This is a Mantis cultivator, the one you see on TV all the time churning up soil so fine it looks cosmetic. Well, for once the TV ads are true, We bought one at the Medford Grange and it works as advertised. This article is not a testimonial for Mantis, however but how a combination of things we are doing with our garden that are not only working well but saving us much of the money we had planned to spend on the garden in the first place.
First, we can get free horse manure which is great fertilizer. We don't have a horse but my daughter-in-law does so we filled her horse trailer with the stuff and Terry Brown at Terry's Nursery in Yreka says the older the better because the weed seeds get cooked out as the stuff ages and decomposes. It's pretty easy to find a horse owner in these parts and most would probably be very grateful to have you haul it away.
The next ingredient was going to be soil conditioner but I learned that Rich Linden at 523 Ski Village Drive in Mt. Shasta (926-3504) has a sawmill and he produces custom-sized lumber and large timbers for local people. He hauls a lot of sawdust and shavings to the dump every single week and he said he is delighted if people come by to pick them up and save him a trip. Bring your own garbage cans and trash bags.
Fine sawdust decomposes readily in the soils here and if the dirt is nutrient-poor like we have here in Lake Shastina and needing amendments such as soil conditioner, this is a free amendment that the Mantis can mix into the dirt along with the manure.
The cedar shavings Rich gives away can go between beds for walkways and they help repel bugs in the process. Cedar smells nice, too but is decay resistent so that's why you don't want to till it into the beds.
Finally we add grass clippings to the mix. We had our own pile to work from but it's not hard to talk a neighbor out of his collection. I even saw a small mountain of cuttings by Hoy Park that we may be able to borrow from, too.
The point is, make the mix 1/4 dirt, 1/4 manure, 1/4 sawdust, and 1/4 cut grass. When tilled several times and deeply the result is a fine, soft, and nutrient-rich soil ready to grow whatever you put in it. And all the ingredients are free for the hauling.
(By the way, I have to run over the beds several times with the Mantis in order to break down the manure clumps and mix everything up well enough and I have learned it is very helpful to have a friend spraying water behind the Mantis. An awful lot of dust is kicked up and that's not good for the air cleaner filter or for you. Be careful whom you ask to do this however, my darling wife got carried away with the hose more times than I could put off to inattention or carelessness.)
The last ingredient is going to be worms. We plan to buy the red wiggler variety the next time we go to the Farmers Market in Medford. It is going strong at this time of year and happens every Thursday on South Pacific Highway just south of the Harry and David mall. As long as we keep the beds wet over winter he little guys should thrive in this mixture and their castings are rich in nutrients which is the idea behind having worms in the first place.
This concoction is going to age over winter and when we plant in the spring I'll sprinkle ground up eggshells into the hole for each tomato, pepper, squash, and others that are subject to the blossom-end rot that got many of our plants this year.
If anyone would like to drop by and inspect our project please feel free. Our phone is 938-0385 and you are welcome to call ahead.
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