"Doug Kanter" wrote:

"DigitalVinyl" wrote in message
.. .
"Doug Kanter" wrote:

I reworked the top 18"
of soil...

After this season, do not rework anything but the top 3".
Believe me...I have no intention of doing THAT again. Nothing has
grown in this patch of dirt/sand for the last 3-5 years. Weeds barely
popped up. It looked and felt like a sandbox. I pulled half a
wheelbarrel of rocks out for garlic, onion, radishes, carrots and deep
tomato roots. I also amended it with peat moss, humus and composted
manure. It is only about 2.5'x7'. I wouldn't have gone that far with
rows. With all that digging, I only saw five small earthworms. I think
the dirt was very deadish (no nitrogen in a soil test and almost no
phosphorus). I'm hoping to have a much better soil for future years.

You only need to
go deeper for new garden areas, unless someone is walking on, and
compressing your rows, in which case, they should be pantsed and staked to
the ground near an ant hill.

The soil, in its natural state, has definite layers at which different types
of microorganisms exist. By turning it over deeply each year, you disturb
this stratification. In addition, you uncover many weed seeds which would
otherwise fail to sprout. So, cultivate the top 3" at the beginning of the
season, to break up any crust that has formed from snow and normal settling.
Cultivate even shallower during the season to cut new weeds off at the
ankles, and to keep the soil loose, which serves as a last-resort form of
water retention layer, in case you have not mulched. At the end of the
season, cultivate a little deeper again, to turn in any scrap vegetation,
and perhaps to work fertilizer into the soil.

I will add some mulch as soon as the last seedlings show where they
want to grow from. Haven't decided if I want to do something cheap
(like newspaper, grass--i've read cautions about each) or something
more attractive like the reddish wood mulch that I could buy at home
depot. The ground vegetable patch is right at the base of my back
stairs and lattices and I want to keep it looking nice. I even edged
it with vegetable-friendly flowers like nasturtiums, marigolds,
calendula & petunias.

Actually this brings up a question that I've been wondering about. If
you use mulch, do you scrape it away to work the soil or work it in as
dead material? Is that what happens with the reddish mulch that you
typical see in landscaping? Speaking long term, over years, If you
always work it in, don't you end up with too much soil mounding up as
you add mulch, compost, etc. yearly?

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)