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April 18, 2008

About our clay soil here in Eastern Kansas

JimC asked in a comment if I was making any amendments to the soil as I plant my veggies and flowers and berries.

Actually, I'm testing out several different methods of planting. I have a couple of raised beds in the manner of Square Foot Gardening - but that requires using a professional soil mix which is way too expensive for everything, and because there is no organic material in it, a lot of fertilization is required, so I'm pretty sure, those two beds will be a one time only thing.

Then, I have several beds, also raised, that I made using the Lasagna gardening method. I think it is the easiest, but it is difficult to make it look orderly, so I suspect I'll plant the landscape stuff around the house with that method, and not so much the truck farm plants.

Lasagna gardening is clever - you put wet newspapers or cardboard over the sod where you want your bed. Then you put compost, peat moss, hay or grass clippings, leaves, more peat moss, etc, and you just push aside the layers and plop your plants in it, and it should grow like crazy - even if the compost is not cooked.

Then, I started looking closely at the soil in the area where I am planting things. It's not too bad - it has been both a cow and a horse pasture in the past, and there is some pretty loamy soil there - there is also a lot of clay soil, so I intend to till in the bedding and poop from the chicken run as well as horse manure and bedding.

Also, I have sprayed Earth Right all over the area - it is supposed to help clay soils drain better, etc., and it has micronutrients and stuff like that in it - ain't cheap, but Toby Tobin says it works, so it must!

Posted by Beth at April 18, 2008 6:45 PM

Comments

Posted by: MikeL at April 21, 2008 10:17 AM