A new garden spot always has new challenges. The first real issue popping up for us is compost quality --- the topsoil/manure mixture from our neighbor was excellent (if a bit weedy), but the municipal compost is clearly low on nitrogen. Slow growth and slightly yellow leaves on heavy feeders while nitrogen-fixing beans grow just fine is a dead giveaway.

Luckily, low nitrogen is an easy fix. This week, my goal is to follow up on a few leads for other compost/manure sources suitable for topdressing. In the meantime, we're gorging on lettuce, are picking the first small broccoli and a smattering of strawberries, and are eying ripening peas.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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