Ordinary Soil

Ordinary is good. I'm an ordinary person. I live an ordinary life. Good. But ordinary soil? Not so good. In long ago times home gardens received the best of the family's manure. Typically, every family owned a cow that grazed in abundance verdant pastures giving back to the family, milk, meat, and organic fertilizer. The family garden was robust because the soil was nutrient packed rich media. And it was everywhere. Not so today. The soils that coddled our vegetables a millennia ago are deplete of the rich natural resources of the humble bovine and are lackluster in providing for the high demands of the home vegetable garden.

Over the years my composting system has helped to build a rich organic matter filled garden teaming with the microbes of a healthy soil food web. But I also want to ensure that my garden will give back dividends for all my hard work. So I have gotten together my supplies and today I'm going to mix up this recipe for a complete organic fertilizer created by Steve Solomon founder of Territorial Seed Co. Steve encourages incorporating his recipe into the soil at planting time but I will fertilize the recommended amounts as a side dressing to my already established garden. Time to get crackin'!