soil and garden question

[anthonyk]

I've got 12 acres and I've been considering starting a garden for vegetables and maybe even some flowers. Most of my land is heavily wooded, but I've cleared an acre or so near the house.
My problem is that the soil is terrible. I mean really bad.
It seems to be solid clay, that gray sticky type, covered in a few inches of topsoil.
When I dug my pond I went down 15 feet and never got out of it, and I can tell you, that pond never leaks

Anyway, I'm assuming that not much will grow well in clay so I've been thinking of just trucking in a dumptruck or two of dirt/topsoil or whatever experts might recommend, and maybe trying the raised bed approach. Maybe boxes, or just rows.

Any ideas, comments or suggestions from those of you in the know would be appreciated!

anthony

 

[4720 OWNER]

I really like my raised beds. But need to learn not to import so many weed seeds in the soil i filled them with. They are pleasant to work in and can be more intensely planted. I also put in some soaker hoses for watering, about 6-10" down. No need to dig up the soil just cover with 10-12 sheets of paper and put your frame on top (or the other way around) and fill up the frames with dirt and ready to go.

 

[charlz]

Sounds like the ideal case for raised beds. I would bring in top soil and compost, mix the two together and fill the beds. Automatic irrigation makes life much easier... I'd install that while you are building the beds. Leave enough room between the beds to get a cart or wheelbarrow in between. If you are building a big raised garden leave some main "highway's" for the tractor. Makes life much easier when you need to spread compost, harvest crops etc. if you don't have to carry everything from the end of the rows.

 

[js5020]

I put in a raised bed to try out it's 3' x 20', box is made out of 2x6, I filled it with screened topsoil and compost. If you have adverse soil conditions it is the way to go, and you really don't need any powered equipment to be able to garden. It's the first year for the bed, but it's growing great. I water by hand when it's dry. I'll be putting in many more of these beds, they make gardening easy and fun.

 

[js5020]

Here is a link to a site for raised beds.Permanent Raised Bed Gardening: Introduction Also take a look at squarefoot gardening.

 

[forgeblast]

There is another great book called Gardening when it counts by steve solomon
talks a lot about different soil types, where and how to increase your soil fertility, pros and cons of raised beds, etc.
all that being said. I do have raised beds, hd and lowes had lanscape timbers for 1.97 each, so i have 11 4x8 beds and 1 2x 24' bed, this has given me more then enough room to grow. i do much, and add fert and lime every year. the garden itself is about 3 years old and i figure it will take another 3 for the soil to be where i want it. good luck. and remember if you have deer or rabbits fence it rabbit guard on the bottom and other fence on top. if its not at least 6' high the deer will get in.
later

 

[easygo]

Before you read any farther I must warn you that gardening can be ADDICTIVE. Just so you know.

Raised beds sound like the way to go as others have said. The other thing you can do is to get some top soil spread it out and be sure it is about 6-8" deep. Add another 4-5" of good old compost. Till them together cover with black & white pages from a newspaper and spread another inch of dirt on top. Let it sit for a month or so, that will help kill off a lot of weeds. If weeds do appear pull them up and then you are ready for your first planting.

If you are starting your garden you might as well start a compost pile as well. Regardless if you go with raised beds or not. It is very satisfying to do and all the ingredients are there for free. I put everything in there from dry leaves, vegetable scraps from the kitchen, flowers after they die in the first frost, dry grass from my neighbor's field, horse poop from a near by farm. Let the heap sit over the winter and when it thaws out sometime in mid-May I start turning the pile. I collect some of the FRESH grass clippings from the first mowing in the spring, mix it into the pile and that will really get it going. I try to turn it every 2 weeks or so. (ie: fun with tractor) By the time all the vegetables are done the compost is ready as well. I just spread 3-4" compost on the garden till it in and start the whole process again with fresh ingredients.

Using the above method I have a good little garden that I started in very poor gravel that had about 6-8" of top soil, (or dirty gravel instead).

 

[randy41]

you shouldn't use treated lumber around your beds where you are growing food.

 

[anthonyk]

thanks for all the tips. I really appreciate it.

I was wondering what you guys used to make the boxes.
I assumed that treated lumber would be a no no, but figured just about anything else would just rot.

Any suggestions?

thanks again,

anthony

 

[ray66v]

I prefer to till in commercial compost and let it decay for 6 months to a year, add some sand, then check the ph and see where your at. Adding top soil speeds the process, but it adds weeds. Sometimes a lot of weeds.

It can take several seasons of this to get to where you have good soil.

 

[js5020]

I just used regular untreated 2x6 for mine, they may not last as long as treated but no chems to worry about. Before I went with the raised bed I tried to prepare beds in the ground with no border,, took out all the dirt with a box blade to a depth of 12" and screened the dirt, I didn't get very far, had a pile of rocks way bigger than the pile dirt, I was definetly going to need dirt so why go through all the work, I pushed the trench back shut and built boxes. Check out The Official Site of Square Foot Gardening and Mel Bartholomew, Originator and Author,, they don't even use dirt, he uses peat moss, vermiculite, and compost

 

[Chuck52]

I use concrete blocks to make my beds. If you are near a manufacturer, you can often get seconds at about half price. They are still more expensive than untreated lumber, but they last forever. Plus the holes can be handy for holding things like pvc pipe to frame tunnels made of plastic, or shade cloth, or whatever.

I second the comments about using weed seed free components if possible. I've used compost, which I get cheap from a nearby city that composts mainly leaves and tree clippings and such, and that stuff is almost free of weeds. I've also used whatever manure I could get hold of, and that can be simply full of weed seed if it hasn't been composted enough. I've used some fairly fresh cow and horse manure in the fall, just tilling it in and letting it "sheet" compost, and that works OK except for the weed content. This summer one of my beds was so full of grass that I eventually just covered it with plastic and let it bake for a week. That killed off most everything, but it cost me a week of growing in that bed.

Chuck

 

[charlz]

People have also constructed beds from corrugated roofing:

Permanent Raised Bed Gardening: Corrugated Sheet Metal Beds

 

[meadowlarkponds]

anthonyk,

I gardened several years in that same Houston soil and know what you are up against. Compost, compost, compost....even if you bring in top soil, you will still need lots of compost.

A great source of tons and tons of compost material are the neighborhood trash bags filled with lawn clippngs. A lot of people throw large amounts of fertilizer on their yards and then bag up the grass cuttings throwing them out with the trash...it is GOLD, pure GOLD for those heavy clay soils. It will take some time, but once you get a good compost pile working and keep managing it, you can really generate large amounts.

By the way, if you like okra, plant a row in that gumbo...you can grow enough to feed all of Houston. Its about the only thing I found that really likes that soil.

 

[easygo]

If you have cedar on your property you could cut down some of that and use it for frames. It is naturally rot resistant. I use it for fence posts, stack my firewood on it even built a sandbox for my son out of some larger blown down cedar trees.