If you’ve ever considered growing a garden, you may have been disappointed with the quality of your Coeur d’Alene area soil. One reason for the low quality may be that, prior to building your home, the top soil—only slightly better than your current soil in most cases for this area—was scraped off by large excavation equipment. However, there is a much larger, and cataclysmic explanation.
According to geologists, the lack of nutrient rich soil in our region—in some cases, a complete lack of soil at all—resulted from the bursting of an ice dam, some millions of year ago, which caused Glacial Lake Missoula to flood across North Idaho, and Eastern Washington, taking much of that quality soil with it. However, there are ways to replenish your soil so you can grow that beautiful organic garden you’ve envisioned.
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For a quick start, you may consider purchasing a soil/manure mixture from a local provider. This can be found at a good price, but you may need to shop around. And while you’re shopping, you’ll want to be sure the manure is from livestock that HAVE NOT been fed on ‘weed free’ hay. Herbicides are used on weed free hay. These are not organic, and contaminate the manure.
An essential element for a nutrient rich organic garden is compost. Composting is easy. In fact, with a little guidance and knowledge, a dedicated gardener can create a perfectly top quality compost in about 30 days, most of which is a simple matter of tossing kitchen scraps in the compost instead of the trash.
For a fabulous resource, visit the Idaho Master Gardeners Program, an extension of the University of Idaho’s agricultural program. They may be found online at www.extension.uidaho.edu/kootenai or on location at 1808 North 3rd Street, in Coeur d’Alene. N
A few do’s and don’ts for your compost:
Thing to use:
The smaller the better, chop these up:
» Grass clippings/thin layers (no weed killer)
» Kitchen Scraps (vegetables, fruits, peels)
» Egg Shells
» Large Fall Leaves
» Corn Cobs
Things to avoid:
» Meat scraps
» Plastic
» Grass Clippings with weed killer
» Remains from black walnut (toxic)
» Charcoal ashes from the grill
» Anything with thorns
By Toby Reynolds
As Featured In: Summer/Fall 2014
