I just killed everything.

[salt_phoenix]

1200 sq. ft. of garden beds that dh covered in compost and tilled up, and then I FILLED with 90 varieties of seeds and transplants...

GONE.

Unfinished compost.







Hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Hundreds of hours. ALL my love and care and desire and passion.
GONE.

I have nothing left. Nothing.
My gardening budget? gone
My plants? gone
My desire to even look at another garden bed as long as I live? gone





I have three tomatoes in four containers on the patio as well as some chard in a pot. I can't believe that my 1200 sq. ft. of beautiful heirloom varieties has been reduced to 4 crappy containers on the patio.

I'm devastated.

[serenetabbie]

That's horrible! I am so sorry... what on earth happened?

[Milkymommi]

I'm SOOOOOOOO sorry !!!!

[*Jessica*]

Oh no! What happened?

[sapientia]

I am so so sorry! What happened???

[Quirky]

Oh, I'm so sorry.

If it was unfinished compost, my guess is that it's not a good thing to plant for this year.....but if you mulch it well, it should be a fantabulous garden for next year. Or maybe even later in this season, depending on how aged the compost was.....you could try some fall crops and some overwintering crops like garlic, parsnips, etc.

And you could post on Craig's List or find local gardening forums and maybe ask for seeds/starts.....

I'm so sorry.

[journeymom]

Wow, I'm so sorry!

I didn't know what you're referring to, so I looked up unfinished compost:

http://www.compostinfo.com/tutorial/HowToUseIt.htm

Using unfinished compost as a soil amendment may stress plants, causing them to yellow or stalling their growth. This is because the decomposition process is continuing near the plant roots and the microorganisms in the compost are competing with the plants for nitrogen. You may want to compensate for this nitrogen imbalance by adding nitrogen fertilizer to soil applications of immature compost.

I didn't know there's a 'curing' process! I've just been tossing kitchen scraps into a pile in a corner of the yard and mixing soil and whatnot into it. Maybe I'll pay a little more attention to it!

[PiesandAbrosmama]

I have extra all heirloom seeds I'd be willing to send so you could do some more container plants if the ground is not good for this year. PM me if you want to. That is soo sad. . . I had to replant a few things from our really wet and colder april and I get very emotional about my plants dying to. Sorry mama

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

z:

[AllisonK]

Oh no! I am so sorry. I also have some extra seeds that you can have if you like. Nothing heirloom though. Let me know what you are looking for and if I have it I can send you some.

[Astrogirl]

I'm so sorry. I came in here this morning because my baby tomatoes died on sunday and I'm quite bummed about it as well. I know it was a fertilizer problem, but I just don't understand what went wrong. I just lost my tomatoes and some carrots, I can't even fathom how you must be feeling.

If you get that desire back again, let me know. I will donate some seedlings for your cause and maybe you can start again.....Maybe other gardening mamas here can as well.

[Jenn_M]

I'm so sorry!!

[Sustainer]

[Teenytoona]

Julie! Oh, I'm so sorry! PM me if you want, I've got more seeds than I will get to this year, I'm more than willing to share.

On the other hand, I"m very grateful to know this about compost, I had no idea otherwise.

[operamommy]

I'm sorry.

I have some extra seeds that I'm more than willing to send as well. They aren't organic, but they are seeds at least. *hugs*

[salt_phoenix]

The compost LOOKED fantastic. But it just wasn't "done". It looked like someone snuck in and sprayed everything with Round Up.

I'm not really sure what I am going to do yet. Thanks for all the offers. I have lots of seeds left. I just can't even use these beds, like pp said, until later... as in fall crops.

My summer calendar just emptied out.

Does anyone know of an organic farm that needs help anywhere near Utah that will let me bring my two girls? I have a lot to learn, some time to learn it, and in need of some space from my current location of botanical genocide. In other words... Will work for food. Not because I need it, but because I need to LEARN IT.

I am a much better hunter & gatherer than gardener. It explains my nomadic tendencies. I feel like locust.

[sniffmommy]

could you add "brown" to your beds?

If you amended your beds with a few layers of brown (leaves, hay, etc.) do you think you could still start over? It would be like lasagna gardening. You could maybe look on craigslist for free yard debris. Or put a plea out there on craigslist for free debris? You could also consider covering your beds with black plastic and "cooking" them for a few weeks. You may be able to sow some late summer/fall crops.
I am so sorry for your loss. Don't give up just yet. :

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

Is everything really dead or just yellowing? How much compost was in there? Are you sure it was the compost? I've never heard of partially finished compost killing everything. I've had tomatoes, squash, potatoes and several other volunteers grow quite happily in my still active compost pile.

Quick question, I just remembered something. Did you have any horse/cow manure in your compost? There was a little blurb in a magazine I read recently (it could have been Mother Earth News or maybe Harrowsmith) about certain herbicides used in pastures and hay fields to kill unwanted weeds. The chemicals are harmless to animals but have been known to travel through the digestive tract of animals that eat treated hay or pasture and into the manure. If that manure is then put on a garden, even well rotted, it can kill the plants. It seems in some parts of North America, particularly on the East coast, contaminated manure was ending up in garden centers.

[InchByInch]

Sending you a commiserating hug, OP... I, too, had a lovely batch of seedlings that I managed to kill in one fell swoop, just one week before they were to go outside. (I'd read online-- from more than one source-- that you could spray water mixed with baking soda on your plants to acts as a natural fungicide. They were all wilted within the hour.)

It is absolutely gut-wrenching to watch your healthy seedlings (loved and cared for for weeks; even sung to!) die like that, and while there are definitely worse things in this world, I still cried my eyes out. It just plain sucks.

[salt_phoenix]

Yes, absolutely burned to the ground, as if they were torched or seriously, been sprayed with Round Up. They were fine. I did a deep water, left for 24 hrs., came back, everything was burned to the ground. Not burned as in ash, burned as in chemical burn.

I am really wondering what was in that compost. Maybe it did have something really really nasty in it. I have never seen anything like it. You would think that if you buy a truckload of compost from somewhere, it's not going to kill everything you own.

A friend said that tilling it in again should fix it, but I dunno. I'm really afraid to plant anything in it now. He took a sample of the dirt, was going to check it for a thing or two. but If I don't REALLY know what happened, I can't fix it.

Some of my urban homesteading mama friends brought me tons of replacements today, extras and such that they had, but I don't know where I'm going to put them, if I can't use these beds.