Hello Friends!  Whether you are partnering with me to grow a vegetable garden this Summer or not..this info will be great for even a little container garden with flowers,  because the great success to growing a garden is in the soil. So let’s see..so far we have:

* Chosen a Garden Area with at least 6-8 hours of  FULL Sun ~ even if it’s just a couple of containers!

* Daydreamed about what kinds of Garden we are going to have and ordered FREE Garden Catalogs

Before we talk about the Soil..I had a question from Reader Amanda:

Any helpful tips on killing all the grass and weeds would be a blessing. We seem to spend so much time killing the seed bed and tilling to turn around and have double the weeds..

Weeds!! The dreaded Gardeners nightmare..well one of them anyway..LOL  Amanda,  I’m not sure how much of your garden you were able to get the grass and weeds out last year but one thing you can do is to cover with a black tarp for a couple of weeks to kill them and then till them under or better yet..just dig up and remove.  I know that this is a ton of work if you are doing a large area..but it is well worth it,  because I have some GREAT techniques for keeping the weeds to a bare minimum during your Vegetable Garden growing season AND especially over the Winter…Just think NO weeds in your Vegetable Garden next Spring.  I will write about these at a later time since we are just starting our project.    Also if you don’t grow anything in your garden then guess what..the weeds and grass do take over because they have so much room to grow.  I personally would not us a  Chemical like Round-Up or Preen for an Edible Garden.   Not that I don’t like these products..but just not for a Vegetable Garden.  Hope this helps…a little.  Bottom line lot’s of work now for a future of easier and healthier Vegetable Garden.  It’s worth it!

Thanks for the question Amanda!  Readers..feel free to ask any questions you have and I will try to answer each one to the best of my ability.  I am not a “Pro” Gardener but have just been Gardening for many years

One other thing I might add is this..You can do a raised bed garden.  Although it is recommended that you remove the grass and weeds underneath your raised garden bed, you can just put Newspaper on the bottom and just cover with dirt..such as this one below..there is also a little tutorial that shows you how to do this..Just click on Picture..

Ok..let’s get to the Soil.. Since all of the Vegetables get there Nutrition from the Soil they are planted in..it only stands to reason that you need healthy and Nutritious Soil to grow them in.  Make sense?  So how do you get that?  Well I’m not a soil expert but have studied and tried lots of different techniques over the years and this is what has worked for me.  I have used the combination with great success..I just spread evenly and modestly..I don’t overdue any of these.  Manure creates nutrient-rich, moisture-retaining soil for your plants.  The best Manure for you to use is Chicken, Horse or Cow Manure.  Use Cow manure a little sparingly as it can be quite strong in the Vegetable Garden.  Only apply in Spring and possibly in the Fall if you are going to grow Veggies over the Winter.

Peat Moss or Vermiculite or both are excellent for holding in moisture and creating a more “airy” soil. 

Wood Ash or Charcoal provide Phosphorus, Potassium, and Micro-Nutrients. I use this sparingly but it is amazing and yes you can use your own Wood Ashes straight from your wood burning stove.  For more info on using Wood Ash you can go here. Soil also needs Nitrogen..but I get this through the kinds of  Vegetables I grow and how I plant them…this is a whole other post..You are probably tired of reading for now That’s it…except this year I will be Composting and adding to my garden throughout the growing season.  I’ve never Composted before..isn’t that silly.   So this is the year!

Ok so your assignment for this week…Get those weeds out of your garden..

any way you choose and then feed your dirt with some yummy stuff

Freebie for Today!! Proven Winners (PW) has a FREE Gardeners Idea Book that you an order..for FREE!  Oh I already said that..hop on over there and get one!  You can also sign up for there FREE monthly gardening tips email newsletter!

Tell me how your Garden is going so far!  Link to any Pictures you have and share with us!

Did you know that you can order Raised Beds that you just snap together easily?  Check out this Amazon link:

(This is an affiliate link and I get a small percent if you order from Amazon)