I made a mistake, I think. I mixed MG into my veggie garden.

17 years ago

I am new to veggie gartdens and need some advice please. I had a raised bed put in about 5 years ago and attempted to plant veggies in it and everything died except one cherry tomato plant. I gave up until this season. I decided to try my hand at a veggie garden again!

I needed to fill in the soil that had eroded out over the 5 years so, not knowing better, I went and got bags of MG soil for flowers and veggies. I tilled it into the exisiting soil and ordered my veggie plants and planted those a week later (about 1 week ago now).

Everything 'seems' to be doing fine, but I fear everything is going to die and I will not want to give it another go. I read and read and read on this site for two days now and I still can't find info on whether or not I should be adding anything else to this garden to keep it thriving.

I bought Espoma 5-3-3 fetilizer, dried blood 12-0-0, and diatomaceous earth to have on hand in case I have any bug problems. Do I need to be adding any of this stuff to my plants NOW? Or do I wait to see if there are any problems before adding anything else to the soil?

Also, is there anything I should be adding to the soil to make it more rich for the veggies to thrive in?

I have planted various tomatoes, 2 types of eggplants, 2 types of peppers, summer squash, and some broccoli (which I now know I shouldn't have, but am going to see how long that lasts before dying).

Any wisdom or advice on how to keep this garden alive this time around would be appreciated. I want to put the least amount of chemicals in the garden if possible at this point. (I know, I know, after reading here that the MG soil is full of them) but I really don't want to add anymore. I feel I might have made a huge mistake. I thought you just till in the MG with the existing soil, plant, and things grow. Very naive of me after reading here.

Thanks for any help. There isn't much on this forum as to working with MG soil with slow release fertilizer.

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Comments (6)

imagardener2
17 years ago
Oh I don't think the MG soil wil be bad at all. But don't add any more fertilizer just yet, could burn your young plants up.

You are a little late in the season but you'll get something from your garden before the heat is on. I found that tomatoes like a little shade when it gets REALLY hot.

I don't fertilize much unless something looks peak-ed :-)

Denise
watermelon7
17 years ago
It might have just been because you are/were a new gardener. Not to insult anybody, but in a lot of cases, new gardeners get nothing but dead plants the first time they start gardening. That's what happened to me, and now this year I have two flowering watermelon plants about to set fruit in approximately 2 days, 2 other watermelon plants going to flower w/in the next few months, a few cantaloupe plants and new seedlings emerging any day now, a row of onions, a couple rows of garlic, a few common bean plants, 2 nasturtium plants, a few tomato and pepper seedlings, a few blackberry bulbs about to emerge from the ground, and more being started.
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annnettem
Original Author
17 years ago
thanks for the responses. I will just keep a close eye on everything. The veggies are doing really well, so I guess I should not be worried at this point. I just read so many bad things about MG and was concerned. Happy gardening to you both :)
tclynx
17 years ago
Don't panic, patients is a virtue in gardening. Just make sure to keep everything moist enough (but not waterlogged) in the heat. You can always add organic matter on top of your soil as a mulch that will slowly break down and feed the soil microbes. Aged compost and worm castings are always safe to add and won't burn your plants. I like to fertilize using things like used coffee grounds or other seed meals since they are slow release fertilizers. If I have some greedy plants that like lots of nitrogen and phosphorus, I give them a small hand full of alfalfa pellets. Be careful with the blood meal as it is really strong and a little goes a very long way.

Enjoy.
gatormomx2
17 years ago
Take four small samples of soil ( about two cups total ) from your raised bed .
Mix them in a container and label it .
Drop this off at your local Ag Extension Agency for a soil test .
When you receive the results in the mail , return to the Ag Center to go over these results with someone there .
It is almost impossible to move forward raising veggies until you know the content of your basic foundation - the soil .
greenacresgirl
17 years ago
For the short season you have left, I think the miracle grow will be perfect since it will provide nutrients quickly and then the fertilizers will pretty much wash out/ evaporate anyway.

This is the perfect time to start creating really healthy soil so that you can start off in great shape in the fall.

Personally I would put down some organics and then really pile on compost which will work its way into the soil during the summer rains and you will really have a healthy garden in the fall.

Michelle