What are your soil amendment plans for this year?

[barleychown]

I had a load of compost delivered to help my soil again this year. I had the same amount brought in last year, and used every bit of it. 



I will use part of it to mulch the front and side gardens, use some to top off my raised beds, donate a bit to the high school garden club, mulch the back gardens, and mix into my veggie garden.

[Dianna]

Color me green with envy, Sarah! That is a lot of compost!

Sure wish I could afford to have a truckload or three delivered here....

[barleychown]

I need a LOT to start to heal the clay soil that was here when we bought the place. The day we bought it, I dug a test hole in the back yard. 7 shovel-fulls, not one worm.

Now, there are many worms in each shovel-full.

The initial cost may be a fair bit, but in the long run, I save quite a bit by buying in large quantities. As an added bonus, because it creates happy, healthy soil, I don't have to buy any spendy fertilizers.

Also, because like everyone, I have a budget to work with in my gardening, I have chosen to spend more on making happy soil, and less on buying big plants...instead I buy small, or start from seed myself. That's one of the reasons I like seed trading so much.

[patches]

Color me green with envy, Sarah!

Me too, Dianna!    I can only hope that my lawn turns as green this year as I am now! 

Geesh, Sarah, that's a mountain of compost you have there.  You are going to have some the happiest worms on the planet.     Sounds like you really have an awesome plan going and it's evidently a good one from what I've seen of your yard last year. 

[Tonya]

I am hoping to get some of the much out of the hog pen and get it disced into my garden area before spring....if not I will put it in a pile and let it compost over the season and add it as I can. We were very fortunate to have great soil here when we bought the place(black, and lots of worms! ), but adding manure can't hurt, right!

Sarah-  that sure is a LOT of compost!! I'm sure your yard/plants will be showing their appreciation this spring/summer for you!!  I hope to do that maybe next year, but for now- hog poop it is!

[landofoz]

One good thing about being in the heartland/midwest is the abundance of poop.    This past fall, through Freecycle I met a lady who runs Reins for Hope, an organization that goes into hospitals with small horses for dying/disabled patients and also has special programs for special needs children.  She has around 60 horses, most of them minis.  She also has a 100x20x20 ft pile of manure.  One end is several years old and the other is super fresh.  My husbands favorite part is that she has a bucket on their tractor, so the truck gets loaded in 10 minutes tops.  I got a very full truckload last fall and plan on getting another load in March.  I also have a compost pile that will require emptying this spring.  If I need to fertilize I do use some fish emulsion and in the very least it doesn't detract from the soil and is relatively inexpensive.  I also pick up bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks and put a thick layer around plants that I didn't put compost on.

My dirt is extremely sandy.  The joys of living at the bottom of a Triassic ocean.  Before I started improving the soil, I could run a hose on the bare dirt and it would initially puddle but as soon as it broke into that first layer of sand, it would run through the sand as fast as the hose would pour it out.  We know that the sand goes down at least 4 feet and that it gets cleaner and cleaner the deeper we dig.

[Patty S]

Wow, Sarah! I'll be doing my usual ammending with steer manure, alfalfa pellets & egg shells I suppose, cuz I don't have any way of getting a truckload of that good stuff to the back yard. Your efforts are surely evident when things wake up & start growing in your yard!

Tell me... do you work the compost in, or just pile it on top? (If so, how thick?)

[duh]

I will take my compost with me if I get a trailer with some land.  Compost never hurts since it is pH neutral most of the time.  I also am packing up the fireplace ash from next door again it never hurts.  Then it will be amended on a plant by plant basis.  Or in the beginning on a tree by tree basis.  That is if I get the land.  I'm crossing my fingers.

[landofoz]

I don't know what Sarah BC does, but I spread it on evenly and then Adam goes over it once with the tiller.  I also use alfafla bales for mulch.  After halloween I was able to get 8 huge bales of straw, so I put a layer of that on the entire garden with the manure ontop of it.   We just let it sit there, hopefully it will eat up the straw and leave us some nice compost.   I have 2 large bales set aside for mulch this year and used a few more to make a little greenhouse with an old window on top.

[Wrennie]

My compost pile is all i have to add to my garden soil. I put all my kitchen scraps, houseplant prunings, the pile of flower 'trash' from the perrenial border here at work, & leaves in there. Come spring there should be some good soil & earthworm activity under there. They get put right in the garden too.

[Penny]

I need to do somthing with my front flower bed and box, havent done much with the soil in there the last couple years, so that will be one of the first things on my list, to add some compost, or have some new soil dropped off and replace it new.

[patches]

I added 50 lbs. of Alfalfa pellets this past fall.  In the spring, I've got the compost from my bins, but it's nothing like the mountain that Sarah has in her yard.    I also have my worm humus, leaf mold and the aged and dried manure that my friend's mom brought the last time she came down.  

[christy]

im gonna get off my butt n either go to the horse farm for free manure or buy a truck load. it always seems my compost is never evough for all my plants.

if ya have a horse farm around you see if they give there manure out for free, we have afew who do cause it helps them get rid of it,, there the horse farms who raise horses for the medows race track in our area.  lots of gardeners go there n they keep seasoned piles, ya just gotta do all the shoulving own your own,

[Triss]

Not planning on adding much to my soil this year except mulch to keep the weeds down.  We have pretty good soil there and I dump my containers and mix all that stuff in.  I did start a small compost pile at the unused corner of the garden, more of a scrap heap right now but it will help as it breaks down as well and hopefully keep the grass from growing back in that area.

[patches]

Well, Triss, it may keep the grass from growing that area, but I can certainly tell you, from experience, that the grass around it will definitely thrive!!!     

[Triss]

I am ok with that.  I have a rock border between the garden and lawn.  Grass is good. 

[MassMama]

  Just remember to let manure age for a few years first or you will have a heck of a weed problem. 
I am going to add from my compost bins and if I don't have enough I will order some compost! Which I think I will have to do anyhow.
I usually dig mine in a bit .. cause my garden is on a hill and I don't want it runnin off to the neighbors yard 

[Wrennie]

Just remember to let manure age for a few years first or you will have a heck of a weed problem. 

"Cow manure in spring, horse manure in fall" <-- cows digest the seed in their food, horses dont so you want it to age longer. My friend Debbie usus her horses manure. First she rakes it into a pile then covers it with black plastic for a couple of weeks. Out in full sun. And the sun cooks the weed seeds and she can use it right away.

[MassMama]

I always heard it was longer than that but I am wrong alot!!   
I just don't want ya all spreading weed seeds in the garden and making more work for yourselves!! 

[christy]

   i do the tarp thing  when i make a new bed.  n their seasoned piles are from the last year     they started makin diffrent piles long time ago, cause people would ask,
i have weeds nomatter what i do, think its from havin fields all around me    after wile ya just think of em as fillers     

my sister got seasoned horse manure before n ended up with lots of mushrooms in her beds.