This raised bed was planted in late March. It’s time to harvest the lettuce and cabbages, add soil amenities, and replant. We try to keep the use of a car to a minimum so today we’re getting the crab shell and coffee grounds using the bicycle and trailer.
We like to use whatever is naturally available. We’ll use coffee grounds, crab shell, kitchen garbage, leaves when available (in the fall) and garden trimmings.
I’ve tried adding fresh crab shell to the compost pile…DON’T DO IT!!! It stinks for days. If you bury it, you won’t smell it, and you’ll be surprised by how fast the microorganisms in the soil will break it down. Just keep the dogs out of it.
I hate pulling out the kale flowers that the bees love so much, but if I don’t, the deer will get under the netting and eat up my little transplants. I’ll hang it upside down in the greenhouse and save the seed.
We started working on this bed 5 days before we planted. That may seem like we’re not leaving enough time for the scraps to break down, but there are 4 to 5 inches (10 to 12 cm) of soil and we figure by the time the roots get down there, it will be decomposed enough. We’ve done it many times and it seems to work well. The worms love it.
Tap into this web site for more info on the use of coffee grounds in the garden.
Here’s a video of digging a short trench in a raised bed and loading in the goodies…
Reblogged this on Coffee Grounds to Ground and commented:
A great post on the use of coffee grounds to help improve garden soil.
Thanks for the reblog, Shane. I never realized how many nutrients that coffee grounds lend to the soil. Your web site has that information as well as so much more. Thanks for sharing it.