I use bricks, but you have to lay them down neatly one after another, or the wind will get in. On the sides, too, I use six bricks per side, all told, some 22 bricks per bed. I have a lot of bricks. Perhaps it is colder there than here, but here it is certainly not sunny in winter. Collard and kale make it under a single layer, and collard can be picked frozen. It is not efficient, a lot of outer leaves die and become inedible, but it is much better than nothing. The best thermal ballast is moist, uncovered soil. No mulch whatsoever. I usually water (with a 5-gallons bucket) when I open a bed, and I am meticoulous when I close it. I leave the snow on, because I just overwinter whole beds, and that helps. I suggest you experiment with one bed, single layer, just red kale, and see how it goes. If red kale dies, it is proof positive that you have to go double.

Never use a pesticide (organic or not) without totally reading the label. It should tell you how long you must wait to re-enter an area sprayed, as well as how long to wait until you can safely harvest the crop. Of course, if you are an organic grower, you'll probably feel that crops grown using conventional pesticides should never be harvested to eat, but surprisingly people also think that organic pesticides are okay to use where some are more toxic than some of the more benign conventional pesticides...rotenone is one prime example. Ann (a former pesticide inspector and current organic grower)

Skid steer: Itsa cow that he uses to pull stuff around (kind of like a cheap ox), but as you can see, Lloyd only had $11 to spend, so he had to buy one with worn hooves, thus the poor traction thing. I didn't just drop 11 large on a loader for my compost (you go, Lloyd!) but I am mildly envious of Lloyd's easy/immediate access (because he OWNS the darned thing) to the equipment. I'm sure as heck not going to look at his (I'm sure) hard earned acquisition as having stolen the food from someone else's mouth (or as having deprived them of their flat screen TVs and iPods). I guess that puts me squarely in the camp of those believing there is nothing wrong with wanting to retain a little fruit of your own labor for yourself instead of being forced to distribute it amongst those with PERCEIVED need. That whole Marx thing - "Jeder nach seinen Fhigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedrfnissen!" doesn't have the same ring of clarion call for all, I guess. Humic acid and fulvic acid CAN indeed immediately enrich certain soils w/o the addition of other organic matter or a history of having added OM. I'm not saying what the OP is considering is wise or not wise. He can decide exactly how HE wants to spend HIS money, but if the product isn't a pig-in-a-poke, it has the potential to benefit the soil and by extension, his plantings. Following, is something I wrote on the container gardening forum, so it will be slightly OT in areas because of it's 'container' bent, but there should (hopefully) be some info in it worth considering. Humic acid (HA) is formed during the humification process (decaying/composting) as plant and animal matter break down. The main source of HA is lignin, which is the most common bio-compound on earth next to cellulose - it's what makes plants stiff. As the organic matter breaks down, it forms several acids called carboxylates and phenoxides. While there are several acids formed during the breakdown of organic matter, While there are several acids formed during the breakdown of organic matter, the acids formed by a variety of decaying vegetable matter end up being pretty much the same group of acids in the same proportions. Further, it's not the acids formed during humification that vary with any significance, it's the compounds they form with free ions when mixed into (primarily) mineral soils. It's easy to envision why that is true when we consider that all plants are made up of the same building blocks (nutrients/elements) in almost exactly the same ratio. IOW, there is little difference, chemically speaking, between sequoias and snapdragons. Also important to consider is that peat moss is made up of a combination of cellulose, lignins, and humic acids. This fact is probably what would allow any/all container media producers to lay claim to the fact that their product contains HA. As I mentioned upthread - advertisers often lay claim to things their research shows the general public might consider a huge plus, when it's an intrinsic part of all similar products. Shell Oil used to advertise that their gasoline contained lead to guard against spark knock, when in fact all gasoline used to contain lead. If I thought a little, I'm sure I could quickly come up with another dozen examples more current. I'll leave an answer I posted to a thread on the container forum back in Nov '08. The question posed was, "Does humic acid serve any purpose for container plants?" I drew a delineation between mineral soils and container media primarily because the immense volume of organic matter in almost all container media. This would even include the gritty mix, which has a 1/3 organic component - roughly 6-10 times what you would find in most natural and garden soils. Hopefully, we have built or are using container media with a suitable structure, but even if we were not, the type of structural improvements usually associated with the use of HA in mineral soils do not apply to container media. Where container media is concerned, if the structure is not there from the beginning, the only way you can add it is by adding enough soil particles of the size required to physically achieve your objective, You cannot change container media structure by adding HA or its associates. The reply to the question (about plants in containers) I mentioned a little upthread: "Humic acid (and its accompanying fulvic acid) are most often used as an amendment to improve the quality of clay soils, sandy soils, and/or other soils organically deficient. The primary value of adding humic acid to clay or other compacted soils comes from the resulting structural break-up (increase in friability) of these soils. Obviously, this should not be an issue in the soils you are using. In sandy soils, humic acid's value is in its addition of organic material to soils, which would also in the end improved water retention and root function, neither of which are anything you would be lacking in the soils you use. In some soils, humic acid can also play another role in facilitating a plant's ability to assimilate nutrients. Humic acid can lower pH and help unlock otherwise bound nutrients in the soil that might not be unavailable under conditions of higher pH. Again, this should not be an issue for you, given the fertilizer regimen you use and a known favorable pH. Finally, humic acid can stimulate soil micro-biology in some soils, increasing the numbers and activity levels of soil micro-populations, the primary function of which are to make available minerals and nutrients which could be stored within the humic acid complex and hopefully available on an 'as needed' basis. Again, not much of a benefit when you consider you're supplying a full compliment of nutrients in a readily available form on a regular and 'as needed' basis. I suppose if I was to sum it up, I would say that a build-up or adequate measures of humic acid in garden soils is to be desired & most effectively accomplished by the regular addition of organic materials to the soil. How valuable wholesale applications of humic acid are to garden soils is probably highly variable by soil type, soil composition, and the intrinsic quality/value of the individual product at hand. It's value in containers would probably be extremely marginal at best or go completely unnoticed (as it did when I tried the product for my container plantings several years ago) but there's nothing to stop you from trying it." Al

Has anyone used this? I am battling thrips on my INDOOR succulents and am not having much luck. This product claims to kill them, but I am worried about burning succulents. my toddler also plays near my main plant area a lot . I may try neem later in the season once I get my plants outside, I can't stand the smell of it indoors.. Thoughts