Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series Book 5)

by Steve Solomon

Remedying clay on the cheap. If your garden must be on a clay soil, and if you lack funds to do anything else and live where the native vegetation is a lush forest,my advice is this: before digging a new garden site for the first time, spread a layer of compost or well-rotted manure about one inch thick (2.5 centimeters) and spread 100 pounds of agricultural lime per 1,000 square feet (50 kilograms per 100 square meters). Add these large amounts only for the first year. If you live in a dry climate providing under 30 inches (75 centimeters) of rainfall a year (where soils may already contain significant levels of calcium and sometimes excessive magnesium, too) and have clay to deal with, I suggest that you consult with a local soil-testing service or agricultural agency before adding any forms of lime in excess of the minimal amounts in COF. You might be advised to use gypsum instead of lime. A one-inch (2.5-centimeter) layer of decomposed organic matter blended into a shovel’s depth of clay is not enough to make it seem light and fluffy, but it is enough to make a decent garden.You’ll never grow prize-winning carrots, parsnips, or sweet potatoes in this soil, and it will never produce gigantic broccoli, but it will serve. In subsequent years you can manage your garden as I suggest for other soil types, but take extra care not to dig it when wet. And especially when working clay, if you want to end up with a reasonable seedbed after the first year, put your amendments of c...