Hello EddieWalker,I'm glad to hear your missus is feeling like gardening. Forgive me if I've missed updates on her but I don't follow things here very close. Knowing about your soil,I have suggestions on things you can do now while you have equipment,energy and time that will pay dividends when you are my age and short on all three resources. In an area where you would like veggies,flowers,fruit tree,orantimental shrub or other long term plantings in the future,basicly make piles of brush from varied size wood from twigs to 6"-8" logs. Logs that are already in a state of decay is a bonus. If area need's to be kept neat,inclose pile with retainer stone or other edging. For less formal area large logs are perfect retainers and will eventually rot to become part of the bed. Top the pile with leaves,wood chips,manure, other organics and native soil that will filter down to fill voids inside brush pile. Surface can be planted with shallow rooted anuals 2nd year and progressivly deeper rooted and/or perminate plants as time passes. If not planted in crops and cultivated to keep weed free,I suggest cover crops to suppress weeds like Bermuda and Johnson Grass getting established. Vetch and Rye work well in winter to shade-out Dandilions and such then prevent many seeds germinating in early spring. Cover crop can be tilled in or covered with soil and left to futhur improve soil. Let's take a time out to explain why and what we are trying to accomplish by making brush piles. Similar results can be accomplished by continually incorperating compost into soil but over the long haul,this is less labor and longer lasting. Of all organics,wood is slower to rot but last's for years and retain's moisture better. The reason for a pile of brush apposed to a pile of wood chips is (A) chips will compact and restrict oxygen penitration if not occasionally stired,the brush is continually shrinking and shifting which in turn cause's tiny cracks/ fissures throughout the mound alowing free circulation of air. (B) soil,manure and other materials continually mix with decaying wood to create viable growth media.
For 2022 season,plenty compost in your native soil should do as well as imported soil. I'm not a fan of peat moss so when i don;t have enough home made compost,buy bagged compost. If you can get free manure locally,I suggest composting it for a year then tilling into garden in fall or winter. Wood chips can be found free most places and make good mulch that rot's into soil.
