Soil Foodweb: It’s a Party In There

This week we are delighted to present another guest blogger, Sheri Powell-Wolff, A.K.A. Compost Teana. Sheri is an Advisor and Master Soil Consultant for Soil Foodweb Oregon and Earth Fortifications in Corvallis, Oregon.   Her company, Compost TEAna’s Organic Landscapes provides compost tea services and soil biology testing and consultation in the Los Angeles Area.   She's here to gives us the ...

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Getting Ready for Spring

Spring starts next week, and if you haven't started gardening, let this be the call to action. Since we've been experiencing technical difficulties with our search feature on Gardenerd.com, we wanted to offer these helpful posts to help guide your gardening endeavors in the meanwhile.

Seed Starting - start seeds indoors for lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, melons, cucumbers and beans. 

Starting Seeds to Perfection

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How to Do a Home Soil Test for Citrus

Growing up, my parents had orange trees and stone fruit trees that I swear were planted in unamended clay soil and were never - ever - fertilized. They thrived. My three citrus trees, on the other hand, which were planted with good drainage, plenty of compost and lots of care, are sad, sad, and more sad. What gives?

Our top New Years' Resolution was to figure out what was wrong with our ...

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Potash Deficiency

A new question dropped into the Ask Gardenerd inbox this week: 


"Lovin' [your] podcast since 2009!  My soil test recommends 15-0-15 for potash deficiency. Organic sources would be....what?  Wood ash, greensand, kelp meal?  Do you have preference?  I'm told wood ash (easiest and free) leaches out faster and has other elements too, ones I don't need to supplement like calcium and magnesium. Just wondering what you think..."

First of all - thanks for ...

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Can you Pass the Soil Test – Part 2 – Phytoremediation

In our last episode, our protagonist was struggling to understand where excessive zinc levels came from in her garden soil. In case you missed it, you can read about it here:  Can You Pass the Soil Test?

This week, we explore the world of phytoremediation as a possible solution. What the heck is that, you ask?  To answer that question, let's go back ...

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Can You Pass the Soil Test?

What's a girl to do when her plants look anemic and aren't growing like they should be, despite the mounds of compost and organic fertilizer that are lovingly applied each season?  The mystery can only be solved one way: Get a soil test.  

We have two sets of tomatoes - one in our test garden, and one at our community garden at Ocean View Farms. Both were grown from seed under grow lights, and both were ...

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Soil for Starting Seeds

A question came in over the holiday:

"What is a good commercial soil in which to start vegetable seeds?"

That's a great question.  There are many ways to start seeds, and almost as many opinions about what soil to use for seed starting.  In general, commercial seed starting mix is of a finer grade of potting soil, meaning it is not as course or chunky as regular potting soil.  It is intended for use when starting seeds indoors under grow lights.  Many companies produce seed germinating mix that has higher moisture retaining properties, and some add fertilizers to their mixes ...

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