Cameron, a reader of the blog, has a different soil-building tip:
I have tried alfalfa pellets but I must say that they don't work quite as well as owl pellets. My Grandfather used owl pellets exclusively and he was the annual winner of Ionia County, MI biggest pumpkin award for 16 years in a row. He believed that it was the rodentia bones and leftover pieces that made the pumpkins so huge. He also told a story about this time that he almost died in the war.

The next big step....

It's snowing out, but I'm already thinking of spring. The next big step is to plan what to plant and buy the seeds. I'll be writing about this in the Gazette on Feb. 9. But in the mean time, I want to ask people to leave their comments on where to get the best seeds. I'm thinking Wal-mart (just kidding) or maybe online. Do you have favorite suppliers?

-Dave

Another reader soil-building tip

This one from Lee Fielder:

Alfalfa pellets! Mix them into the soil when you till it. Adds nutrients, loosens the soil, and turns it into earthworm paradise. I used it with my daylilies first, and in 1 year had plants that looked like they had been there 3. I now use it in all of my beds, flower and vegetable, with great results.

How to build soil in a dry climate

A reader's take on the benefits of green manure (left) versus good ol' animal manure.

"It looks like you're already getting good advice, but I do have a comment based on what I saw in the latest post. Amending the soil with organic matter to develop humus is always a great idea for all the reasons we know so well, but you have to be careful how you do it, and the procedure you use depends on the amendment.
What you've done is known as "sheet composting" in most circles. Instead of piling the organic matter in a heap to heat up and digest, you've spread it out as a sheet on the ground. Here in Colorado, I'd generally not recommend adding raw organic matter in any form, except perhaps fresh grass clippings or "green manure" tilled under, without first composting it. Sheet composting is difficult to do well up here. The main reason for this is caused by our dry climate. When I gardened in upstate New York, you could throw anything on the garden in fall, till it under, and by spring it would be well rotted humus. Not so here...the climate does not facilitate such rapid decomposition, mainly because the soils tend not to support large colonies of beneficial fungi, bacteria, and macro-invertebrates (worms...) required for such results.
Furthermore, adding anything with high carbon content causes a temporary nitrogen deficiency in the soil as the few existing microbes go to work and use the available soil nitrogen to digest the carbonaceous material (cellulose, primarily) in the raw amendment. Of all the essential elements in the soil (NPK), nitrogen is the most water soluble and will leach out quickly without humus to retain it. When exacerbated by the rotting effect, it can completely deplete the soil. Eventually, the digestion process is finished and soil nitrogen levels return to normal, and maybe even a bit better than normal because of the newly created humus that helps the soil keep its nitrogen. The faster the microbes can work, the sooner the deficiency returns to normal. As indicated above, unless you can keep your ground really wet, and maintain an artificially high level of the good soil critters, this deficiency will last for quite a while. You can correct this by adding supplemental nitrogen, but then you're just correcting something you caused to need correction. Fresh grass clippings, well tilled in, or a cover crop such as vetch or clover tilled under in spring is not as risky because they're already high nitrogen sources and will rot faster than high carbon additives such as hay, straw, wood shavings, etc. Be careful of herbicides and bad stuff in grass clippings...
Finally, the same dry climate causes soils here to retain sodium chloride (salt...) in the root zone. Salt is a killer to many crops, especially vegetables, so it is a deadly enemy. By using any animal sources of nitrogen (manure especially) you actually increase the amount of salt you're putting on your garden, and it will stay in the upper soil layers for a long time, thus accumulating rapidly to toxic levels. That's too bad, because manure is usually readily available and it's a great source of naturally available nitrogen. Unfortunately, however, we need to be cautious here in Colorado if we use it, and monitor salt levels carefully. I'd simply avoid it and use vegetable-only compost.
And that brings us to my favorite subject: Compost. I've been able to make vegetable-only compost here and get my piles up to 160 degrees. But, we'll save that subject for later.

Best Regards,

Chip

Winter seed time

Hi all,

Since there is nothing to do with the ground in January, I've been thinking about ordering my seeds for the year. What are some favorite spots for buying seeds? Do people prefer catalogues or local garden shops? Or can I just swing by Home Depot and still get good results?

What works best?

-Dave

Welcome to my little Garden spot

Hi all. As anyone who read my story in the gazette knows, I'll be keeping a web log on the progress of a little kitchen garden in my front yard. Above is the less-than-perfect site for my new plot. The goal is to grow as much food in as small a space as is practical, with as little work as possible. Call it the lazy-man's garden. How little can I do and still get a good return? That's what I want to find out.

And for all you non-gardeners who want to find out with me, I encourage you to dig a small plot and garden along. Post your questions to this site and I will dig up answers from master gardeners in the area.

I'll be publishing one story a month on my garden, but in the meantime, I'll be updating my site with picture and notes from my garden (and yours).

Also, if you are a seasoned gardener, don't hesitate to chime in with advice.

Next month, I'll be going through how to improve the soil. The magic word here is manure. Below is my greyhound, stella, who considers herself a manure expert, inspecting a load I just added to my plot.

-Dave