Eden's Organic Garden Center

Organic Today - For a Better Tomorrow! - Since 2006

Home of DFW's first All-Clean, All Farmers - Market Day!

(no GMO's - EVER)

&

Eden's Garden CSA Farm

                                REAL FOOD, GROWN with INTEGRITY!

                    4710 Pioneer Rd., Balch Springs, TX 75180

                    GARDEN SHOP / FARMERS MARKET  Open 1st, 3rd & 5th Saturdays only  April - December 6th 9am - noon

                214-348-3336

                    Just 15 mins southeast of downtown Dallas 1 block north I20 @ Seagoville Rd.

 

Not affiliated with EDEN FOODS, INC

(yes, we REALLY have to put this on here.)

 

SITE INDEX:

Farm Wish List

Follow Eden's on  Facebook, Twitter and our Blog pages where you can keep up with Life on the Farm.   

Eden's In the News & On-Line

Farmer Marie profiled in Green Source DFW June 29th, 2015

Growing Urban Roots -        Acres USA Dec. 2014 Issue

 

 

 

 

 

Voted Best CSA 2013!

Living Natural First Radio Interview

Featured in Edible Dallas & Forth Worth - Winter 2009

Market Day Feature Story in NeighborsGo - July 2010

D Magazine - Chefs for Farmers Launch long-table style benefit dinner at Eden's.  

Market Day - Our Humble Beginnings

"...an urban country adventure." - Kim Pierce DMN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get a jackhammer - no just kidding.  But you may need to think about building up the soil into a bit of a raised bed in order to plant larger specimens.  I have worked in rocky soil before and it seems like there isn't any soil to plant in, but it's there.  This may be a job for the pros.  Give Kevin and his team with JKS Landscapes a call.

If you're going to do it yourself, we carry a wonderful product that has compost, lava sand and greensand already mixed together that is helpful when "fill-in" dirt is needed.  Be careful where you get "fill-dirt" from if you buy it bulk for large areas.  We highly recommend Soil Building Systems.  Give them a call direct, or let us help set up delivery to you house.  You'll still need to incorporate whatever existing soil is there with the additional soil you buy.  Water doesn't transfer too well between two different layers of soil types.  You can create a bathtub effect and that's not usually a good thing.  

What you'll need

  • Tools - shovel, hoe, metal rake, possibly a pick axe, and a wheelbarrow.
  • Compost - and lots of it!  Make your own for free or buy it by the bag.  You can even have it delivered by the yard, right to your yard!  You will need to add at least 6" to the top 6" - 8" of the soil to give your plants something to root into.  Don't skimp here on compost.  An average bag of compost is 2 cubic feet and at 4" deep it will cover an area of 6 square feet.  Check out Soil Building Systems handy calculator for larger areas that may need bulk amounts of compost.   
  • Lava sand - no trip to a volcano necessary.  We have here it in 40lb bags.  You'll only use about 4# per 100 square feet.  So a whole bag will cover an area that is 10' x 100'.  Lava sand adds a special paramagnetic value to the soil that really seems to speed up the process at which nutrients are available to the plants.  So whereas it isn't a fertilizer in its own right, it sure helps make fertilizers work better.  Not to mention its water holding capacity which is very important in a porous soil like the sugar sand is.  Don't think you can add too much of this wonder amendment.  It is great stuff and not very expensive either.     
  • Greensand - no, not what's in the kid's sandbox after the neighbor's cat gets done.  This greensand is chocked full of trace minerals and a great source of iron that won't be so harsh like the synthetic iron supplements you may have been used to.  It can go out at a rate of 2 - 4 lbs per 100 square feet.  You shouldn't need to add this amendment but once in a while as most of the nutrients it contains are not readily leached or used up by the plants.  We have it in 40lb bags and it is very reasonably priced, especially since a little goes such a long way.     
  • Dry Molasses - naw, not the stuff Granny baked with - but boy will the microbes in your soil eat it up!  We don't want to spoil them too much, it only needs to go out at about 5lbs per 1000 square feet.  This amendment can also be sprayed on in a liquid molasses form.  If you're not seeing too many earthworms in that soil, it may not mean that the neighbor is using them for bait.  There may just not be enough good stuff to attract them.  You can add this periodically to keep the microbes and the earthworms happy.     
  • Cornmeal - not the kind you'd make muffins out of!  This is an animal food grade cornmeal that still contains all the good parts of the  meal.  It helps control and kill fungi that grow in the soil and often cause root problems.  Common brown patch, Phytophthora, a fungus that can take out a bed of periwinkles, and other various fungal diseases can all be controlled with corn meal.  We add it to our soil preparation just as a preventative measure and it adds a bit of nutrition, too.  Shouldn't need more than about 10lbs per 1,000 square feet.  Comes in various sizes.    
  • General Organic Fertilizer - you pick your favorite.  We suggest a nicely balanced one like Maestro Gro's Texas Tea or Biofrom Dry.  Just stay away from the synthetic based high nitrogen mixes.  Most of them will just leach away after a good rain anyway.  (As in leach a way into your water tank, drinking water system or our rivers and streams that is. More about why that is bad on our environmental page.)
  • Earthworm Castings - that's worm poop for you newbies.  Earthworms eat, well, they eat earth.  So what a better place to find a nice wide variety of nutrients, minerals and even some earthworm eggs!  You can double up on this one.  Put it out at 10 - 20 lbs per 1,000 square feet - and then put a pinch in each hole before you put the seed or plant in.  All that eating will help keep your black gumbo soil aerated.        
  • Lime - we don't mean slice up a bunch of little green limes and toss them out there.  If you've got rocky soil, you may need to add some lime, as in the nutrient, to help balance things out.  Give us a call and we'll help you out here, or send a sample of your soil to www.txplant-soillab.com and they can tell you how much of it you need - if you need it at all. 
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