14-03-2003, 01:44 PM
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beginner needs help on preparing the soil
(audrey) wrote:
My situation is that I have clay soil (zone 6/7 Maryland/DC Metro
area), and I know that I need to do some type of soil preparation to
be successful at planting my flowers.
How do you KNOW that? Look at all the flowers growing out in the
wild. I lived in the DC Metro area, NEVER amended anything, and
had flowers and shrubs and trees all over the place. I now live
in the dry, sandy, alkaline desert, still don't amend the dirt,
and have flowers and shrubs and trees all over the place.
The trick: study the plants requirements, and do NOT plant things
that do not like the kind of soil you have. I'm growing an
entirely different set of plants here.
4. Some posts say that good soil preparation takes several months to
several years, does it mean I have to wait that long to plant anything
successfully?
Heck no. Pick plants that like clay soil and you can plant
now.
We just moved into a new house this past winter, due to
the unusually harsh winter this year, we couldn't do anything before
now.
Look into the gardening books of Ruth Stout ... she just spread
layers of easily decomposed mulch frequently. It's also called
"sheet composting" and someone is selling a boof called "Lasagna
Gardening" with a modification of it.
The idea is the same ... dump the stuff on top of the dirt, and
let the worms do the work.
Tsu
--
To doubt everything or to believe everything
are two equally convenient solutions; both
dispense with the necessity of reflection.
- Jules Henri Poincaré
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