Weedwhacker said:Beautiful carrots, FarmerDill!

Carrots have been the single biggest indicator for me of how our garden soil has improved over the last 25 years. We started the garden "from scratch," when we moved to this house. The soil at the beginning was heavy, compacted, full of rocks big and small, very few worms, wouldn't drain in a rainstorm. We fertilized, added a lot of organic material (our lawn suffered from removing all the grass clippings, but ), and eventually even added sand to loosen things up. Plus removing LOTS of rocks....

I now no longer rototill, have an abundance of earthworms, never any standing water in the garden, and can grow "Tendersweet" carrots, an heirloom variety that is nice and long and thin, along with my standbys, Danvers and Nantes.

Did you rototill each year for 25 years? We have hard, compacted clay soil as well which is a bear to dig into and has been seriously hampering my dreams for my garden out back.

DogsNDaylilies said:

Did you rototill each year for 25 years? We have hard, compacted clay soil as well which is a bear to dig into and has been seriously hampering my dreams for my garden out back.

We tilled in spring and fall for 23 years, haven't done so the last couple of years; actually the reason I quit tilling wasn't so much because I didn't want to, we had an extremely wet fall one year, and then the following spring was also very rainy and I just couldn't get the tiller into the garden early enough so I went ahead and did the garden without it -- and discovered I didn't need it, and ended up with fewer weeds and more worms. Plus I didn't have the issue of the occasional mangled toad, which always made me feel terrible!

I never till either but then I never had clay or compacted soil.

We tried tilling a few years.....all it resulted it was more weeds. Working the soil by mulching and composting worked much better for us.

mom2goldens said:We tried tilling a few years.....all it resulted it was more weeds. Working the soil by mulching and composting worked much better for us.

ON the veggie beds I simply spread the compost on top and leave it there. Some years thicker than others. If I get the compost on thick enough my veggie plants are planted in pure compost. Then I mulch on top of that.

The earthworms come and help break down the mulch and mix up all the soil. It works really well and is much easier than tilling or digging.

Newyorkrita said:I never till either but then I never had clay or compacted soil.

Can we swap yards?

DogsNDaylilies said:

Can we swap yards?

Rita, I should dig up and take a picture of my soil one of these days and post it. I think my ground finally froze, so I will have to wait until spring to do anything like that, but my soil is not a pretty thing. I think I need to unleash about 5 billion worms in the middle of my yard and let them have at it.

...now THERE's a thought! ....have a crane dig up a giant crater in my yard, put tons of worms in, and cover them up so they can create tunnels all over.

...then again, at that point, I might as well have them lift out all of the soil in my backyard and replace it with good, happy dirt. And by happy dirt, I mean dirt that will make me and all of my plants happy.

I have the walls of my keyhole garden almost done and I'm working on cardboard and wood inside. katie

DogsNDaylilies said:Rita, I should dig up and take a picture of my soil one of these days and post it. I think my ground finally froze, so I will have to wait until spring to do anything like that, but my soil is not a pretty thing. I think I need to unleash about 5 billion worms in the middle of my yard and let them have at it.

...now THERE's a thought! ....have a crane dig up a giant crater in my yard, put tons of worms in, and cover them up so they can create tunnels all over.

...then again, at that point, I might as well have them lift out all of the soil in my backyard and replace it with good, happy dirt. And by happy dirt, I mean dirt that will make me and all of my plants happy.

Never mind the crane. Pile as much vegetative matter on top of the soil as you can. Leaves, newspaper, used coffee grounds, grass clippings, hay or straw are all good. Keep it wet or damp. The earthworms move in and they turn the soil.

We catch all of our lawn clippings and mulch the garden pretty heavily with them (not all at one time though, which just turns into a slimy mess).

Starbucks gives away garbage bags full of coffee grounds, does wonders for the red clay soil I work with.

SCButtercup said:Starbucks gives away garbage bags full of coffee grounds, does wonders for the red clay soil I work with.

My local 'bucks gives me coffee grounds when I go in, too. Usually I drop off a container with them and by the time I'm done shopping, I come back to pick up the grounds and they usually have a gallon or two of grounds for me. it would take a lot of shopping for me to get enough for my yard, though!

I don't go around collecting them, but I do put all of our own coffee grounds in the compost pile. Every little bit helps! (and one less thing tossed in the garbage)

I save my grounds, along with banana peels, egg shells, etc. in a bucket outside the back kitchen door and take it to the compost piles as it is filled.

I am lucky to have some nice rich soil here on a sandy base. This area must have been a lake at some point in history. There are very few stones around and those that are here are limestone, often riddled with fossils. Last summer when I had to dig a grave for my dog I went down through 24 inches of top soil before I reached the pure sand. It's really dark black soil. The sad news is that this stupid city is annexing hundreds of acres of this prime agricultural land into the city so they can build factories, houses, and destroy some of the best farm land in the state. They will never learn until they run out of food, and then they'll still be too stupid to know what they've done.

After we finally had done cold weather the lettuce seems to be dead. But arugula is unharmed by the frost; also no damage to rutabaga. Chard has some freeze damage but lots of healthy new growth. Broccoli is damaged but still growing and lots of edible leaves. This winter garden is an experiment, I'm checking weather to see if we have any sustained freezes but until then I can enjoy some fresh greens. I think the chard usually makes it thru winter and the chard will be hitting its second season so perhaps I'll let some go to seed to replenish my supply.

Tom -- you'd think some agency or other would be protecting the good farm land from development, the way wetlands are protected... hasn't that ever occurred to anyone?? (Might be a good reason for everyone to consider contacting their legislators)

Well, it would be of little use to talk to our existing state legislators of the prevailing party. They have all been bought out by the big corporates. Our wonderful Governor (said tongue in cheek) is for sale to the highest bidder. Now they are trying to gut the open meetings laws so that they can secretly do business. (Not that they don't do that already, but they just want to make it legal.) They have taken the authority away from the Dept. of Natural Resources and given it to the Governor so that he can approve raping the North lands in order to mine the bit of iron ore there. I have in the past been very active at the state and even national levels, testifying at legislative sessions at the state level, and lobbying in Washington. Used to be that you could be heard, now the only message they hear is cash in their pockets. I'll have to buy a lottery ticket, maybe if I win I could buy me a few legislators.

OMG, what was I thinking ?
Same problem here in Michigan