I found out that it's going to cost a lot to get soil for my planters, so I gave up the fight, went out removed a patch of grass to get a look at the soil underneath.
Come to find out that it's clay with an inch of top soil on it. No wonder the grass was so easy to get out.
So I called the community office and pretty much argued with them that it was too costly to do the containers and that a better solution would to be to do a raised bed.
How do I do the clay? Do I amend it and then put the soil down and compost?
How deep do I go and how deep should the raised bed be?
I am planning to go pick up some wood later tonight, how wide should the wood be? Will 2x4's work?
2x4's will work but, get something larger like a 2x6 so that you will have more depth. Seeing that you have so much clay, you want to provide as deep a growing medium for your plants as possible.
Incidentally once you have the clay ammended, it will make a much nicer, weather resistant soil than a sand based soil. Though,it is also harder to ammend.
Yes, if you ammnd the clay first, you will be that much better off for the future and will be able to grow that many more types of plants in your raised bed.
Get some sawdust and some manure or fish compost, dig trenches in the clay and half fill them with the sawdust then cover with the manure/fish compost (both would be better). And if you have some leave add that to the mix as well. Cover with the clay that you dug out. Do as many layers like this as you can, ending with the clay. Then add another layer of sawdust/leaves and cover with the manure or fish compost.
You can also go to local coffee shops and get buckets of coffee grinds for free and add that to the mix as well. The more variety to have, the better you soil will be!
Anyway, then fill your raised bed with soil and let the worms do the rest! You may wish to buy some Red Wriggler Worms and add them to the raised bed.
Each fall rake up fallen leaves and add them on top of the bed and cover with coffee ground, grass clippings or manure. If you use grass clippings mix them in with the leaves a bit or they may dry out.
Do this and you will have lovely soil that grows amazing vegetables.
The trenches you can replenish each year if you are so inclined but, definately do the sheet compost each year.
How deep should the raised bed be?
That depends on how deep you want it, I recommend using 2X6's in your soil because the nutrient availability of clay is nil. Nutrients are there but, they are locked up. Adding organic matter will increase the pore size of your clay and help make nutrients more available.
This sounds like a lot of work but, it's not so bad. Been doing it for years.
Also, clay soil tends to pool with water which can lead to fungal infections so, the deeper you raised bed is the better.
Ok, so we removed the grass and dug down into the ground to really see what we are looking at and what we had to work with.
I bribed some muscle with a free meal to get this done.
After I saw that I wasn't going to be able dig it out, it was hard as a rock! I got the sprinkler out and let it soak into the ground. The top soil would soak and drain quickly.
Then it was much easier to handle. After several inches was removed, I could tell there was a bit of sand with the clay and little rocks. I dug a hole about six inches deep and a foot wide. I let it fill up with water to see how well it drained. It would pool but drained pretty well given the clay.
I was a little hopeful that the soil would be more loamy but it's not. This used to be wet lands that was some how turned into crops. Later it was bought out and now we live here.
But I thought I could dig about six to nine inches out and replace half with organic material and a good top soil.
Will that work?
Also I was going to test the PH of the soil, do the kits at the store work?
There is also a huge white grub problem and some weird red slug looking bug in the soil, how do I combat that?
Let me suggest you google for the lasanga method of gardening. It might be the answer to part of your soil problems and a lot easier on you. The ingredients are mostly free which is another big plus. LOL
I'd check gardensalive.com They sell both milky spore and nematodes that will take care of your grub problem. The milky spore takes a while to get established but once it kicks in the JB population and other pest goes way down.
You can contact your local extension office for a soil testing kit. Most of the state labs do the testing for a nominal fee, here is VA it's $7.00. That way you'll have a good picture of what you're working with soil wise. The nursery one's are ok, but don't your don't get the in depth you do with the lab testing. It's a good and inexpensive way to get a base line on your soil and work with that.
Make sure it really is dry before you water more. It's possible that the soil is holding moisture just fine around the plants roots. So dig down and check before you overwater.
