What is the best base of organic materials in a bed being built on top of clay soil.
starting new raised beds
I am starting a new vegetable bed and looking for a few good suggestions
What is the best base of organic materials in a bed being built on top of clay soil.
What is the best base of organic materials in a bed being built on top of clay soil.
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The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
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- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
I vote for wood chips in the first layer, then composted manure (I like cow). Then cut the soil from the aisles (up to a foot) and turn it onto the layers, upside down...
Add garden compost, smooth out, cover with wet newspaper (wet it first, especially if there is a breeze). First year only on the newspaper; just hay after that. Cover with straw or salt marsh hay (hay adds too many weeds), and tie it down with twine (winter winds, etc.)
In spring, add new straw as necessary and plant sets into these rows. No tilling; I just "lift" the bed with a fork, tilting it back until the soil pops, or lifts, and I NEVER step on them ever. Poke a hole and stick in the plant. . .
My soil is going to sleep now and I still got past my wrist bare handed in my soil today; LOADED with worm castings (although the donees are all gone south). I never pull weeds when I can cut and leave roots (perhaps quack grass and a few , others get harsher treatment); these act as a vertical compost in the soil, creating channels for new roots in spring. Tomatoes, peppers, lambsquarters; chop, chop, chop... throw the tops on the hay to dry and return their nutrients to the soil...
No part of a plant holds more carbon than their roots, be it crabgrass or a sequoia. Everyone says gardening is about N-P-K, but organic gardening is about C-N-O. More carbon means richer soil, means more biology, and THERE is our nutrition in big O organics, nitrogen looping through microbial predation, by building soil as ecosystem, not growing media.
THAT's why I want to start with wood chips...
S
Add garden compost, smooth out, cover with wet newspaper (wet it first, especially if there is a breeze). First year only on the newspaper; just hay after that. Cover with straw or salt marsh hay (hay adds too many weeds), and tie it down with twine (winter winds, etc.)
In spring, add new straw as necessary and plant sets into these rows. No tilling; I just "lift" the bed with a fork, tilting it back until the soil pops, or lifts, and I NEVER step on them ever. Poke a hole and stick in the plant. . .
My soil is going to sleep now and I still got past my wrist bare handed in my soil today; LOADED with worm castings (although the donees are all gone south). I never pull weeds when I can cut and leave roots (perhaps quack grass and a few , others get harsher treatment); these act as a vertical compost in the soil, creating channels for new roots in spring. Tomatoes, peppers, lambsquarters; chop, chop, chop... throw the tops on the hay to dry and return their nutrients to the soil...
No part of a plant holds more carbon than their roots, be it crabgrass or a sequoia. Everyone says gardening is about N-P-K, but organic gardening is about C-N-O. More carbon means richer soil, means more biology, and THERE is our nutrition in big O organics, nitrogen looping through microbial predation, by building soil as ecosystem, not growing media.
THAT's why I want to start with wood chips...
S
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
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- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
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rainbowgardener
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I plant alot of sunflowers and they make a excellet base for the compost. Their long stems are hollow. Black ants love sunflowers! Even the petals and the huge leaves on the sunflower works great. The sunflower seeds attract the colored birds that put plenty of droppings in my garden. Leaves with manure on top or blood meal or even urea for the nitrogen! I also think a airator like sand or perlite helps the air to circulate. Pine needles are excellent for air circulation! I like even some sand from a stream or creek! We have a creek with a little sulfur in it but I is excellent because it has leaves mixed with the sand! You can get all the sand from a creek for nothing and the sand has all kind of shale and vegetation mixed in! I like to go into the woods and rake the top 2 inches of soil with all kinds of leaves seeds and worms and add it to my compost! Compost material is everywhere and most people don't realize how valuable it is!