What to add to hard soil?

[Egon]

Then sit back and do the most enjoyable event of all: get the pat on the back from SWMBO, while drinking the beverage of choice delivered by the grateful and sweet one with a smile for a hard days work. And don't forget that she can never know the secret truth of just how much fun you had doing all that hard work

Ensure That She Who Must Be Obeyed does not have farm roots! he he:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[RadarTech]

Ensure That She Who Must Be Obeyed does not have farm roots! he he:thumbsup::thumbsup:

yeppers.... there is that...is so you might wind up ...


J

 

[MossRoad]

Yes..

LB, that only worked because it counted the characters in your quote as part of the reply.

 

[MossRoad]

The limit is at least 5 characters.

 

[The Dougster]

getting back to the OP's original question, I have used gypsum with success in loosening up the soil... probably will have to be done every year for anumber of years.

 

[bp fick]

Even if you add minerals, sand, gypsum, etc, which I might very well do, and even if you break up the dirt by tilling and break up the pan with a sub-soiler, you still must have organics, organism based material. Humus, carbon, compost and other vegetable and cellular materials which creates soil. If an earthworm isn't enjoying it, then it isn't soil yet.

If you want to make concrete, a roadway or mortar, you want it free of organics; absent of organism based material, but if you want soil, bring on the decayed or decaying material that is/was living.

 

[rus_geek]

well I had a few things to contribute but I guess "sand" it is!
although I see many near coastal properties without grass if it cannot grow grass in the soil it has now..... how is it going to grow with only use of adding sand?

Loam, the material of choice for many people layering in a new lawn, is sand, silt and clay. Too much of any one of those three ingredients is a bad thing. Too little of any one of the ingredients is also bad.

The OP indicated he has very hard soil that isn't clay, so I'm guessing it is either mostly silt profile, or has an excess of organic matter. Sand (and leaves, in my experience) will help to loosen up the soil. Without a soil test, it is hard to guess if there is an organic excess, so sand is a good (safe) first step.

-rus-