I have been very busy lately getting my garden together. One of the perks of living in the desert is as the rest of the country is just thawing out from winter, we are already getting sprouts.

I started my seeding indoors through February and transplanted the seeds in March.

Not only am I experiencing the benefits to my desert garden but I am experiencing new challenges as well. The most recent challenge is the hard water depleting my soil of important nutrients including nitrogen and raising my PH level.

Luckily I have found an easy solution for both problems. The best way to put those delicious nutrients back into your soil is with a little compost tea. Make sure you add a few organic alfalfa pellets to the mixture to help with a high PH.

Another suggestion is to head down to your local organic nursery and buy some organic tomato and vegetable food.

Just a word to the wise, READ THE INGREDIENTS! There are a few brands our there labeling themselves as organic under the pretense that anything that has carbon atoms naturally occurring are organic, even if those things are made synthetically.

I don’t now about you, but I only want natural, organic material in my garden. So if you read the label and you don’t know what an ingredient is, don’t put it on your food.

Look it up on the net. I am speaking from experience here. There is not a worse feeling than trusting that something labeled organic is indeed organic and finding there is a loophole, after you’ve spread a bunch synthetic material all over your food.

There are a lot of really great brands out there, just make sure you know what you are using.