My Previous Bad Experience
My house is on top of sand, which is common in this area. It's fine for everything but not for growing edible vegetables. When we first moved in years ago, I didn't know much about gardening but tried to grow edible plants. I bought a tray of small tomato plants. I dug holes in my backyard and stuck each tomato plant into each hole and wish them good luck. I even gave them some water-soluble synthetic fertilizer wishing them the best. I watered and watched them every day. They did grow some little yellowish leaves and put on a few flowers immediately. A few plants even gave me one or two tiny tomatoes. Then they withered and died! That was the end of the story for my early adventure of planting vegetables in my backyard.
My Mistake
Later I learned the mistakes I made. The sand drains away any water and any nutrients. Yet, I didn't want to spend a fortune to improve the soil. Therefore, we continued to buy vegetables from grocery stores for many years.
Sheet Mulching
The turning point came after I learned a permaculture practice - sheet mulching with cardboard and wood chips from the waste stream, which is free of charge. First I use cardboard to cover existing grass and put wood chips on top of the cardboard. Then I dig a hole, put in about 2 quarts/liters of homemade compost from kitchen scraps and yard waste, and plant my tomatoes. Bingo! They grow!
Now I can grow plants not only on top of sand but also on top of concrete as previously posted. (If you are interested, please check my previous posts.)
Subsequent Source of Nutrients
Next, how do I continue to amend the soil after nutrients are taken up by edible plants?
There are two major sources I utilize to mimic nature.
- Nitrogen Fixer - as described in its name, it fixes nitrogen into the soil so other plants can thrive.
- Dynamic Accumulator - usually it has a long tap root to extract minerals from the subsoil. You can simply chop and drop and let it decompose around plants.
Plant selections for each climate are different. I know you can use clover for a nitrogen fixer and comfrey for a dynamic accumulator in a temperate climate. I live in a subtropical area. I tried comfrey once, and they died during the summertime, either by drowning in the rain or by being roasted by the hot sun.
In my subtropical climate, for a nitrogen fixer, I use perennial Pigeon Peas, which also give me abundant peas for up to 5 years. They are so delicious, too! We wouldn't eat other peas or dry beans afterward.
Pigeon Peas
For a dynamic accumulator, I use Mexican Sunflowers. They grow super fast and have beautiful flowers to attract pollinators.
Mexican Sunflower
I hope this post gives you some information that encourages and helps you to grow your own food. Thank you for stopping by. :-)
Your post has been discovered by @livesustainably I manage the#livesustainably tag.
@Livesustainably promotes and curates content that encourages and educates others in living sustainably.
At this time, as it is a new tag I am looking in in other channels. In the future you should post with the livesustainably tag so that you can get upvotes and curation from me. To find out more see my introductory post.
Ha ... this is the missing tag I am looking for! Thank you for bringing it to my attention. :-) I have updated this post to use #livesustainably and will add it to my future relevant posts. Thank you!!
Up-voted to encourage you to keep writing.
Wonderful network you have also tapped into, great work again @cheneats!
My take away
Bravo, now I have to investigate if these are available and can grow in my climate.
Kindest Regards,
DrSMWong
Thank you, @drsinmongwong! Pigeon Peas seem to be doing fine even when the temperature drops to 5C at night for a week now. I still see new their leaves coming out!
Yes useful to us... For me I'll do all this when I get my own land... I will live a primitive but happy life. Thank you, my friend.@cheneats
I am glad it's useful to you @yagoub! Thank you for your comment, my friend :-)
For sandy soil what I would do (in our cold temperate climate) is dig in as much organic matter as possible and then mulch as deeply as possible. I'd plant plenty of pioneer species, as well as tap rooted plants and then chop and drop those 2-5 times an year. Comfrey is nice, as @hopfamnc said, but it's better to have diversity! Dandelion, dock, chicory, wild carrots...
Thank you so much for sharing what you do to enhance your soil! There are a bunch of wild plants growing in my garden, too. Some are edible which I eat. Some are not edible and are used for chop and drop. We use all organic matter growing in my garden for my garden. Nature never wastes! Thank you for your comment. :-)
Great use of permaculter stacking technics. I use comfrey as my dynamic accumulator. Going to have to look into pigeon peas and see if they will make it in zone 7. Thanks for the info @cheneats
It's my pleasure to share my knowledge and my experience. :-) I don't know if pigeon peas will survive the winter in zone 7 but they do grow very fast in a single season so maybe you can try and see if the yield is worth the effort. Thank you for your comment!
How well do pigeon peas germinate and do you know if you can freeze pigeon pea seeds?
I have 100% germination rate when using fresh seeds. I don't think they will take freezing temperature well unless you just want to eat them later.
Cool. Thank You!
Wow @cheneats we must have like the exact same interest in plants. i love pigeon peas too. They are a staple for us. We eat the green pod when it is really young and tender, with no beans inside it yet. We just chop it and stir fry it up. Then we use the green shelly peas to add to rice or whatever else you want. These immature beans are sweet and cook really fast. Then of course there is the final hard, dried bean, which is amazing and nutritious. We make veggies burgers with them.
And of course, the goats love the plants and pods. Super high protein for them as well.
Thanks for the write up. Sandy soil can be a real challenge but it sounds like youre on top of it!
We have eaten the green shelly peas and the final hard dried bean. They are so delicious. I am going to try the really young and tender ones with no beans inside it yet. Thank you for sharing how you use pigeon peas!
Love to see this post! Glad to hear you found out about sheet mulching, we love it too. Have you experimented much with mycorrhiza fungi? They may also boost CEC, nutrient uptake and water holding capacity of your soil. Keep spreading the diy food movement.
Thank you for your comment! I do see fungi growing on their own in the mulch. What is CEC by the way?
Cationic exchange capacity: the ability for soil to cycle water and nutrients!
Thank you! I learn something new today!!
I know you were trying to not buy in amendments. I also have sandy loam here but am in New England with its cold temps. I have had the best results with plant health and pest resistance by doing a complete soil test with micro-nutrients and then amending the soil in accordance. Dynamic accumulators are a good thing, but there must be something there for them to accumulate. Many micro-nutrients readily leach and should be replaced regularly. Boron comes to mind at once... I have found you posts to be highly informative and look forward to following you.
I agree. If you want an immediate result, doing the soil test and adding amendments are the way to go. I was not in a hurry and just imitating nature and waiting for it to take its own course. Initially, I did use lots of organic matter such as woodchips though. But of course, it took time to break down. The game is always money vs. time. ;)