By Gordon Wybo.
You arrive home after a hectic day at work. As you get out of your car and walk into the yard, a gentle breeze blows as chard and kale sway. The fragrance of herbs and flowers fills the air. You release the stress and troubles of the day. After all, you’re in a sacred space, Your Garden. A few seasons back, you chose your spot, amended the soil, picked your seeds from the local garden center and started growing. You started out with the usual staples, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and greens. Now you have ventured into herbs, heirlooms and even flowers. You went from having a small plot that gave you salad to being able to feed your family the majority of the vegetables they’ll eat this year. It all started with a good sustainable foundation, the soil.
Whether you’re growing in containers or a few acres, it all starts in the dirt. Malcolm Beck, the founder of Garden-Ville, told me “the quality of the soil, will determine the quality of the plants grown in the soil, which in turn will determine the quality of the health of the people that eat those plants.” He was right. It’s a simple concept. Grow the soil, not the plants. Too many gardeners try to grow a garden or a rose, or a tree, or… When you grow your soil, anything you put in it will succeed, within certain limits, of course.
Gordon Wybo, president of Sustainacycle LLC, shares his knowledge of composting, as well as other self-sustaining practices at his business located on 409 West Center Street. (photo by David White) |
In Hays County, we have everything from Black Land Prairie soil to solid limestone. For growing healthy, vibrant plants, the soil needs to provide nutrition, hold and conserve moisture and support active roots systems. The simplest way to achieve this is to amend with compost. An easy mix is; equal parts native soil to compost blend. This works well because as roots develop deeper growth, they are not “shocked” by coming into contact with straight native soil. Compost is available at many of the local garden centers, sustainability shops and box stores in the area, but you can also make your own. You’ll hear that there are certain formulas and different ratios to making compost. I tend to disagree with this. In a healthy forest, whatever falls to the floor is fair game. I use the “if it was plant material that was not chemically treated, it’s compostable.” Shredded paper, vegetable scraps, cardboard, plant clippings and sawdust are just a few things that go into the pile. Once you’ve assembled your pile, you need to add an activator to get it started. This can be in the form of a dry or liquid mix or a slurry “tea” made with some compost from an existing active pile and water. This will introduce the necessary, beneficial microbes and bacteria to digest your compost. For a real kick, add some red wiggler worms. Then sweeten the pile with a mix of 2 oz. of molasses per gallon of water. Saturate the pile thoroughly. This is energy for the beneficials in your compost. Within a matter of weeks, you’ll have the “black gold” that gardeners strive for. Through the growing season your plants will appreciate side dressings of compost. This also helps conserve moisture and prevent weeds from competing with your garden.
For more information, contact your local garden supplier. Some centers even provide workshops and personal instruction on multiple subjects.
