Question on Garden startup

[jimmer2880]

The manure I'll be getting is from the stalls. However, he doesn't use straw for bedding. Rather, he uses saw dust for bedding. I assume that this will not be quite as nice as straw, and will take longer to break down. On the other hand, though, because I have so much clay, will the saw dust will help keep the clay from firming up too bad?

 

[charlz]

The manure I'll be getting is from the stalls. However, he doesn't use straw for bedding. Rather, he uses saw dust for bedding. I assume that this will not be quite as nice as straw, and will take longer to break down. On the other hand, though, because I have so much clay, will the saw dust will help keep the clay from firming up too bad?

In the long run I think wood chips provide the best soil. In the short run they take some of the nitrogen out of your soil as they further decompose. Doing green manure crops can help. If you want the very best crops you pretty much have to fertilize anyway so....

Any organic matter should help with the clay. Some people advise sand, some people say clay+sand=concrete this may depend on the type of clay you have. If it is really bad I would consider going the raised bed avenue.

The stables I get my manure from use sand part of the year (winter?) due to the sawdust just gets saturated whereas the sand provides better draining.

 

[KentT]

Any organic matter should help with the clay. Some people advise sand, some people say clay+sand=concrete this may depend on the type of clay you have. If it is really bad I would consider going the raised bed avenue.

The "textbook ideal" soil is 1/3 clay to retain moisture, 1/3 sand to provide drainage, and 1/3 composted organic material to provide the nutrients...

You're correct that sand + clay = concrete, but only if the organic material part is missing...

 

[Doc_Bob]

Rather, he uses saw dust for bedding. I assume that this will not be quite as nice as straw, and will take longer to break down.

Use extra nitrogen to help the sawdust breakdown.
Bob

 

[HappyCPE]

For clay soil there's nothing like huge amounts of organics. I started 4 years ago and have some pretty good beds in my thick clay soil.

One thing not mentioned is gypsum. You might want to experiment with some, in small quantities, to change the quality of the soil. I used a few bags in my beds and the lumpiness is gone.

The only downside is that a part of one bed had a salt contamination in one of the bags. The halite, which can sometimes occur with mined gypsum, made the veggies grown there salty. That bed was planted to flowers shortly after!

Next spring I'm trying Greensand in a few beds.

 

[Stimw]

Gypsum is alkaline and will mess up your ph.

 

[Chuck52]

For that small a garden, you might want to read up on "lazagna" gardening. Basically, you don't bother taking up the turf or anything. Just put down newspaper or cardboard to kill the turf, then layer with compost, old manure, leaves, whatever, topped with newspaper and maybe some compost to hold the paper in place. Then you plant through the newspaper. If you're waiting a year, I'd do something like that and cover it with plastic to let it sheet compost for a year and then plant in it. You end up with a raised bed to which you can add new layers as it settles and composts. Even some fairly fresh manure is OK if it isn't a major component of a layer.

Chuck