I've lived in the 4042 area for a couple of years now, and I'm still trying to figure out how to best amend my soil for a garden. I think my subdivision was once a Tobacco farm. My yard only has about an inch of topsoil and under that is solid clay. I need a pickaxe to dig even the smallest hole. So how do you amend your soil to make it good for gardening? I’ve been double-digging, but that is some hard work!
i am lazy. The first time we dug down about a foot or so and filled with top soil ordered locally, since then every year we just till it up and add a few bags of the Miracle Grow Garden Soil from Lowes, gives the plants a little jumpstart. Good luck.
He hit hard pan clay. That's that great NC stuff that should be called 'rock'. :lol: It was also commercially farmed. That soil isn't even worth it as an additive for all the labor it's going to take to amend it with small equipment.
I would go for Strawbale Gardening, Lasagna Gardening or Raised bed gardening. It would take an awful lot of amending for the roots of your plants to be able to penetrate the clay. If you decide to go that route, you need to work in compost and other organic matter at least a foot deep, 18 inches would be better for root plants. Here are some good resources: http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/index.html http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ http://journeytoforever.org/garden_sqft.html The no dig vegetable garden site is my favorite, she has ideas on there for natural bug deterants and fertilizers. I am lucky in my part of Johnston Co, I have very sandy soil. My acre was also farm land prior to it growing houses. I have been here 13 years, I have just had a large garden the past 5. Prior to that, I always had a compost heap which I would move every year, and plant a few tomatoes and bell peppers on the previous site.
You could do a raised bed, too. If you till, you're still going to be tilling down into clay - just not as deep. You better get started, I've had my garden in for a few weeks now!
Steve, you probably already know this, but don't work the soil when it's very wet. Like today. That makes it set up like cement. You will probably find it easier to dig in it if it's a little moist, mine gets hard as a rock when it's completely dry. You just have to hit that happy medium when it's moist, but not wet.
Now that is good... geez I need to speed it up some.. :cheers: I'm slowly wearing on you. Also to add a quality tool for planting anything and anywhere is a good 4 tine spade fork, the thick heavy duty type. It makes life easy. You can stand there with tool in one hand and cold cocktail in other and just lift and drive into ground even hard clay, do it all around based on the size hole or area, do it numerous times and move it around and turn fork as its still in ground and it will break up area and make for easy shoveling, add manure or whatever and then again spike it in ground more to get manure and stuff down in ground more. Try it and I guarantee you'll stick to that method, it exerts a lot less energy and makes job a breeze.
That is actually my favorite garden tool, but it's not quite that easy for me - you must be a lot stronger than I am! I use both hands and a foot.
