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Gardening

HopeHoops

(47,675 posts) Sun Dec 11, 2011, 04:19 PM Dec 2011

Bad soil? Easy way to make it better (organic technique). [View all]

Plant radishes and lettuce about every month. You won't get much produce in the winter months (although you could be surprised), but both produce wide fibrous root systems (especially lettuce) and that builds the "fluff" of organic material. I did that with rock and sand in NH and did it with clay and shale in PA. Both gardens reached the point of "just put a shovel in it" within 5 years. The seeds are cheap.

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Bad soil? Easy way to make it better (organic technique). [View all] HopeHoops Dec 2011 OP

Thanks. Just a few inches from what should be topsoil, I have clay so thick, so solid that when I JDPriestly Dec 2011 #1

I grow buckwheat in my rows after any crops. dmosh42 Dec 2011 #2

Ah - the breath of someone who knows about cross-planting. HopeHoops Dec 2011 #3

Buckwheat seedheads--I never let the buckwheat get that mature Kolesar Dec 2011 #4

Easy-to-manage seeds! dmosh42 Dec 2011 #5

Great writing--thanks Kolesar Dec 2011 #6