we had a few days last week that were warm enough
where i could get out and finish cleaning up a few
gardens (burying garden debris), but that is likely
the last of that sort of thing i'll be doing outside
for the season.

i wasn't even really planning on doing this but it
just worked out. with all the rains and snow we've
had (that's melted) the garden i was mostly digging in
was muddy, but i really wanted those last two gardens
cleaned up.

normally i have a policy of trying to bury what is
grown in a garden in the same garden where it was
grown. this returns the nutrients and fiber to the
soil and gives the worms something to work on through
the winter. this time though because i was planning
on digging up most of the garden in the spring i was
not able to stick to this policy and buried it in
another garden instead. the other reason to not bury
things in a different garden than where grown is to
cut down on spreading weeds/weed seeds around (which
isn't a major problem inside the fence, but every
little bit helps).

the garden that got all the debris is yet another
pretty fertile heavy clay garden here. it has been
amended in the past, but not very deeply so each time
i get a chance to add to it and to work down a little
more it makes progress. i have buckets of ashes to
use up too - i put some of those in with the organic
material - the next few times i did through that area
(i don't disturb a whole garden that often so it may
take a few years to get all the way through a garden
again) it will get mixed in better.

the biggest improvements are in getting the area
raised up a bit and better drainage where some worms
can hide out. i was glad to see that there were worms
in the garden. it had been amended before with the
worms and worm compost and other organic materials so
they had enough to eat. it takes about 3-5yrs of
amending a solid clay garden here before i see a
reasonable number of worms in them. it really helps
if when i start out i dig a few deeper holes and bury
organic material in them so that worms have a place to
be during the hot and cold parts of the season. a
shovel and a half seems to work ok for the depth here.


songbird