fertilizer, compost, manure, etc, etc

So the other day I stopped off at Fruit basket Flowerland (FBFL) on my way home from work and dropped a bunch of money, which is easy to do if you like plants, gardens, birds etc.    I had been contemplating the whole fertilizer issue for the garden and I wanted to make sure the everything was all organic.  I was worried that I was not going to be able to find much, but to my surprise there was a lot to choose from and come to find out I already had a bunch at home from past years that I could use. 

Most avid gardeners would tell you that the best thing for your garden is compost.  I have yet to experience the successful making of our own compost.  About a year ago Deanna really pushed for a compost bin and we started composting.  It has not being going that great, but I am hopeful now that we purchased a product called Thrive.  You add it to your compost pile bi-weekly and it aids in the break down of your organic materials.  I really hope that I will be adding this to our garden later this summer or fall.

So when I talked to the person at FBFL about my situation she recommended that I buy the product pictured here in the green bag.  It contains Kelp meal and worm castings, which i had read about, both providing great benefits to your garden.  She also suggested to add gold old fashioned cow manure!  Which no surprise to me, is awesome for any garden.  I remember on the farm we would pile wheelbarrows full of manure on the garden each year and my dad would use the rototiller to get it mix into the soil.  She also recommended gypsum (20# per 100 sq ft, epsom salts (1 cup per 100 sq ft) and a premixed fertilizer by Espome called Plant-tone on a regular basis. 

So sometime between tomorrow and Sunday I hope to get all this stuff spread out on the two existing raised beds, a new area worked up for planting carrots and I would like to get spinach, carrots, Chinese cabbage and peas all planted.  It will be April 1st on Friday and really I should have had a bunch of this stuff planted already.  Oh well only some much time in a day, right?