and eating and injuring soft bodied insects. I discovered neem oil in a fight against aphids and now spray regularly on all of my plants, including my apple trees.

Fish Emulsion is a broad spectrum, gentle fertilizer that is known to not burn. Fish oil is made from scrap fish parts and may be fermented. Typically available in a 5-1-1 NPK ratio (meaning it contains 5 parts nitrogen to 1 part phosphorus to 1 part potassium), fish emulsion is beneficial to almost everything in the garden but weak enough that it must be reapplied twice a week for optimal growth. In addition  to NPK, it contains valuable trace nutrients that are great for root growth and soil building. Different plants are going to need different amount of fish emulsion but I typically to 2-3T per gallon. Beware though, fish emulsion smells exactly like you think it would. Be careful with spraying it on your indoor plants.

maybe weed first?

How do I use these two rockstars in my garden?
Twice a week I mix up 2-3T of fish emulsion in to my little 1 gallon sprayer and spray all over the everything, focusing on the ground around my plants. As I want this to get soaked in to the earth, it doesn't matter if it should be raining soon. It won't run off and be ineffective as pesticides do.
Neem oil is used less often. Every other week, in addition to my fish emulsion I add about an oz and a half of neem oil and a good squirt of soap to my sprayer. As I mentioned above, you're aiming for a 1% ratio and need to add the soap to act as an emulsifier. Since we're trying to keep an oil suspended in a water, we also need to shake it up as we're using it. While we're spraying the neem oil we want to be sure to spray every surface of the plant. We're spraying the leaves, especially the underside of the leaves, the stem, and the ground around the plant, so that the whole antifungal, antibacterial, pesticidal actions can get flowing.

These two, along with a healthy side dressing with compost midseason, are pretty much all I use in my garden after my initial soil amendments. As always, before using any soil amendments or fertilizers an initial soil test is important.

How are things growing with you??

Client Garden Installation 5-1-17

Hey Friends!!

I am beyond excited about what I got to do this weekend. I got to go and play in someone else's dirt!
On Saturday I worked with a client (OK, my grandmother) to get her garden going this year. She hadn't done anything the past two years and so the whole area had gotten quite over run.

The yard itself isn't fenced in and is frequently visited by deer and groundhogs so the garden area is enclosed in an outdoor dog kennel with a gate that is roughly 7 feet tall.
WHAT AN EXCELLENT IDEA!!
I wish I could claim it as my own but it was like that when I got there.

Install day was Saturday so we met up Thursday and talked abut our goals. We established two main goals:
She wanted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and beans.
She needed to be able to maintain it mostly by herself but has family close that can help if needed.
Easy peasy!
Then we talked and talked about food she ate growing up in the country and foraging and herbs. I could have stayed much longer but had to go pick up a kid. Story of my life.

 So once Saturday rolled around I recruited some hands and we got to work!
It was a beautiful day to garden but HOT! It was our first over 90 degree day and we made it through with lots of water and with my helpers working in shifts.

Our first task was to clear out the debris and materials that were in the space. The beautiful apple tree in the middle had dropped loads of leaves that totally covered the ground. I'd initially planned to leave them in place and work them in to the soil as compost but there was just way too much in there for that to be feasible. Instead we raked most of it out and added it to the compost. With the leaves out of the way we were able to pull the plants that were coming up underneath. There was a lovely nettle plant in the corner that was to make her way home with me but alas, she was discarded accidentally. I was so excited to find nettle growing but now I know what she looks like and can find her easily again!

Once we were able to get down to bare earth, the real fun began. I wanted to keep the plants to the perimeter of the space so that the walls would be support and she would have clear space to walk without having to step on rows. The ground was prepared initially by turning over by the shovelfull to loosen and then compost was added and incorporated by hand with rotary cultivators.

After that, it was just planting!  We put in two jalapeno plants, 5 tomato plants and direct seeded some pole beans and cucumbers. To finish the job, we created a border out of some materials left from another project for around the apple tree and filled it with mulch, leaving an inch of space around the trunk. Tomato cages were placed around the jalapenos for support and individual poles are installed next to each tomato plant to tie them to. 

While small, this little garden will provide tons of food and fun for my grandmother. I know she'll love it and I look forward to talk to her about what she's growing!