Soil

Whether you plant your garden by direct sowing seeds, germinating your seeds and growing them on before planting out, or buying plants that are garden ready, all your nurturing will be for naught if your soil is deficient.

Pure sand is the texture of our soil at Stonewell Farm. Good for drainage and warming early in the spring. poor for nutrition and moisture retention.

This is our soil after 5 years of incorporating huge amounts of horse manure. The organic matter has broken down to form humus.

For the soil microorganisms to break down this organic matter to point where the nutrients become available to the plants requires nitrogen.

The first year we supplement the sand manure mix with an organic nitrogen rich fertilizer to compensate for the uptake of nitrogen by the microorganisms.

Over the years the build up of organic matter enriches and darkens the soil,

and improves the moisture and nutrient retention, to a point where the soil texture is at an optimum.

After tilling, the chickens and turkeys forage for unwanted grubs and bugs.