Shiva wrote:

I write from my own experience. How about you, Roland? Have you seen this
disastrous effect happen? I would be very interested to hear from people
who are speaking of their own experience. People with too much time on
their hands come up with impressive theories all the time, and frequently
publish articles written in quite the authoritative tone.

Must admit that I do the same thing as Shiva - dig out very large areas
for beds and replace with good soil with som efertilizers mixed in. To
be honest, I don't see the difference between amending or replacing
because sooner or later, you're still going to hit a barrier where the
solid clay begins.

I tend to make the hole much bigger (by about a 1/3) than it needs to
be, filling that third with soil/fertilizer and then following the
directions for putting in the plant. So far, it's worked for me - I had
cut roses in my house from spring through early winter, fresh grape
tomatoes, regular tomatoes and a few strawberries (only two plants) from
the garden bed, and herbs year round. (Just made southern style chicken
and dumplings using fresh rosemary, dill and chives over the weekend!)

The last two beds I put in, I also put in some terra-sorb into the soil
in addition to my standard osmocote (type dependent upon plants going
in) and what ever else may strike my fancy, again dependent upon what's
planned for the bed.

In addition, I also have limed, reseeded and fertilized the yard. I was
quite pleased that when I dug my holes for my blueberry bushes a couple
of weeks ago that the soil is slowly but surely improving in the grassy
areas. However, I'm not willing to wait that long for anything else
*but* grass besides slow grass progress also gives me more and better
excuses for digging it up!

Susan
s h simko at duke dot edu