Messing with the Neighbors

So I finished my rows like I described in my last post.  My rototiller can only till the first 4 inches or so.  I miss my father's old Gravely with the roto plow attachment.  I wish we never sold it.  I took my shovel and dug the sides of the row and tossed the soil on top of the rows.  I then proceeded to take my rake and loosen all the clods of loam into pillowy soft rows of soil.  It is truly beautiful.  I made two rows.  They area about 50 ft long and about 2.5 ft wide at the base and about 14 inches high.

One neighbor asked me, "Are you building a fence?"  I replied, "No, if I was doing that I would make it nearer to my property line.  This is a grave for my anaconda.  She died last night."

So like I warned you in the last post NO MANURE NO FERTILIZER.  This applies to the root crops except potatoes.  Potatoes are the exception to everything root crop; its technically not a root crop even.  I don't have time to get into potatoes tonight. 

So for root crops you need several inches, I say 12", of very loose soil preferably sandy and a spot that never floods.  Having a raised row makes this easy.  It will never be flooded and you loosen the soil as you pile it on.  The reason I said no manure, no fertilizer is because a soil high in nitrogen will be detrimental to your root crop harvest.

The taproots, the part we eat of carrots, beets, turnips, whatever, when exposed to high nitrogen soil will fork and become fibrous.  Since the soil is so high in nutrients, the plant does not go into storage mode, it goes into make-as-many-fibrous-roots-so-we-can-have-a-huge-leafy-plant mode.


So this is the week for planting a bunch of stuff.  Spinach, cabbage, carrots, parsley, peas.  None of them need a ridiculous amount of fertilizer.  Average soil is fine.  Add a little limestone to balance the pH closer to 6 or so and more of the nutrients in the soil are available to the plant.  Compost of food scraps or leaves are fine to add but are often acidic, just add limestone.  I didn't get to my peas yet.  I need to get some stuff for trellising.

I planted some beets and radishes even though general consensus is I should wait but I figured I would try it.  I think they will be fine.  We will see.  I'll keep you posted.  Four weeks until radishes and beets.

I will return to the topic of the importance of limestone.  Remind me if I forget.