Jen Fulkerson

It's not free, but a less expensive nitrogen boost is Organic alfalfa pellets, It's animal feed, and works well.
Weed tea. Everyone has weeds, it's a good way to use troublesome weeds, and the diverse nutrients they have.
Compost extract (easier than tea, and can help make your compost go a lot farther)
Chop and drop.
Leaf mold
Seaweed
Algae
burying food scraps directly in the garden can be problematic. If it's the end of your growing season, and you aren't going to plant anything for a while, then it will probably benefit you. As the food scraps/compostables break down they rob nitrogen from the soil. Once they have broken down the nitrogen becomes available along with other nutrients. Some people who want to do this have a designated space for the scraps (like a buried wire basket with some kind of lid) they buy, or see if they attract composting worms. (I probably wouldn't plant veggies right next to the bin). The worms help the compost process and make castings that are beneficial.
There's a lot of great suggestions in this post. For me the focus is on building and maintaining the best soil I can using what I have as much as possible. Also it's important to remember $#&" is not the only thing that runs downhill. For  example If you treat aphids with an organic soap, or oil some of that is going to end up in the soil, and it will also kill the soil life we are working so hard to cultivate. So be mindful of all elements, even what's going on above the soil.
Good luck

The moringa growing now think I bought from Bakers Creek I got about 75% gremination, probably my error? I watched a YouTuber and he swore by the method of removing the husk, soaking for 24 hours and planting on a heat mat. I gave this method a shot. I got better germination than not removing the husk, but not as good as he got.
This last order was from Amazon. I was in a hurry. 100 seeds for $8.99 for planting. I haven't planted them yet, so have no idea if they are good.

I planted roselle in a raised bed on July 4 2026. They came up pretty fast. It may be to late, but I had the space and thought why not? It doesn't get cool here most years until mid November, so maybe I'll have a shot. Even if they don't mature enough, at least I know I can direct sow them. They germinated pretty quickly. I assume it's the very warm soil. Time will tell if it's to late.

I'm so excited 😊 I checked  the Moringa, and saw the wheat sprouting, and that amused me, but then I see two Moringa trees. I was sure the first one was dead, and you can see the little dead stem. Next to the dead stem is a new stem. I was only going to plant one tree in this pot. They are pretty close together, definitely less than ideal, but I'm going to leave them. If they survive maybe this winter I will separate them, but for now I'm not going to push my luck.
This gives me hope for the other one I planted. It still looks like a dead stick, but I will continue to care for it just in case it sends up a new shoot too.

The moringa I planted by itself in the 25 gallon pot looks dead. I left it in place, but I will be very surprised if it is alive.
After reading all your great comments I decided to try again. I took my healthiest one ( that didn't look that good) I removed it from the pot as carefully as I could as to not disturb the roots. I planted it in the 25 gallon pot. I put a cage made of hardware cloth, and draped a piece of shade cloth over the top.  This seems to have helped. No leaf loss, no change. My plan is to keep it watered,  and hopefully it will start to grow. If it does I will slowly begin to remove the shade cloth starting on the east side. I did not realize moringa was sensitive to root disturbance. This could totally be why I've had so much trouble. The shade is just a little insurance to keep stress down while it adjusts to it's new home.
I also bought more seeds. I know it's pretty late, but seeds are not to expensive, and we have hot weather through September, and it is usually nice and warm in October, often into November. It's worth a try. I will just keep trying until I have a bunch of Moringa trees.
Thanks everyone for all your help.

The watermelon I removed from the native soil and replanted died. I'm not to upset about it, it wasn't growing anyway. I planted 4 moon and stars watermelon seeds. It's pretty late, but we have hot weather into October, so it's possible. I figured what have I got to loose?
The other 2 watermelon are doing great. Anything can happen, there's still a ways to go, but I'm happy with how they look so far.

I've never read this, it was fun, and sadly true. I work at a Co-op, and we sell chicks several months out of the year. There's so many times I wish I could refuse to sell them. With the Internet, and most people owning a cellphone there's no excuse for going into something blind, especially a living creature.
I have to admit I got our chickens because they hatched them in my daughter's kindergarten class. I didn't know squat about raising chickens. It was 20+ years ago.  We may have had a computer, but it wasn't like it is now. I bought a book, and read it cover to cover. My dad also helped me because he had chickens growing up.
It always amazes me how much people spend on a chicken coop. We have one in the store right now that's $1200.00, it's the smallest coop I've ever seen, but it comes with some fencing... ok. I was very lucky my father-in-law built my coop out of old pipes he welded together to build the frame, I'm sure it will last a lot longer than I will. We wired chicken wire to the frame, used an old door that came in the barn when we bought the house. He put 2 holes in each end of a 2x4 and Hung it from the ceiling as roosting bars and I built nesting boxes with a bunch of scrap wood. Basically the only cost was the chicken wire, and it worked for a very long time. I have made modifications a few times in the last 5 or 6 years, mostly because I wanted to, not because I had to.  It's been a great coop.
I have learned a lot about chickens over the years. We don't eat them, I just don't have it in me(I'm not against others doing it, I think it's great to know what your food is being fed, and how it's cared for, I just can't do it) I enjoy having great eggs. I enjoy my chickens, and don't mind caring for them when the stop laying. I feed chicken food I know is fresh made in our co-op mill, I also feed fermented grains once a day, and they get lots of stuff from the garden. They have their own fenced in yard. I used to let them out every day we live between orchards. After loosing 2 entire flocks to dogs, I stopped letting them out. Now they only get let out if I'm going to be around to keep an eye on them.  Lucky the yard is a good size, and they seem happy.

It's been very nice to be able to use the gravity feeders again. I still go out to the coop a few times a day, but if I'm running behind in the morning I know the chickens can eat the dry food, and I can feed them the fermented grains when I get home.
I see several places where the rats have tried unsuccessfully to  dig into the coop. It was a lot of work, but the food is lasting longer, and I haven't lost a chicken since the upgrade I'll call it. So glad we secured the  coop.
My son has been chasing shooting them with the pellet gun and yelling. generally trying to make them as miserable as possible. Unfortunately we discovered the racoons have been living in our garage. We have tried to make it so they can't get in. Then they moved back into the barn. Our newest weapon that actually seems to be working the best is to spread Cayenne pepper all over the places they like to hang out. Since we did this I haven't been seeing them, or seen as many foot prints.
The truth is I just wish they would find a new place to live. I hate to cause them harm. I have to defend my chickens and garden, but I feel bad for them at the same time. They are just being racoons. I know they are incredibly destructive, and can't stay on our property, but I still feel bad for them.

I didn't plant it in the same spot, but pretty close. The tree looks dead now. Maybe that's why?   The other 2 trees I planted in the area the same way look great. I do have a volunteer, maybe a group of volunteers that may be apricot. They are  in the middle of the pumpkin jungle, so I haven't closely inspected it/them. If they are, I may try to move them this winter. Or I have to move the pear tree, because they are way to close to coexist.
Thanks for both of your helpful comments.

I usually grow very dense and use living mulch. I really like this method. One of the down falls is It's very bare in the beginning of each season. This isn't a deal breaker because it's not as hot in early spring, and in fall which is my second growing season there's still lots of plants covering the soil.
So why am I trying straw mulch this year? A few reasons, one is I haven't tried it, and I'm always looking to improve my garden.  The main reason is most of my garden beds are hugel beet. This is an amazing way to grow, and for me there's only one negative. My beds sink several inches each year. I don't know how much I spent on soil this year, but it was way too much. I had some of my own homemade compost, and if the bed is very low I will steal soil from the chicken yard. I don't know if it's realistic to think I can make enough soil, and or compost to keep my beds topped off.  
I decided to try straw. It's cheap, it keeps the soil cooler, keeps the moisture longer, and  I'm hoping it will decompose in place reducing the need for so much soil. ( the straw I got is wheat straw. I did seed seed heads, so I may get wheat. That's fine, I will just chop and drop it)
I bought the straw, tested it by growing beans. The beans grew and looked normal. There it sat. Last year I did this, and never used it. This year I was determined to use it. I put it around my veggies the other day. I have to say I hate the way it looks. I definitely waited to long, because the plants are abundant and pretty big, so I had a difficult time getting it into place. I did try to chop it up, but my chipper would just clog, and all the other ways I saw to chop it was just to much trouble. It's done now, so I hope I get good results. Of course after I did this I watched a video where paul was saying hay is a better option because each time you water it's like fertilizing. Oh well there's always next year.
I did try shredded cardboard as mulch last year, and I really liked it. It does break down very fast. I do have a lot of shredded cardboard, but not enough for all my beds.
What do you use to mulch your veggie garden?