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Christinas Garden

Do you reuse the soil?

March 13, 2023 by Christina

It’s always one of the very first questions folks who’re interested in how I grow microgreens ask me. Do you reuse the soil?

The answer is No but Yes.

I don’t reuse the soil for growing more microgreens but a greenhouse full of shoots and microgreens, once harvested, includes a lot of amazing soil building material for my outdoor seasonal garden too. So yes, the microgreen growing soil is reused and has become an important part of my whole garden system.I first started making compost piles of harvested tray soil on the edge of the garden and once composted, I’d move it around to all my garden beds (which I still do) but somewhere along the way, as production increased, I realized that using the harvested tray soil was also an amazing way to make new beds right in place.

Before:After:After:

During the years when I was producing microgreens for grocery stores in Victoria, we were creating so much harvested tray soil that I had lots to give away to other Mayne Island gardeners. Folks would come load up the back of their pickup trucks or bring a tractor and wagon to load up or even throw some uncomposted trays onto a tarp in the back of their car!These days, I’m focussing on growing more manageable amounts of microgreens for our sweet island community here and I’m producing just what I need in soil amendments for this garden with a little bit to share with others, once in a while.It takes a couple months for the tray roots and stems to compost down in  the winter cold and the summer warmth. In the spring tho’, the little plants that are left over, and some of the slower to germinate seeds want to continue to grow into larger plants and they often do. This results in delicious, juicy radish seed pods and big pea tendrils with purple and pink flowers and even mature sunflowers! Before the radish seed pods form, the radish flowers are a favourite of the swallowtail butterflies and it’s common to see over twenty of them at a time (I always lose count at around 20) flitting along over all the little radish flowers! Hummingbirds and all sorts of other pollinators love the radish flowers too. It all feels like a big bonus gift! This spring activity eventually dies down and things begin to compost as summer gets going.

Sometimes I use the harvested pea trays as a green manure crop over the fall/winter/spring time on beds that need a boost. I just lay down a patchwork of harvested tray remains and the greens begin to sprout again as the roots grow down into the soil and get to work fixing nitrogen. I do this around my apple trees and raspberry patch too. It really works!

 

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Comments

  1. Danielle says

    March 24, 2023 at 9:23 pm

    Your garden looks beautiful! Next time I am on Mayne on a Wednesday I hope I will be able to get some microgreens.

    Where do you get your pea seeds from? I would like to plant some to help the soil in some of my garden beds 😊

    Reply
    • Christina says

      March 28, 2023 at 10:39 am

      Hi! I get my pea seed for shoots from Mumm’s in Saskatchewan. It might be a good idea to check out West Coast Seeds Cover Crop selection for ‘field peas’ that you could use for your garden beds? (Just to compare?)
      I stock the roadside stand on Thursday and Friday afternoons (not Wednesdays) but FarmGate Store has a good selection on Wednesdays!

      Reply

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About the Garden

Christina’s Garden is a small market garden on Mayne Island, one of the Southern Gulf Islands located in the Salish Sea between Vancouver and Victoria, BC, Canada.

We put love and care into producing a variety of delicious and nutritious shoots and microgreens for year round sales to Mayne Islanders and folks in Victoria and on the mainland. We also offer a variety of home grown vegetables, seasonal flower bouquets and bedding plants for home gardens at our roadside stand and the Saturday Market on Mayne Island.

About the Gardener

Christina Pechloff

I like to grow food and flowers so we can use them to make our lives delicious and beautiful.

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