It was bad when I started off but it gets better. The condition of the soil is the most important thing. If you get it where it's supposed to be, you will not have many issues with diseases. I think the hardest thing to diagnose is some of the different diseases. Some are easy to identify but others get me guessing. The insects are fairly easy deal with. I use Garden Safe Insecticidal Soap and Neem Oil. These have worked great for me. You just have to know which insects come out during the year and start preventative treating. Always reapply if it rains. That's great that you have worms and the more the better. That's a good sign. You mentioned the conifer tree. Are you getting a lot of needles in the soil? Have you checked the PH? If it's too acidic, you can use wood ash to lower the acidity. It's really cheap if you burn wood for heat. I save my ash for this very purpose. Compost is wonderful for stabilizing the soil. I keep 2 bins going and just keep adding it. You can also use lime or dolomite to bring down the acidity.
If you want to make some good soil/compost, get some cardboard boxes and remove all the stickers and tape. You want the brown boxes like Amazon sends out. I save all these too. Stay away from cardboard that's colored since these contain chemicals. Then find a way to shred it up into smaller pieces. I've seen some people just run it over and over with a lawn mower while others have used heavy duty shredders. Get some fresh green grass clippings that hasn't been treated with pesticides/insecticides. Then find a place in the sunlight where you can keep a couple of piles going all the time. Mix the grass and carboard (roughly 50/50) together really good with a pitchfork and add water to get it moist. Not too dry and not too wet. You can cover with a tarp if you want. It will heat up to 150 degrees in the middle of the pile. You can use a laser thermometer. This is ideal for the reaction you're needing for the good bacteria to break it all down. You have to keep turning. If you don't turn it, it will bring in the bad bacteria. Throw in any kitchen scraps you have and mix it in. The worms will come up and break it down even faster. A lot of worms will show up in these piles. After about 3 to 4 months, you'll have some dark beautiful compost that you can spread all over. Just keep it going all the time and adding it to your garden. This will help repair the soil. It's cheap but it does take work. I found a good video of someone doing this here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxTzuasQLFo.
As for the golfer or moles, they are difficult to deal with. They'll destroy the roots and I think you already know this. I've tried many things without much success. And I didn't want to use any baited poisons either. I've found two traps that have worked consistently well at getting rid of them. That's if you want to kill them. I haven't found any other way. The gopher traps I use are here https://www.amazon.com/Victor-Easy-Gopher-Trap-Twin-Pack/dp/B000VYD0MA/. You need a metal stake and wire tied to the trap. Find the hole, set the trap, place it in the hole, and cover the hole but make sure you leave a little opening to let some light in. They don't like the light. They'll come back to cover it with dirt and they get caught. Then pound the stake into the ground. If you don't, they will run away with the trap once they're caught. They will die but you lose the trap. I'm not one to let them suffer so I keep a close eye on it. For moles, I use these traps here https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/easy-mole-trap. To use these, you have to probe the tunnels with a stick to find the shallow part of their tunnel. This is usually where you would see the soil raised. These are useless if you're setting the trap where their tunnels are too deep. Once you find it, set the trap over the tunnel. When it goes off, you'll see the trap higher in the air. You can always put a bell of flag on these while you're working out in the yard to either hear or see it. I don't want them to suffer which is why I pay close attention. I will check the gopher traps more often. If they're still alive when I pull them out, I shoot and dispose of them. Hopefully, you don't have armadillos, raccoons, or opossums. They can do some damage too but easier to catch. I use an above ground trap for these. When I catch them, I drive about 20 minutes away to release them. Hope this helps.
Thx for the advice! Yes, added lime in Year 1 (cheap from a tortilla factory) and also wood ashes from my fire pit. My soil needs a lot more of that. Now all my pine needles go into the compost garbage bins. Haven't tried doing composting yet. Might buy a pitchfork now! Planning to put gopher-lovin' plants in pots next spring and for those in ground inside wire buried boxes. And experiment with traps, too. I've dealt with raccoons ("trash pandas") and possums by giving both a wide berth - never have had serious trouble with either since they mostly are just passing thru and I never put pet food outside.
LOL! The racoons are notorious for getting into the trash bins. My bin lid is attached by hinges and has 2 wheels. I strap it down with a bungee cord. Problem solved.
Don't give up. It gets better. It's very frustrating in the beginning especially if you lose a lot of plants. The good part is you usually learn a lot from it. I hope you have a better year next year.
Thx. Indeed, it can be frustrating but I was amazed in my Year 1 anything grew in soil abused by so much Roundup, extreme acidic soil, and a horrid June beetle grub infestation. Year 1, I had too many tomatoes but Year 2 too many herbs and gophers attacking tomatoes. A learning process to know what grows well with conditions one has. Constant experimenting.
It was bad when I started off but it gets better. The condition of the soil is the most important thing. If you get it where it's supposed to be, you will not have many issues with diseases. I think the hardest thing to diagnose is some of the different diseases. Some are easy to identify but others get me guessing. The insects are fairly easy deal with. I use Garden Safe Insecticidal Soap and Neem Oil. These have worked great for me. You just have to know which insects come out during the year and start preventative treating. Always reapply if it rains. That's great that you have worms and the more the better. That's a good sign. You mentioned the conifer tree. Are you getting a lot of needles in the soil? Have you checked the PH? If it's too acidic, you can use wood ash to lower the acidity. It's really cheap if you burn wood for heat. I save my ash for this very purpose. Compost is wonderful for stabilizing the soil. I keep 2 bins going and just keep adding it. You can also use lime or dolomite to bring down the acidity.
If you want to make some good soil/compost, get some cardboard boxes and remove all the stickers and tape. You want the brown boxes like Amazon sends out. I save all these too. Stay away from cardboard that's colored since these contain chemicals. Then find a way to shred it up into smaller pieces. I've seen some people just run it over and over with a lawn mower while others have used heavy duty shredders. Get some fresh green grass clippings that hasn't been treated with pesticides/insecticides. Then find a place in the sunlight where you can keep a couple of piles going all the time. Mix the grass and carboard (roughly 50/50) together really good with a pitchfork and add water to get it moist. Not too dry and not too wet. You can cover with a tarp if you want. It will heat up to 150 degrees in the middle of the pile. You can use a laser thermometer. This is ideal for the reaction you're needing for the good bacteria to break it all down. You have to keep turning. If you don't turn it, it will bring in the bad bacteria. Throw in any kitchen scraps you have and mix it in. The worms will come up and break it down even faster. A lot of worms will show up in these piles. After about 3 to 4 months, you'll have some dark beautiful compost that you can spread all over. Just keep it going all the time and adding it to your garden. This will help repair the soil. It's cheap but it does take work. I found a good video of someone doing this here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxTzuasQLFo.
As for the golfer or moles, they are difficult to deal with. They'll destroy the roots and I think you already know this. I've tried many things without much success. And I didn't want to use any baited poisons either. I've found two traps that have worked consistently well at getting rid of them. That's if you want to kill them. I haven't found any other way. The gopher traps I use are here https://www.amazon.com/Victor-Easy-Gopher-Trap-Twin-Pack/dp/B000VYD0MA/. You need a metal stake and wire tied to the trap. Find the hole, set the trap, place it in the hole, and cover the hole but make sure you leave a little opening to let some light in. They don't like the light. They'll come back to cover it with dirt and they get caught. Then pound the stake into the ground. If you don't, they will run away with the trap once they're caught. They will die but you lose the trap. I'm not one to let them suffer so I keep a close eye on it. For moles, I use these traps here https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/easy-mole-trap. To use these, you have to probe the tunnels with a stick to find the shallow part of their tunnel. This is usually where you would see the soil raised. These are useless if you're setting the trap where their tunnels are too deep. Once you find it, set the trap over the tunnel. When it goes off, you'll see the trap higher in the air. You can always put a bell of flag on these while you're working out in the yard to either hear or see it. I don't want them to suffer which is why I pay close attention. I will check the gopher traps more often. If they're still alive when I pull them out, I shoot and dispose of them. Hopefully, you don't have armadillos, raccoons, or opossums. They can do some damage too but easier to catch. I use an above ground trap for these. When I catch them, I drive about 20 minutes away to release them. Hope this helps.
Thx for the advice! Yes, added lime in Year 1 (cheap from a tortilla factory) and also wood ashes from my fire pit. My soil needs a lot more of that. Now all my pine needles go into the compost garbage bins. Haven't tried doing composting yet. Might buy a pitchfork now! Planning to put gopher-lovin' plants in pots next spring and for those in ground inside wire buried boxes. And experiment with traps, too. I've dealt with raccoons ("trash pandas") and possums by giving both a wide berth - never have had serious trouble with either since they mostly are just passing thru and I never put pet food outside.
LOL! The racoons are notorious for getting into the trash bins. My bin lid is attached by hinges and has 2 wheels. I strap it down with a bungee cord. Problem solved.
Don't give up. It gets better. It's very frustrating in the beginning especially if you lose a lot of plants. The good part is you usually learn a lot from it. I hope you have a better year next year.
Thx. Indeed, it can be frustrating but I was amazed in my Year 1 anything grew in soil abused by so much Roundup, extreme acidic soil, and a horrid June beetle grub infestation. Year 1, I had too many tomatoes but Year 2 too many herbs and gophers attacking tomatoes. A learning process to know what grows well with conditions one has. Constant experimenting.