In article ,
"songbird" wrote:

Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
Billy wrote:
...
Towards the end of your season, try planting buckwheat or rye
as a
cover crop. They will lighten your soil considerably by
introducing
large quantities of fine roots into it.

i've, coincidentally, just gotten a few
buckwheat seeds to see what kind of
plant they are, and a much larger amount
of birdsfoot trefoil seeds to spread on
a few areas i've been spading.

we'd planted alfalfa in the general
area to improve the soil and to break
through the hardpacked clay layer but
it didn't get enough color to be left wild
like i would have done. now it is being
mowed. the trefoil eventually will fill in
and improve things on a smaller scale.

Rye and buckwheat aren't going to pass as ornamentals. They
function
very well, though, in breaking up clay into a soil that is more
workable. At this point you could add your amendments
(including sand
to 30-40%, organic material to 5-10%). Once your amendments are
in,
you may wish to change to growing green manure, and avoid the
cost of
bagged animal manure altogether.

i'm not planning any amendments for that
area at present (other than filling in the bare
spots with the trefoil). if we do a more
formal garden there it will be next year
or later... amendments at that time depending
upon what type of garden goes there. if it
more rocks and decorations then i won't
amend or mess with it at all beyond making
sure it is properly planned for water flow
and that there is some sort of good
layers of weed barrier and stone down.

behind this area is a planting of flax that
looks nice when i keep it clear of grasses
and daisies, but i didn't weed that this
spring -- it looked less tidy and full than
it did the year before. still a nice backdrop.
... and now it is getting some milkweed
going through it and along the NE corner
some butterfly weed seeds took that i
scattered in there last year (which
will be flowering soon ). it's on my list
for this coming week to get some of
the daisies out of there (we have plenty
already thanks) and to take care of the
grasses before the seeds drop.

i'm in love!


songbird

Maybe so, but there's still weeding to be done;O)
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html