DYI Tips & Tricks

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Soil, Water, Heat and Light.  Its that simple to start your own seedlings.  Remember that you need a space big enough and that is climate controlled.  Each seed is a specific plant and needs to be treated a specific way.  Not all seeds are created equal. We suggest that you read a lot about the plants you are wanting to grow and follow those directions.  If you don't have the time or space to do this yourself, call us.  We do it all for you.  If you have specific questions we will let you talk to a real live experienced horticulturist.

Here in the Ozarks we fight the rocky clay earth we have been given.  Remember though, we have been blessed with an abundance of oak, pine, cedar and Hickory trees.  Trees = leaves + dead limbs.  We here at OzarkNursery.com are in a constant turnover of fresh homemade soil.  Soil making takes a couple of years to not only master but to produce.  

Making soil is done many ways, we use a mixture of a few ingredients, compost, worms, green manure and dead rotting tree limbs and pieces.  We do an old German style soil making process called Hugelkultur. First we lay out dead tree limbs and/or logs at the bottom of our soil beds, then we add a layer of mulch (dead tree leaves), next a layer of compost (which we make by throwing our perishable food products into a compost bin), followed by a layer of composted leaves and grass clippings, and last a layer of mulch (dried mulched leaves and grass clippings).  We continue this process alternating layers and allowing it to get wet and stay cover to heat up (which helps it breakdown faster).  If you stay on top of this, you can produce plenty of good fertile soil and start a Hugelkultur row that will be for growing directly on the ground.  

If you don't have the time or space to make your own soil, you can pre-order soil directly from us.  We would need time to make your custom soil and time will depend on how much you would order. Call if you have any questions. 

So we are all aware of the fertilizer shortage.  We have started making our own fertilizer.  We use weeds and other things we would not put in our compost in order to not have them want to grow in our soil.  We make a tea, that's right, we just add water to the piles of weeds and tree seeds to feed our plants.  It has worked well for us so far, and we are still experimenting with this method. 

We also use local farm manure (great for added potassium).  There are many local farms willing to sell manure at a low price, just remember that you need to let it sit for a while to break down, this will give maximum benefit. 

Indoor light has come a long way in a short time.