All mixes measured in 5 gallon buckets

The EPP Organic Mix

2 buckets aged stable cleanings (horse manure plus straw, hay and  a few wood chips)

Oh yeah – don’t forget to add a good measure of fire ants to make the potting experience much more fun! 

* Pine bark fines from Griffis Lumber on 441, about $22 per cubic yard – or grind your own from regular size pine bark run through a wood shredder – you need about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch diameter pieces, don’t mill to a powder!)

From Michael to Dan

The EPP container mix usually does not contain any lime or dolomite.  We used to put some in for things that like basic conditions, but I don’t think our mix ever quite gets acidic enough for that to be useful.  We’ve generally been having the opposite problem for plants that like acid, although the same symptoms can be caused by too much potassium.

My approach to the soil mixing is like cooking, I don’t like to measure, I just add stuff till it looks right.  The plants growing in the soil I cook up are almost always happy.

For vegetable seedlings that need extra nitrogen, I mix in blood meal.

This information is really not very useful for gardening unless you are doing it all in containers.  Most gardening uses natural soils and adds things that are lacking.  For that you need a soil test.  Soils around here usually need most of the things you can add, such as, dolomite, organic matter, NPK, and micros.  To know just how much of all those things you need to add, you need a soil test that you can get done for $15 at the University’s soil lab. Contact the IFAS extension and ask for a soil sample kit.  They will mail it to you for free.  It will tell you how to collect you sample and deliver it to the appropriate office.  The only thing you can almost never get too much of is organic matter.  Some sources are low in Nitrogen and will use whatever is there in the decomposition process.  Some people who read a badly written pamphlet often tell me “oh, you can’t use that, the C/N ratio is all wrong.”  No, it means you need to pee on it…or add some other source of nitrogen to balance it – blood meal, fish emulsion, any kid of legume residue, synthetic fertilizer, etc.  I also get “You shouldn’t use oak leaves or pine needles for mulch because it will make the soil too acidic.”  Wrong again.  Adding oak leaves and pine needles for thousands of years will make the soil too acidic.  Then you’ll need to add a little dolomitic limestone, and can continue with the oak leaves and pine needles again.

From Dan to Michael

Yep - the mixes I listed are entirely for container gardening which is pretty much most of what I do other than the fruit trees and shrubs I plant in the ground.  Too many tree roots where I live to grow anything that isn’t strongly competitive so most things go in bins, boxes, trays, bags, and pots and I isolate those from the soil either up on blocks or with black plastic sheeting.   For planting in soil its a whole nother ball game.

For the EPP mix I should have said dolomitic lime for alkaline loving plants rather than not for acid loving plants – in other words we don’t use it most of the time.  My bad.  At home I use so much acid to mildly acid materials (pine bark, coffee grounds, compost) I add the dolomite as a default and only leave it out occasionally (for potatoes, strawberries, etc.). So my brain is set in a pro-lime default mode.   I think the irrigation water at the blueberry farm must add plenty of calcium carbonate (lime) for us from the hard well water.  In fact, I think if you stand still long enough under the sprinklers you’ll develop a bad case of stalactites.

Dan

ps – for the true container gardening geek there is a good article on container mixes at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CN004 .  Some things there are counter to my experience but it is a great overview of things to use and factors to consider.  A bit too deep in theory for most people. But I rather like theory since it is so pleasant to defy it and still succeed.  Like Michael indicates all that is important in the long run is that the plants do well in the mix, not whether a soil scientist thinks it is properly drained or all the ratios are right.

The programs mission is to provide a place where the citizens of Gainesville can participate in a healthy outdoor activity that can also improve public nutrition and the neighborhood environment.

The program is managed by staff, but the individual gardens are coordinated by dedicated volunteers. If you would like more information about the Community Garden program, please call (352) 393-8171.

The links below take you to a google map showing where the garden is located.

Dreamers Garden – The Grove Street Neighborhood Community Garden (corner of NW 4th Street & NW 10th Avenue)

Green Acres Park Community Garden 700 Block and SW 40th Street (within Green Acres Park)

McRorie Community Garden (corner of SE 4th Avenue & SE 6th Terrace)

NE 31st Avenue Community Garden, 1700 NE 31st Avenue (within NE 31st Avenue  Park)

2947 SW 40th Place Community Garden (SW 40th Place & SW 30th Terrace)

City of Gainesville’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department

Nolin River Nut Nursery: www.nolinnursery.com
An excellent source for many varieties of grafted nut trees, and a few fruit varieties.

Just Fruits and Exotics: http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/FruitHome.htm
Located in Crawfordville. Good selection of perennial edible plants, including olive varieties that reportedly do well in North Florida.

Edible Landscaping nursery: www.eat-it.com
Good catalog, good selection of food-producing plants. Prices are not cheap, but for some varieties they seem to be the only supplier.

ECHO: www.echonet.org
Located on North Fort Myers, Florida. Devoted to fighting world hunger by helping people feed themselves. Promoting sustainable agriculture that relies on a minimum of technological or economic resources. ECHO supplies seeds, plants, and information. Many seeds are available for mail-order from their website, including the amazing moringa tree.

Peters Seed and Research: www.pioneer-net.com/psr
Vegetable and grain seeds. Located in the Pacific Northwest, which might not recommend varieties adapted to that climate for our conditions. BUT – they actually offer a few selections of perennial grains, probably the only commercial source to do so. The perennial sorghum varieties probably have a good chance of doing well in Florida.

Miscellaneous :
Here are some links to edible nurseries!
http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/
http://www.naturehills.com/

Lots of great links here also including a forum discussing edible nurseries:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/edible/msg0907152314910.html
http://www.simplelivinginstitute.org/links.html

Eat Local – National Resources Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org/

Florida Community Farmers’ Markets:
http://www.florida-agriculture.com/consumers/farmers_markets.htm

Florida State Farmers’ Markets:
http://www.florida-agriculture.com/marketing/state_markets.htm

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens:
http://www.kanapaha.org/

The Gardening Fool Blog is about gardening in the Central Florida area. The Perennial Veggie topic is of interest to us Edible Plant Project folks. We’ve provided a few cuttings from our stock to help spread the concept to the Central part of the state. We hope a volunteer group starts up there too!

MARKETS & COMMUNITY GARDENS

City of Gainesville Community Gardens

Slow Food Gainesville

Alachua County Farmer’s Markets

INFORMATION

Sustainable Alachua County Inc.

IFAS Monthly Gardening Tips (Alachua County Extension Office) IFAS Fact Sheets: great local gardening tips via a monthly newsletter and loads of other good stuff

Fruit Facts: A series of publications containing information on individual fruits, including botanical identification, plant description and culture notes, and characteristics of cultivars.

Brevard Rare Fruit Council: some information, monthly meetings and a great annual sale (in April).

California Rare Fruit Growers: for plant/tree descriptions including uses.

The Fruit Tree Planting Association: Their goal is to collectively plant 18 billion fruit trees for a healthy planet (approximately 3 for every person alive). Fruit trees heal the environment by cleaning the air, improving soil quality, preventing erosion, creating animal habitat, sustaining valuable water sources, and providing healthy nutrition.

GARDENS, NURSERIES & PARKS

Echo specialize in a diverse selection of tropical and sub-tropical fruits, edible plants and tropical clumping bamboo. Their mission is to network with community leaders in developing countries to seek hunger solutions for families growing food under difficult conditions.

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville. 62 acres of bamboo and herbs and other beautiful sub-tropical plants.

The Fruit & Spice Park is an awesome place! They host over 500 varieties of fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs, and nuts, and other commercially important plant specimens from around the world. It’s only $5 to get in. Highly recommended! Take the free tour! Seeds are freely available and cuttings can be obtained with prior arrangement with the park manager. The Park showcases 150 varieties of mango, 75 varieties of bananas, 70 bamboo varieties, and numerous other exotic edibles. Visitors are invited to munch at our tasting counter inside our Park Store.

USDA Organic Certification: Understanding the USDA Organic Labelling

The National Organic Standards Training Materials (set)

A new internet hub site for the International movement to grow Food, not Lawns

Gainesville Blueberry Farm: http://gvilleblueberryfarmfriends.org/

The Mission of the Friends of the Gainesville Organic Blueberry Farm is to foster harmony in our community and provide access to fresh local food, while working together to preserve our historic neighborhood farm. Read more ….

The Edible Plant Project has it’s nursery there thanks to the Blueberry Farm’s generosity of spirit.

Minor Fruits & Nuts in Georgia: http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B992/B992.htm
Some good information on plants we are growing

Shared Earth: http://sharedearth.com
This website allows ‘landowners’ who would like to see their land producing food connect with people who want to garden but don’t have the land. And vice versa!

Badgersett Research Farm: www.badgersett.com
Working to replace the corn and soybean monoculture of their area (Minesotta) with perennial woody crops, mimicking the native savannah ecosystem. Have developed high-yielding, precocious hazel nut and chestnut varieties. Hazel could replace soybeans (including for sustainable diesel fuel), and chestnuts are nutritionally very similar to corn.

The Land Institute: www.landinstitute.org
Based in Kansas. Working on replacing standard Midwestern annuals-in-monoculture agriculture with a system based on the native ecosystem in their area, tall-grass prairie. Developing perennial crops to fill all the ecological niches of tallgrass prairie: warm season grasses, cool season grasses, legumes, plants in the sunflower family. Perennial polyculture.

Pawpaw Foundation: www.pawpaw.kysu.edu
The world’s only full-time breeding project on Asimina triloba, the pawpaw, North America’s largest native tree fruit.

Ryan Is Hungry: http://RyanIsHungry.com
Jay and Ryanne are documenting the green (and geek) communities in the SF Bay Area. RyanIsHungry was built to feature the stories of individuals, businesses and organizations making a difference in the world through sustainable and green practices. “By creating an online archive of these stories, we hope to inspire people throughout the world to think and act more sustainably.”