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I use clover, austrian winter peas and rye. Gives me good organic matter as well as nitrogen fixers. I acutally found some "deer plot mix" with this in it last year on sale due to the fact it was in a busted bag and it has worked great. It was much cheaper than buying the individual seeds of...

Does any southern gardeners have any good tips for organic control of stink bugs and leaf footed bugs this time of year. In late July and August I always get infested with these bugs on my tomatoes, they ruin the fruit and the leaf footed bugs always fly in my face, which I hate. I am tempted to...

I think the temperment of you flock really affects the individual birds as well. I have a gentle calm mixed (BO and BR) rooster in my mixed flock of BOs, RIRs and one EE and the whole flock is calm. He calls his girls when he finds food, keeps them in order etc... My Marans have a high strung...

I started with two birds and have 10 now, it's addictive. They are my stress reliever, after a long day I go down, gather my eggs, feed a little scratch and forget whatever stresses me. My garden and my chickens help me keep my sanity. I never realized how soothing it can be to have a garden...

I have Black Copper Marans, but find mine are more high strung than my buff orphingtons. They were spring chicks and have started laying nice large dark brown eggs, at first very dark, but have lightened up over the last few months. I also added some Rhode Island Reds to the flock this year and...

Okra should be fine, love heat and can stand some lack of water Corn, may have more issues with pest, but give it a try you will need to make sure it gets plenty of water Tomatoes, plant a good heat tolerant variety and mulch very heavly Southern peas should do fine, they seem to not mind heat...

I tried Arkansas Travelers this year and have had good success. We have already had temps close to 100 in SC this year and mine are holding up great. We have had weird weather and have been used to drought the last few years, but this year it has been both wet and dry and the Arkansas Travelers...

I am having mixed results due to blight. I have noticed that Romas and cherry tomatoes never seem to suffer as much, not sure if it is luck, placement or the variety. Arkansas Travelers: Doing well, picking daily from 6 plants Brandywine: Lost two plant out of 6. Got a lot of large tomatoes...

I live in the upstate also with a hilly piece of land and red clay. Best advice I can give is get all the leaves, compost and manure you can, you will need it with our soil.

I find partially decomposed leaves works better, straw is to hard to keep in place unless it has started to rot. I end up with some straw on mine, but it is just because it is mixed in with the leaves. Also how did you plant your taters? I typically just lay mine on the ground and cover with...

I planted "food plot" mix normally used for deer food plots I found on sale after deer season in my area. It had a mix of clover, austrian winter peas, and oats I also mixed in some winter rye. It worked great and was a good mix of legumes and grasses to help build the soil. I have lots of...

I read that you shouldn't set out tomato plants that are flowering because the plant will be putting it's energy into fruiting and not into growing and you will end up with stunted plants. I guess you may get tomatoes sooner, but it would be at the expense of a larger plant. I read this...

This is typical of the soil in my area (upstate SC) and we have clay. The best defense is to keep the soil covered with some type of mulch like leaves or straw and you will never see this. Maybe someone with non clay soil can let you know how their soil behaves. All we have is red clay in my...

Arkansas Traveler Mortgage Lifter Brandywine Also Siberian (an early tomato from Russia)

I have both a stationary traditional coop and a tractor and I can see a significant difference in feed consumption between the two. The tractor birds are moved every 3 days or so and completely eat down any vegetation. My birds in the coop are given as much greens as I can spare from grass...

I added a little "Plant Tone" organic fertilizer to my strawberries about 6 weeks ago and they look very good. I typically only use compost, but kind of hard to do with a bed of strawberries. I have rabbits so next year I will probably just add some composted rabbit poo, well see how that goes.

Hello Fur and Feathers, I am in the upstate of SC close to the GA line so we have very similar soil and weather. Mine started as Red Clay with a little sand. I have found the best thing is "sheet composting", this is basically composting in place in my garden. I also switched to 3 foot wide beds...

I think your plant will be just fine. With the mix of the clay soil and the fact the "poo" was overwintered I think you will end up with nice soil. You may in fact need a little more of a higher nitrogen "poo", but that depends on how lacking your clay is of nutrients. I just planted my potatoes...

Obssesed, well said :), I rarely now add any manure as "fertilizer", I typically use it before planting to help ammend my soil and maintain the fertility I have worked to add. I find if you have good soil the need to "side dress" with fertilizer of any type is minimal.

Rabbit poo is considered one of the safest as far as the potential to burn a plant. It is a considered a cold manure, manure such as chicken poo is very hot and will burn plants easily. If you want to avoid that just mix with a high carbon material like leaves or straw. You should have no issues...