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===== Soil fertility =====

A neighbor said glibly, if it grow grass it can grow vegetables. And he insists the depleted soil in my garden is great soil. (Yes, it is physically great being sandy loam, but it wasn't fertile when I began working it and fertility is what makes for healthy, organic vegetables.)

Soil fertility is a deep subject and I'm no expert. Here's what is clearly improving the texture and the fertility in my gardens.

==== Compost ====

I had no compost when I began gardening in Fall City, so early on I collected "greens" and "browns" bringing some from my garden at home. See the article on composting for more info here. Now I have some, though not enough to go around. I use what I have when planting cash crops. Compost is magic stuff. I have six bins and three piles of composting materials.

==== Organic fertilizer ====

I amended soil with an organic fertilizer composed of a seed meal, lime (ag lime and dolomite lime to provide calcium and magnesium that are essential to plant intake of soil nutrients), rock phosphate or bone meal for vegetable formation, and kelp meal for a variety of trace elements.

Initially, the proportion of lime was greater because it is water-soluble and leaches out of the soil with all the rainfall we get. The soil I'm working had no suitable amendments for years before I took over.

==== Other amendments ====

I add trace elements with one or more of these:
  * Kelp meal
  * Alfalfa meal or pellets

==== Green manure cover crops ====

Right away I planted a part of the garden with a buckwheat cover crop, then a clover/alfalfa crop. At the end of the season I planted cereal rye to add more organic matter via its dense root system.

I am rotating my cash crop locations to allow green manure crops over the entire garden by the end of three years.

==== Remineralization ====

I maintain a balance of minerals in the soil. I test the soil every year and add minerals that have been depleted. See the page on [[garden:intro:soil:remineralization|remineralization]] for more information.