HmmmÂOrganic proponents on an Organic Message Board, imagine that if you will? cerister I can identify with your dilemma of gardening on clay, for I too have solid clay soil. I live on a solid clay hill that has mixed in gravel along with patches weeds donÂt even grow on. The first year I tried to till in the spot I wanted a garden in, but my brand new tiller wouldnÂt even break the surface. I had go find a farmer with a tiller on his tractor to break the clay. The first year only weeds grew in the spot along with Bermuda grass, I considered that progress. The second year I found out about organic gardening, went and got about six pickup truck loads of compost and tilled that in. I also learned about compost teas as well as other teas that I began to use. That year I grew some great vegetables on the spot along with plenty of weeds mixed in. Again, progress in my eyes from where I started. The next year I learned about mulching, that made the difference. Mulching over a layer of compost eliminated the need to till, and I havenÂt had to use the tiller since. I am not saying I wonÂt till again, but the link to "The PloughmanÂs Folley" motivated me to get a disc to pull behind my riding lawn tractor, the results are better than progress, I will call it success. I donÂt count worms; I count baskets of vegetables I bring in all summer and fall. You have gotten some very good suggestions, and I too suggest you do whatever you feel good about, for nothing will change if you donÂt do something. I will say compost, compost tea, organic fertilizers, and mulch will, in the end will get you where you want to go. That has been the experience I have had in this hot Georgia sun, planting on this world famous rock hard red Georgia clay. kathyp When I moved here I didnÂt have a lawn, unless growing rocks count. As I said earlier, my tiller would not break the surface of the clay. What I did to the lawn is I started using compost tea on the area I wanted a lawn. My yard is a little over three acres or more, thus I made a lot of compost tea. I did some research and found very good information from Dchall and followed it. Today I have the thickest, greenest, fastest growing lawn on this end of the county. Let me say again, if you do use compost tea or any other tea or lawn amendments on your yard, you will have to cut your grass regularly and high. The teas are not a danger to children or pets and do work in a season. I have found that the clay gets softer under your feet and the grass, if you want to call it that, will spread without seeding. Did I mention my grass grows thick and very, very fast? I would suggest you look at the FAQ on lawn care before you grab that tiller. I know my arms and back is grateful for what I learned, the lawn, flowerbeds, and garden look great and give the results I have come to love and appreciate. That is my experience, am wishing you both success in your gardening adventure Blutranes ...

Hi Janice! Some ideas: 1. You CAN do a lasagne bed & plant in it now - (you'd have to remove your existing plants first) - just "build it", then "cut" the holes into it, add some soil or compost to the holes when you plant the plant into it, and voila! Several people on this forum have said that they've done this (prior to the lasagne bed decomposing) w/success. :) 2. Consider using STRAW as a mulch - w/ or w/o the other mulch you may use - straw is great organic matter and decomposes fairly quickly, and according to several posters on this forum, is pretty darn close to an ideal OM addition and/or mulch. 3. One thing to consider is that some bagged compost (although almost any compost is better than no compost) has less organic matter than others - e.g. a poster here pointed out that the "composted manure" (which I buy b/c there's no alternative @ garden center) that I buy has less OM than a vegetative-based (grass & leaves etc) compost has. 4. Another source for compost - check out your local municipalities - my County dump (which is different than my town recycling center) has FREE compost (made from leaves & grass clippings that other residents dump off), and I really like it too! 5. Do you have access to leaves? These are a great organic matter addition. Some use shredded leaves as a wonderful mulch that disappears into the soil and feeds the soil microbes. I added tons of whole leaves to my bed last year (w/some dried blood), and added a few worms this spring, and of course added compost & mulch, and we have tons of happy worms now :) Hope this helps, All the Best, Tree

Thanks guys. I bought some of the garden soil yesterday before I read your replies but I'm returning it tomorrow and buying the soil conditioner like y'all advised. Is there a difference in the one at Lowes (Scotchman's brand I think) and the HD one (nature's helper)? I ask because the HD one comes in 1.5 cubic ft. while the other is 2 cubic feet. Just looking to get more bang for my buck. I'm going to use pine straw to mulch the bed. There are two pine trees in my front yard that are dropping needles anyway, so putting anything else down would be silly on my part. But not quite as ridiculous as dumping a truckload of gravel on the beds without any concern for the integrity of the soil or the next homeowner who has to spend many hours of back breaking tedious work to dig it all out after it has spent many years sinking into the ground! ...Sorry about the rant, can you tell how much I hate the gravel heehee. Are there any other amendments I should add? I purchased a bag of MOO-nure also for some added goodness(the store didn't have Black Kow). In case you need some info: the soil is going to be slightly rocky since I won't be able to get out all the gravel, besides that it appears to be kinda sandy on the top layer and as I dig deeper it appears more yellowish orange, almost like there could be some clay. I'm going to plant some dwarf gardenias in that area along with some tulip bulbs and some annuals for now. Thanks in advance!

In all my years of gardening I never had 'enough' compost as I mostly gardened in cold climates and composting was a slow process. However, the single thing that made the most difference in the fertility of my soil was trench composting or burying kitchen scraps between plants. This not only decomposes quickly and adds fertility but it also feeds the earthworms who provide one of the best fertilizers available, which is worm castings. As long as I fed the worms my soil was fertile. Helps if you eat a lot of vegetables or can scrounge veggie scraps. I've gotten them from produce departments of 2 stores altho not all stores will allow this. Another important factor in improving soil fertility is to always cover soil with mulch, preferably one that will decompose fairly quickly. Mulching spring and fall worked well for me. I always used my 'not-quite-finished' compost as mulch, sometimes mixed with sawdust or shredded bark. Don't agonize over the process of composting, just do it as best you can and you will eventually have usable compost.