Planning a garden

[TerryinMD]

s1120,

It's not a bad idea to till up the area prior to putting down a bunch of leaves, grass clippings, etc. But, I would till all of that stuff in and let it set for a year. If you let it sit on top of the garden area, you'll get some dry stuff on top and possibly an oozing mess on the bottom. By tilling in all of the organics, all of the little ground dwelling critters will speed up the decomposing matter and you'll end up with some richer ground a little sooner. If you can do that early this summer, let it sit until early next fall and then plant a green manure crop to over winter. Then in spring, you turn the greeen manure under wait a couple of weeks and then till. This will get you started on some good planting soil.

Terry

 

[s1120]

Ya, I was thinking of that also. Guess it depends how much time I have.

 

[MarkV]

Terry,
<font color=blue> then plant a green manure crop </font color=blue>

OK, I have heard this several time and I don't know what a green manure crop is./w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif Can you explain for this city boy?

MarkV

 

[Anonymous Poster]

green manure is a term used for a crop that is planted to enrich the soil, it is tilled back into the soil and not harvested. typically it is a annual rye grass or buckwheat. you till it befor it goes to seed, and you get the benefits of added organic material in your soil. this is an old and well tested technique for long term improvement of your garden soil, and most people who practice this technique do it every winter and till the cover crop into the soil in the spring, the rye grasses also will add nitrogen to your soil.

you can also do as many have described till additional organic materieals (leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, vegetable scraps, NOT ANIMAL SCRAPS) into your garden and cover and leave this over the winter to decompose. this may be described as sheet composting if the material is left on the surface and then tilled into the soil in the spring before planting. if you choose to add chicken manure, be sure to add it in the fall, it has too much nitrogen and will burn your plants if added fresh in the spring.

one other way of preparing the soil is to spray the area with roundup, this will kill the grass, till and cover over the winter, and plant in the spring.


good luck, you will love your garden, i love mine,
alex