Learn what other things we do to be a successful garden and the best practices for how to make our crops thrive. These videos and articles are an ongoing series throughout the season to show the garden's progress. Please check in often for new videos about what we are doing.

Contributing to the Compost in the Garden

Garden members are encouraged to bring their compostable materials to the garden. Please review the rules (click the photo to the left for a larger view) about what can and cannot be composted .

Why use wood chips in the garden.

There are 5 reasons why we use wood chips.
1) They improve the nutrient levels in the soil.
2) Unparalleled weed suppression by preventing germination of  weed seeds by keeping them in the dark.
3) Maintain moisture levels in the soil.
4) Moderates soil temperature year round.
5) Hold soil in place.
This wonderful resource is free to the Sea Ranch community and we take full advantage of it at the garden. The tree crews separate tanbark oak and other trees that are known to carry 'sudden oak death' from the chips stream and is careful to not contaminate the chips with this.

How wood chips transform the soil.

This Gardener has some great footage on how it benefited his soil and what we are seeing in our garden is extending our usage and production that we are getting.

Wood chips are not all wood. They contain all the leaves & needles as well, most of what we receive is from living trees, not dry dead trees.  They are also not going to add acidity to the soil by much if any- very little redwood is chipped by TSRA, it is more acidic than the usual mix they provide. Our soil is also slightly alkaline, so mild acidity in additive is helpful. 

The larger size of the chips we get helps extend the time is benefits the soil, and also reduces the amount of nitrogen it absorbs while composting.  'Surface area' dictates the nitrogen absorption, and the speed of decay. Large particles have far less surface area than small particles, so all processes are slower and therefore work better for our purposes.


Our dry farmed cabbage harvest.

Presented by Jeanne
We harvested the our really big cabbage in mid July from the dry farm test bed. It weighed in at 6.5 lbs after trimming the outer leaves off.  Hopefully everyone will get to try a taste and see how delicious and tender dry farmed vegetables can be.  We will be planting a lot more crops next year to save water and grow robust, tasty vegetables for the table.


Composts used at Posh Squash.

Presented by Jeanne
There have been some questions about the 4 composts we use, and about the use of wood chips in the garden. They all provide a multitude of benefits to the garden; however, we use each in a different way.

All 4 composts & the wood chips provide great numbers of soil-enhancing microbes; the 4 composts are composed primarily of leaves & plant wastes; all add organic material to hold soil moisture and preserve/enhance micronutrients in the soil, which feed the Web of Life (soil microbes that produce the compounds that feed our crops). All are vital to the health of the Garden; each is providing a slightly different set of benefits. All are materials that might otherwise be placed in a landfill, so using them in a beneficial way lowers our carbon footprint and recycles natural materials in a way that benefits the environment, as well as our garden.

Read more about all the compost we use in the garden in the following PDF.
posh_compost_info_with_forest_compost_update.pdf
File Size: 139 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Picking flowers.

Presented by Marjie.
UPPER FLOWER AREA: Flowers at upper end of the garden - When the Alstroemeria (Peruvian Lilies) are blooming: please pick by gently pulling the whole flower stalk from the ground, DO NOT CUT. As other flowers are ready for cutting, please cut just above the new buds. If no new buds are showing, please cut stem all the way to the base of the plant. The only exception is roses - please cut these just above a leaf set that has 5 leaves (not 3). In all cases of cutting flowers, do not leave bare stems. Proper cutting means more flowers! 


​Why do bees swarm in the spring?

Presented by Frank.
We were lucky to be at the garden at the moment when the bees swarmed out of one hive with it's new queen bee. It usually happens quickly over the course of 30 minutes.


​The benefits of growing cover crops.

Presented by Jeanne.
Learn why we plant cover crops around the garden. This winter 
we planted three types of cover crops in the garden and the ends of the pea shoots and the snow pea pods are edible.


​Dry-Farming: selecting a suitable site.

Presented by Jeanne.
To save water and get tastier vegetables this year we will 
​be expanding our dry farmed beds.


Bees are busy pollinating.

Presented by Bill.
As the weather warms up that hives begin to get busy with the bees out searching for food. Until the fruit trees blossom but n the cover crops like clover, peas, and calendula supply the starving bees their much needed pollen.


Winter fruit tree pruning.

Presented by Frank.
In winter our apple and pear trees need to be pruned to help them provide more flowers in the spring and more fruit in the fall. This will be an ongoing series throughout the season.