Rough soil

[chabella]

I love the idea of getting back to the simple things, working and taking care of the earth and letting it take care of me. My issue, bad soil. I have no idea what the last owners of this place did but I can not get anything to grow. What can be done?

 

[jason]

Well you have two choices that I can think of off the top of my head.

The first is you can grow some stuff in planters. I actually went out and bought the big storage tubs that a lot of places sell. They are working pretty good. I bought different sizes depending on what I am growing in them. I put some lava rocks at the bottom and drilled some holes about 1/2 inch to one inch up. Put some soil, then some compost, and a final layer of soil.

The second is you can rent/buy a rototiller. Put some fertilizer or compost on top of the area and till it into the ground. Works well depending on your soil.

A third option I just thought of is taking a sample of the soil somewhere to be tested. They can then tell you what they would recommend adding to it, to help your plants grow. Do not forget though, different types of plants require different soil types.

 

[SuzyQ]

Our soil is full of clay and very difficult to dig. I can grow gooseberries. potatoes, strawberries and mint in the garden without any problems but everything else is in pots.

 

[smellsrfun]

I would almost think planting in planters with soil from Wal-Mart would be the easiest. I know when we tried to get our garden ready it was a couple of years before anything grew really well. It was bad soil too. We roto-tilled and everything.

 

[Herby]

You could also try something called square foot gardening. That where you build a 4x4 box, lay groundcloth inside of it can fill it with something like Mel's mix. Then you string of 1x1 foot sections and grow whatever your heart desires.

 

[Natural]

Not all soil is suitable for planting. We can distinguish a good soil by the thickness of the grass growing on it. If there is not much grass growing then the soil could be lacking minerals, too dry, too wet, or too many stones. Knowing this will help you determine if you can grow a garden with your soil.

 

[Glinda]

You could also try something called square foot gardening. That where you build a 4x4 box, lay groundcloth inside of it can fill it with something like Mel's mix. Then you string of 1x1 foot sections and grow whatever your heart desires.

This is what we had to do because we needed an elevated garden. Our soil would be fine, but our yard floods regularly and it kept washing out the garden. There's nothing more frustrating than getting plants to the point of producing only to have them drown.

 

[greentea]

Thanks Jason for the tips. Those are the great ways of "living" your soil. The other option I can think is applying verticulture (vertical gardening) system on your land.

 

[Herby]

This is what we had to do because we needed an elevated garden. Our soil would be fine, but our yard floods regularly and it kept washing out the garden. There's nothing more frustrating than getting plants to the point of producing only to have them drown.

I've seen pictures of these frames where people place them on tables and grow their veggies and fruits. People have been quite successful in growing all sorts of produce using this method.

 

[NatureMom]

I had a similar issue and spent a period of about two years resolving it. I had to dig in partially composted kitchen waste and let it break down. The texture and PH and nutrient content all improved.

 

[chabella]

I have thought about the rototiller before and from what I could find just in the front yard along the previous owners actually planted full bags of fertilizer into the ground. I dug them up and whatever they used was just plain nasty.

 

[NatureMom]

You mean they were just planting in bags that were submerged? It certainly indicates an ongoing and long term problem-some areas just have such bad soil that it cannot be fixed.

 

[Treehugger]

There should be a way to test the soil and see what it is lacking. Also if there are any pine trees nearby this makes the soil very acidic and you need to add garden lime to correct that. Blueberries and Azaleas grow good in acidic soil though.

 

[Herby]

The soil in the area where I live is extremely rocky and it's frustrating whenever I run my rototiller because invariably, rocks jam up the tines. As for soil testing, Treehugger, is there a university nearby where you can get your soil tested?

 

[Change]

If your state has an agricultural extension office, they will test your soil for you. As far as rock, that's another issue. You just have to dig until you get them all out. I had my soil tested and it was fine except for needing a few nutrients. I use compost and it worked like a charm.

 

[chabella]

Yes totally under the dirt, they did not even cut any holes in the bags so the soil could soak up what was inside, and no sorry, no pine trees anywhere near me.