Question
Hi,

We live in Montgomery, Texas relatively close to Houston. With lack of knowledge we foolishly dropped several hundred dollars worth of Bermuda Seed on our Horse Pasture that is mostly sand.  The seed was put down yesterday.  We have seeded in the past on other parts of our 4 acres with good results, it is starting to come up everywhere but there was already some small patches of established bermuda that we overseeded.  We tilled the entire 1 1/2 acres and turned the sand and clay mixture (it isn't all sand but mostly)    My question is...Is it too late to top dress it with some mulch?  We turned the soil at a depth of 4 inches or more and dropped the seed and then rolled it.  A lot of work for hopefully nothing!  Is there something I can add to the sand or do I just wait?  I am watering it and that is it.  I am very eager to establish a nice pasture for my horses and have always been interested in the organic way.

Thank you very much, I really am enjoying your site.

Jenny

Answer

Hi Jenny;
Here is the program I use.
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You will constantly improve your soil if you go on a totally organic program, and don't use any chemicals at all.
I have beenm on such a program for the last 9 to 10 years, after breaking my back and ruining my body trying to maintain a decent lawn, with only mediocre results.
the organics has freed me from about 90% of the physical work, about that much of the expense, and the results are a think, beautiful yard with no weeds or harmful insects.
Man!!! Wish I had known all this 50 years ago !
The corn clutem meal is an organic product.
If you use organics, and then use chemicals, you will cancel out the organics.
Chemical fertilizers kill all the beneficial microbes, nematodes and other beneficial insects and critters that work around the clock improving your soil.
Beneficial microbes enrich the soil. Chemicls do NOT.
If you put a little too muchj chemical products on the lawn, it will burn your grass, and do a lot of other damage.
If you put too much organics on it, all you do is waste a little time and money.
Sugar does absolutely nothing but nourish the beneficial micrebes. THEY do the work.
Weeds will not grow in rich soil. If they cme up, they will start to die out right away.
The first time I use sugar was in the spring. I had not put any chemicals on the yard since the fall feeding, so they were all worn out of the soil.
I had a lawn about 50% full of dandelions, crabgrass, johnson grass, clover, dollar weed and some other shallow rooted weeds like chickweed etc.
a couple of weeks after I put down the sugar and watered it in, I had about half as many weeds. Nobody had pulled a weed or anything. My husband had just mowed.
I went nuts, like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy, and ran out and bought more sugar, put it down and waterewd it in.
A couple more mowings, and there were so few weeds. In a few more werks they were all gone.
The next spring about half as many weeds as before came up, but in a few weeks they were gone.
All I had done was the sugar in the spring, and I did that again in the fall.
I used baking soda disolved in water for black spot on my roses and powdery mildew n my crepe mytrtles. That works much better then the chemical fungicides I had used before.
I started getting a nice herd of lizards, toads and grass snakes in my yard.
I had a BIG grub problem every year. I haven't had that since, nor do I have those nasty tent catapillars dropping on my head from the trees.
I see lizards running in the trees and along the fence. I never see the grass snakjes, which is fine with me. I seldon see a toad, but they are all there.
Sugar; I use 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. I just broadcast it by hand, and water it in well. If you spill a blob in one spot, no problem. No burning or other damage.

Watering; I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. Deep watering like that encourages a deep root growth. That protects from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch. I water with soaker hoses, and run them till the water is close to the edge and is about to start running off the yard. then I turn it off and wait an hour or so for it to soak in, and turn it on again. I keep doing that until it is wet down to a depth of 6 inches at least. Even here in our Texas heat, I water only once a week, unless it stays well above 100 for a week or more, which it sometimes does. then I look at the grass, and if my St. Augustine is folded up, lengthwise, I know it needs water. It folds the blades up to reduce the area exposed to evaporation. Burmuda, when it gets thirsty, bends it's little blades a little, like it is bowing.
My earthworms and cock roaches etc tunnel through the soil, and that keeps it aerated. Their castings add nourishment. Cockroaches are beneficial. They normally live in the soil and feed on other harmful insects. We put down pesticides, and kill their food supply, so they come in our houses to get food and hide from the pesticides.
I use fresh rosemary to keep them out of my house.

Baking soda disolved in water, about 2 TABLESPOONS per gallon of water, sprayed on top and underneath all the leaves, prevent molds and fungus on plants. You can also use it for fungus in the soil, or you can apply agricultural corn meal and water that in. About 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.

Corn gluten meal is an organic fertilizer and weed killer.
It won't interfere with the sugar.
None of the organics calcel each other out.
Alfalfa meal is another good food to add. Just sprinkle it on in about the same thickness the sugar goes on, and water. It is full of nutrients. So is lava sand. Yopu can add it to the top of the soil, dig it into the soil, or add it when you are adding soil, or putting soil in a comntainer for a plant.
Alfalfa meal, as well as generally nourishing the soil, helps promote larger and more blooms in blooming plants and house plants.
You can also make a tea of it for foliar feeding or for watering house plants.
Put 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water and let steep overnight. Still and use to water plants, or strain it and put it in a garden sprayer for foliar feeding.  Be sure, if you strain it, to dump the dregs on the soil somewhere, it is still full of nutrients.
You probably won't need more fertilizert than that. I didn't use anything but sugar for about 8 or 9 years, and last spring, I leartned about the alfalfa meal and lava sand, so I use them.
If you have more questions, write to me.
I am very happy to share what I have learned, and am learning.
Charlotte





Hi Jenny;
Great time to go organic.
You can apply all the organic things right there with your horses in the pasture, none of it will harm them in the least.
Right now, I would apply 3 or 4 pounds of sugar per 1000 sq.ft.
That will nourish the micro-organisms that will work round the clock, enriching the soil and improving it.
Just keep watering, and always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. That will establish a deep root system, and help protect the grass from cold and heat damage. Not that you hve to worry about cold in that ara.LOL
But you sure have to worry about the heat.
Also a deel root system prevents thatch.
Plain old table sugar feeds these beneficial microbes. That is all it does. It doesn't kill weeds, but rich soil does.
Weeds like poor soil, and won't thrive in rich soil.
Your horses roaming on that pasture is all the fertilizer you need, but you could throw down some alfalfa meal just to give the microbes some help.
Alfalfa meal is fll of nutrients.
The horse manure on the pasture provides the mir\cro-organisms, you just have to use organic things to let them live.
Chemical fertilizers kill them.
When you have a safe healthy enviornment for them, the little toads, lizards etc will eat all the harmful insects for you.
The clay is probably enough to undo the too loose situation with the sand.
Yu don't an to apply a lot of mulch or you will smother out the grass.
You could put down cedar bark mulch, thinly enough to NOT cover the grass baldes, and it will repel many insects, and compost in 2 years, rather than one year for other hardwood mulches.
You don't want to waste your money on pine bark mulch.
It isbn't worth diddly. It doesn't repel insects, and itt doesn't stay put. it blows around, and it is just a waste of money and the time to aply it.
Hardwood bark mulch will not repel any insects, but it composts in only one year. so you might want to mix it with half anf halfd, hardwood bark and cedar bark.
If you put this mulch, just a very light application.
You don't wean to interfere with new grass growth.
You can put this on again when the blades are about 3 or 4 inches high.
Make a place for a compost pile, and upt all the raw vegetable waste from your kitchen in it.
Coffee grounds, egg shells, tea leaves and trhe peels from fruits and veggies will add nutrients.
You can also toss some of that clay on it, and turn it. In just a few months, you have a lot of good soil out of what would have gone down the garbage disposal or trash.
If you have a very large field, and make some good neighbors, maybe they will also save veggie scraps for you, and begf their leaves they rake up in the fall.
go to this site and read up on good compost making.
  http://www.garden.org/home

That is the National Gardening Association's website
Put composting in their search window, and you will get lots of articles on composting to read.
Write anytime I can help.
Would you like a copy of my organic program?
Charlotte