I'm pushing the envelope a bit more this year: If they say "It can't be done." ... It's my intent to see if that's really the case.
They say, "Sawdust will rob your soil of nitrogen." I've heard such dire predictions that say that sawdust will render your soil unusable for at least a year. And, "they say" that sawdust should NEVER be mixed into the soil. I stumbled upon some spent sawdust bedding that was lightly sprinkled with horse nuggets and goat berries. I brought home several barrels full and laid it in a section of the garden about 8 weeks ago. Yet an other no-no! Not supposed to use raw manure in the garden. Though horse and goat manure are not considered to be hot, "they say" that there is risk of introducing pathogens into your garden.
This section was the last area to be renovated and planted. While that sawdust was doing it's supposed nitrogen robbing, the mint and garlic left from last year was going absolutely crazy in that area. It took a whole day to grub those roots out of that area. I might add that all the top growth was vibrant green... no signs of nitrogen depletion! The worms were also going crazy in that section. I might say... there was more worm activity here than in all other areas of the garden. IMO, a sign of good things happening with the soil life.
So... after grubbing the roots out, and digging out a huge crop of rocks, there was a fair amount of blending of soil and sawdust. Yet an other "Must never do" b/c it will ruin your soil.
First, I planted 6 more tomato seedlings (purchased plants) in the usual fashion: pull back the sawdust mulch, and plant the tomatoes in the loosened soil.
Today, I planted some potatoes: These plants were the result of my "What on earth were you thinking? That's not how you are supposed to grow potatoes!" experiment. (I had some nice spuds from the grocer. Set one on the windowsill this winter, and waited FOR EVER for it to sprout. No doubt it had been hit with an anti sprouting herbicide. Eventually, it did sprout. As each eye put out tiny little points that would become leaves and roots, I gouged them out with only enough flesh to prevent injury to the sprout tissue. They were potted, and grew into 6" single stem plants. That one potato produced 10 nice sprouts.
Half of them were planted in the usual fashion: loosen up the soil, plant the potatoes, then pull the mulch up around them (in this case, established potato sprouts) Interestingly enough, there were tiny little tubers in each of the 2" pots. Each tuber was about the size of my thumb nail.
There was room for one more row of plants. This area was already compromised with a fair amount of mixing of soil and sawdust from my battle with the mint and rocks. So... I decided to challenge the "they say" crowd a bit more. I loosened the soil a bit with the broad fork, and pulled the sawdust/soil into a nice loose mound, about 16" wide x 14' long. More sawdust than soil. Into this bed, I tucked 5 sweet potato plants, and the 5 remaining potato seedlings.
It is my intent to water as needed and fertilize this area if the plants appear to need it. I used some 5-10-5 initially. I will also add some epsom salt.
