Mowgli789
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Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:45 am

Soil help

Hi,

First post on here so go easy!

I bought a house about a year ago with a decent size garden, which at the time was entirely lawn (albeit in bad condition). Over the year I have been working hard to turn it into a nice garden.

That has involved digging large amounts of lawn up, and what I have noticed is the soil below the lawn is absolutely solid and dry. It is solid to the point that in places I've hard to use a kango drill to dig it up. It is also full of ants.

From what I have read, I'm guessing this is down to it being compacted. However, I don't seem to have any drainage issues. Water appears to drain away very quickly, but I have no idea where to. The soil, even after a heavy rain storm is completely dry any more that 3 cm down.

The lawn was heavily thatched, and full of moss, but I have made head way on the thatch by hollow tine aerating and the moss is gone after a winter of controlling it with lawn sand.

My question is, does this sound like compaction, or could it be a different issue? And, is there much more I can do about it?

Thanks,

Ben

SQWIB
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Location: Zone 7A - Philadelphia, PA

Thats hard to tell without seeing it. I have hard compacted clay in my yard, to the point when I dig down a certain depth I use a hammer drill with a chisel bit to break it up, a 5 gallon bucket of this is so heavy that it busts the plastic handle of the bucket when lifted. We had a seasonal pool that was on this clay for about 15 years

Mine drains a bit but also runs off into the patio, I thought about digging it up and tilling in some compost, mulch and other amendments but to be quite honest, I'm tired of digging

I figured I needed help so I am asking mother nature to do the hard work for me.

This year I am trying half the yard in oats

Image

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Hopefully I can reseed with grass and clover in the fall.

If I'm not happy I'll try Alfalfa next. If this works Ill be doing the other half of the yard next season. Worst case scenario, I get a ton of green manure for the Garden.

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Probably some of the water just runs off, as SQWIB suggested.

Couple easy ways to turn lawn into garden/flower beds, without trying to break all that compacted stuff up.

1) Cardboard: wet the area down. Lay a couple layers of cardboard or a whole bunch of layers of newsprint down over it, wetting each layer as you go. Then pile on a bunch of soil/organic matter. It can be a mixture of garden soil (I.e. what they sell in bags as garden soil, not digging any up), potting soil, fall leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper, coffee grounds, whatever you have. But you want it at least six inches deep. Moisten it, add more to replace after sinking. Then just plant into the top layer. By the end of the season, the cardboard will be all broken down and disappeared and you will have a nice soft garden bed.

2) Raised beds: Build raised bed frames where you want your gardens to be. They can be out of concrete block, landscape timbers, fence posts, heavy boards, etc. Poke holes down into your clay with a garden fork for drainage, then fill with garden and potting soil.

Here's a couple places where I posted about my raised beds:
viewtopic.php?f=79&t=72218&p=409010&hil ... ds#p409010

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=73275&p=413914&hili ... ds#p413914

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

If it drains well, and it was not cared for well. I think it was indeed compacted and lacks organic matter. If it is hard sometimes gypsum will help make it easier to dig especially if the soil is sodic.

Adding amendment on top of the soil and planting will still be ok except you need to make sure you grade the soil away from the house, otherwise water will pool around the house which will be the "low spot"

If the soil drains well, I think you can try using some cover crops that are good for digging into the soil.Annual rye can be used as a fall crop and tilled in to add biomass. Between the rye and watering adequately, the soil should be able to be rehydrated and organic matter incorporated to make it easier to work. It still will need digging but water and roots can work magic on hard soil over time.

Mowgli789
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Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:45 am

Thanks for the comments guys,

On reading this, doing a bit more research, and looking a bit closer, it's definitely a very heavy clay. There are sections of my flower beds where when I water, the water just runs off like the soil is waterproof!

I now just need to find a way to replace the soil underneath my lawn, without removing my lawn.

dylansova96
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Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2018 4:36 pm

this information also helped me, Thanks guys!



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