Some gardening comments

So, I am in a new garden, with virgin soil basically, and things are actually starting to happen.  I have been fertilizing as much as I can since I know I have very little organic material in there.  I usually advocate the use of compost and organic material but I am also down to the last quart of pickles!

Over the years I have supplied many friends and family members with homemade pickles and have usually canned up to 65 quarts of them, they are so much better than the grocery store mass produced stuff (still not sure how anyone can get that many ingredients into a jar of pickles, but I am puzzled by the bread they make too when I only use 5 ingredients but whatever) and I love giving them out.  Now sitting here in a new garden and even a new microclimate, Queen Creek has baffled me so far, I find myself guarding this one jar left.  Can I do this gardening thing again, build up my soil to a level I need to produce the amount of produce I want? I have more square footage now but do I have the ambition?

I need to make a plan.

I have some friends that have horses....old manure CHECK
I compost....CHECK
I can get some mulch from a landscape material company...CHECK
I can get coffee grounds to attract earthworms....CHECK
I have neighbors that cut their winter rye grass and they will give me their clippings....CHECK
I can get some straw bales at Pet Club and grow some stuff in them until they decompose...CHECK

These are just some of the things I can do to start building up my soil. I put in some corn seeds and will be able to shred them up into my soil to add organic material.  My beets tops and cabbage leaves will get tilled in and add also. 

I just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other just like I have done previously and I know I will get this new garden built up to the level that it will be a self sustaining ecosystem like the previous one.  I know it will be a lot of work but so rewarding in the end.  Nothing worth doing just gets handed to me and I know I appreciate it in the end but need to just face the fact that I need to put in the effort.