All Things Gardening 2018

[hatidua]

I got my fence up which has kept all the deer out except one stubborn one. I have not composted at this house so what is the best bang for the buck to augment the soil?

Alpaca manure -it's like Miracle-Gro on steroids. Usually there are a few places on Craigslist that give it away for free, typically in Castle Rock area. I've brought 3,000#s of it to Boulder with multiple trips in my Jeep.

[William]

Alpaca manure -it's like Miracle-Gro on steroids. Usually there are a few places on Craigslist that give it away for free, typically in Castle Rock area. I've brought 3,000#s of it to Boulder with multiple trips in my Jeep.

That's a good idea. Found a couple places close to me.

[Mtneer]

Processed my compost today. I use the system I mentioned on Page 2. I built a screen to sift out the big stuff. Each year it gives me 10, 5 gallon buckets of high quality compost. One advantage of composting on the ground it is literally teaming with worms thousands of them!

I have 3 4x8 raised beds and each gets their share. Then I had to turn them all with the garden fork and rake them relatively flat. All together, about 4 hours of manual labor. I'll sow lettuce and spinach seeds on Monday.

Decided I won't start seeds anymore inside for tomatoes, peppers, etc. I'm just buying seedlings at good garden centers. Not a whole lot more expensive and saves many hours of watering, messing with lights, hardening, etc.

Thinking about adding a 4th bed outside the fence and trying some squash and zucchinis. They take up too much space and I've heard deer don't like them. No big loss if they do get hungry.