A Happy Medium

I did a whole lot of planting in the garden on Saturday.  It got me thinking about soil.  To start my seeds, both in seed pots to transplant later, as well as soil I direct plant into, I use a growing medium.  In the past, I would use a "Seed starting mix" that had peat moss, vermiculite, coco coir, as well as other ingredients.  What I quickly learned is that you really don't need to spend the money on this.  With a little patience, you can create your own.

I've experimented with various "recipes" I found online.  All seemed to work okay.  I've settled on one that's the best and all that's needed is wood chips and patience.  A growing medium is defined as a substance through which roots grow and extract water and nutrients. In native plant nurseries, a growing medium can consist of native soil but is more commonly an "artificial soil" composed of materials such as peat moss or compost.

With each year our soil has gotten better with more amendments and as time passes.  It is teeming with earthworms!

The health of the vegetables has improved markedly with each passing year as soil quality gets better.  Here's some happy Rainbow Chard:

Here's how we make our "happy" medium.  We have local tree trimmers on right-of-way clearing crews drop off truck loads of wood chips on our property.  Loads of wood chips in your yard doesn't create "curb appeal" and probably won't win you a "Garden Spot of the Month Award."  But the benefits are priceless.  The chips are free and they will work for you.

In three years, the size of the piles is cut in half.  They decompose.  I can cut that decomposition time in half by adding cow poop to the pile to keep it heating up and composting as well as moving and restacking it.  Pretty soon that compost pile is a dark brown pile of topsoil.  When it is time to plant in pots or directly into a row in the garden, I shovel a wagon-load of the rich stuff and get a bit of hardware cloth.  Then I take handfuls of the rich, dark wood chip compost and rub it across the hardware cloth.  The 'grated' compost falls through the screen.

The screen catches sticks, chips, and leaves that have not been transformed into soil yet.  I throw this back on the pile as it needs more time.

What falls beneath the screen is our growing medium - our Happy Medium.  It is full of organic matter.  You can see eggshells in there as well.  It is full of nutrients, composted cow manure, trace elements and minerals that were once part of the tree.  It holds moisture well and is light and fluffy and resists compaction.  I do add some composted chicken manure to this medium and mix well.

We either fill our seed pots with it and plant seeds in it, or we hoe a small trench in the garden soil after raking away a small amount of wood chips, fill the trench with our plant growing medium and plant directly into that.

In no time at all, we have happy plants germinating out of our happy medium.