Zoo Poo & Other Soil Amendments

by Terri Carter
May 4 2013

This is week 3 with Habesha and we are learning about soil.  When I thought about soil, I really did not think of all the different things that you can add to your soil to make it richer.  In fact I did not think much about the soil except that you gotta have some to plant in. It is much deeper than that my farm friends.  Good soil to a gardener is like water for a fish, it is necessary for good growth and happy plants.  Most of the time we just go and get a bag of soil from a gardening center.  That is easy to get that big bag of souped up miracle growing soil that claim to have all the good things already in it to make plants grow well.  That is fine to do so especially if you don't know much about soil but as you learn more about soil, you will start to see that you can add good stuff to your soil without paying for much.  A good bag of soil will run you about $8 a bag and I can go through 10 bags or more easily in a season.  That gets to be expensive after a while so I suggest that you too learn how to make your own soil.

In the picture above, Cashawn has a wheelbarrow of good soil which he calls zoo poo.  He got it from Zoo Atlanta and it is manure from the animals. The zoo poo did not smell bad because it has been aged. In other words, he did not just run behind a elephant and scoop up the poo and bring it in the next day.  The longer it ages, the better. This poo has been aged and mixed with some other soil. We may not all be able to get access to zoo poo but you may know someone who has a few farm animals and they may be willing to work with you.  Rabbit and chicken poo is also very good if you can get some.  These animals eat plant based diets so they make good poo. Do not go and use your dog or cat poo, they eat meat.   If you don't know any animals, no worries  you can find other things to add into your soil to make it like soil gold.

The easiest way is to make a compost pile and compost your lawn clipping and plant scraps from your kitchen.  This is pretty much free. It does not take a long time to get some good stuff ready to be used in your garden.  Other ways of getting some conditioners into your soil include wood ash, which is just burned up wood.  I cut down some small trees and bushes and I burned them. I used the ash from this fire and added it into the garden.  That too was free after I paid my friend to cut down the small trees. There is another free idea.  You can use saw dust in the garden too.  If you know someone who cuts down trees for a living, you could ask for the sawdust left or the sawdust from a construction  site where they are using wood.  Don't let them trick you and ask you to pay for something that they are going to throw out anyway unless it is a really great cheap price.

When adding amendments to the soil, you should also know about the pH of the soil so that you know what you are working with.  I would not worry too too much about this in the beginning if you are starting with some type of expensive potting mix.  This pH thing becomes important when you have been growing in the same spot for a while and you are depleting your soil's nutrients.  I would also suggest that you consider trying mushroom compost and manure which you can purchase bagged.  I like to make a cocktail of all the good stuff that I can find and I mix it all together.  My secret is to use worm casings to start seeds in. Finding this stuff may be difficult.  It is just the poo from worms and it is so good and rich for plants. It is too expensive to put directly into the garden but great for starting your precious heirloom seeds in.  They will love you for it.

Starting Seeds In Newspaper pots we Made

Week 2 was a bit more relaxed than the first week, we started with standing in a circle and doing some early morning calisthenics to get the old blood flowing and get the bones moving.  It was a very chilly morning for late April only about 40 degrees today.  I needed gloves but did not bring mine.  Today would be more fun because today we will make some seed starter pots to get our seeds planted in.  Cashawn brought a load of zoo poo as he calls it. He has a connect at the zoo and was able to get some good composted manure for us to start the seeds in. It only stinks a little bit.  We had to choose 3 different seeds and make about 8 pots so that is about 24 plants per student if they all germinate.  We will take the tray of seed home to take care of if you are smart cause they could dry out before we meet on Wednesday.  I will bring mine back for each class to show their progress.  I decided to start some seeds that I had never grown before.  I choose a white cucumber called White Wonder.  It is very usual  and I can't wait to see how it turns out.  Let hope that I don't get that pesky squash vine borer to kill it off before it gets mature.  I also planted  a Siberian watermelon, it is what Daddy called a yellow meat watermelon. I love the yellow watermelon and most folk have never even seen one.  I will be proud of it if it matures.  The third thing I planted was a strange green squash.  It is suppose to be very sweet and nutty.  The skin is thick and he meat is said to be very good.
These plants will be shared with other gardens that we visit.  We like to leave something of a living gift to remember us by.  I like to give living gifts.

We got a good rain in on Friday so my seeds got a good soaking.  I think after only seven days, I have some germination going on.  I hope it is flower seeds and not all weeds.  When you turn the ground over as we did for the flower garden.  You wake up weed seeds too and they thank you for the love just as the sunflowers do.  Weeds never get love unless it is growing on another planet in the Milky Way.  Then weeds would be loved but not here in Georgia.  We have too many weeds and we don't love weeds.  I am so confused now as to what is emerging.  There are lots of somethings growing.  I would suspect that some are weeds and some are flowers. I am hoping many more flowers and little weeds. I will just wait and see.  Some will emerge early and others will emerge later. I made sure that I had lots of seeds so they would grow in cycles. Some are perennial and some are annuals.  I expect some nice zinnias to come in early and the daises will take their time and come if and when they like.  Poppies are pretty and sometime they are nice and come in the first year and sometime they don't.  No worries, they will come.  I know I can count on the sunflowers.  They will come in different sizes and colors.  That will be impressive but will take their time and grow very tall  before they give you a show of color but when they do, it is impressive.  They just fade fast and leave a bounty of seeds for you to save for next year if you beat the birds to the seeds.  They are watching too and waiting on the seeds to dry out just right before they eat them all.

We learned how to make the seed starter pots from newspaper. It was simple and allows us to plant the entire pot directly into the ground when it is time.  We try to recycle and reuse everything so seed saving is important when you grow things.  I am taking my seed home in their new pots and I hope to see some sprout in about 10 days.  Sometime less than that if you keep them watered with some of God's water or rainwater as it is called.  It is the best water for plants.  It is something special about that water. Plants like it so don't ask me why, ask the plants.  They know best.

Getting to Know Habesha Week One

I was lucky to run across a post on Facebook from Georgia Organics that said a group called Habesha Works was seeking candidates who are interested in gardening as a way of life so to speak.  It feels like my life now because I have committed to this lifestyle.  It is a 14 week intensive hands on training and teaching opportunity.  I found myself in very peaceful and rewarding place the first day of class.  We have a 2 hour class on Wednesday nights and a hands on lab in the garden on Saturday mornings from 9 til 1.  I can't wait to get there because I know that there is something new about gardening to be learned.  I yearn for the knowledge.  I am not quite sure exact-ally how I am gonna pursue this new garden life of mine but one thing for sure is that I do want this life.  It fits me so easily. I find so much tranquility when I am working on things related to the garden.  I have even learned to be on time for a change.  My teacher is CaShawn Meyers  and he is like a mentor to me in the garden. He does not like for you to be late either.  It says something about you and how you organize your life.  He has a wealth of plant knowledge but he is also very in tune with nature in a spiritual kinda way too.  He looks healthy and earthy.  He is a vegan I think or vegetarian.  He is in love with plants and I am falling in love with plants too.  I always have had a relationship with plants but now I am taking it to a new level. Trying to get below the surface.  Get it, below the surface, like below the dirt to the root of things.  
The first week was the hardest thus far, we had to exercise before we started to work in the garden and then we all had to do some work that was needed.  I took the job of planting a new flower garden from seeds.  We meet at the Omenala Grio Museum in the West End on Dargan Place and work in a new area that has never been a garden before.  We planted lots of flowers to pretty the place up fist but that was just the decorations.  I was turning over the soil for the new flower bed and did not busy myself with planting of the flowers.  I wanted to make the new flower garden my baby and since no one else seemed too interested I took the job and ran with it.  All Cashawn had to do was give me the green light to go and I was off.  I planted all the sunflower seed that he gave me and then I planted many more of my own flower seeds. I wonder if he minds?  Oh well by the time the seeds sprout up and actually start growing who will care if it is beautiful.  The way I see it, the more seeds the more pretty flowers to look at.  I also had a Martha Stewart flash of brilliance and decided that I could grow enough flowers to make flower arrangements for some of the older people in the neighborhood  to brighten up their day.  That would be nice.
Everyone in the class seems cool but a bit reserved now.  Maybe we are feeling each other out.  Cashawn said he wants us to be family like.  He calls me Sis. I like that.  He just can't remember my name but I like sis.  It feels comfortable and family like.  So I call everyone else Sis  and Brother.  I can't remember names so it works for me.