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Garden Gate:  Help! We have extremely hard soil  |
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krissy
True Blue Farmgirl
278 Posts
Kristen
Snohomish
WA
USA
278 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 05 2012 : 4:33:58 PM
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Hubby thought maybe some sawdust mixed with the topsoil would help it to be less hard and give it some air. We need to loosen up the soil.
Anyone have any suggestions?
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~Farmgirl Sister #986~
http://achickenwithherheadcutoff.blogspot.com/ |
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oldbittyhen
True Blue Farmgirl
1511 Posts
tina
quartz hill
ca
USA
1511 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2012 : 6:34:53 PM
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compost, compost and more compost, I also have hard soil, and rototillering in massive amount of compost was the only thing that worked for my big veggy gardens, and raised beds for the kitchen gardens, but even with raised beds, you still need drainage, so we dug down and put a 3 in layer of 3/4 rock...
"Knowlege is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad" |
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edlund33
True Blue Farmgirl
1507 Posts
Marilyn
Renton
WA
USA
1507 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2012 : 8:40:44 PM
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Krissy, if you add anything to the soil do not use sawdust......use well cured compost from a dependable source known to be weed free. If you use sawdust it will deplete your soils of nitrogen for awhile until the microbes in the soil finish breaking the sawdust down to compost.
If you can afford to have your soil tested it would be worthwhile to send in a sample to a lab for testing. They can analyze the particle sizes and give you suggestions on what to add to it to improve its texture and fertility. Sometimes you also have to add sand and/or larger sized mulch particles to improve/hold open clay soils in our area. There are situations where adding too much compost will actually make drainage problems worse if there are alot of fines in the soil or the subdrainage is insufficient. I can give you the name of a local soil lab if you are interested - just send me an email.
Cheers! ~ Marilyn
Farm Girl No. 1100
http://blueskyanddaisies.blogspot.com
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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krissy
True Blue Farmgirl
278 Posts
Kristen
Snohomish
WA
USA
278 Posts |
Posted - Apr 25 2012 : 09:17:22 AM
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What we ended up doing, and it was not sawdust, was just to aerate it ourselves. We were armed with shovels and added steer manure. All of us (including the kids) were involved. Now the beans are coming up, the turnips are coming up, the brussel sprouts are coming up, yay! I think we did ok this time.
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~Farmgirl Sister #986~
http://achickenwithherheadcutoff.blogspot.com/ |
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Garden Gate: Help! We have extremely hard soil |
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Help! We have extremely hard soil
