add compost to your soil.

I second the addition of compost. I would plant an overwintering green manure or mulch it. My preference would be for the green manure as any mulch laid down over a bare area where I live has blown away by spring.

Well, you are going to get a lot of different opinions. Mine is this -- if I were doing this project, I would do exactly what you have proposed in 1-4. I would plant a summer cover crop of buckwheat right now, till that under in September and plant a fall cover crop of rye. Then, next spring in March/April I would mow and then till in the rye, cover deeply with shredded, composted leaves, amend as necessary, till that in, and you should be good to go.

Thanks for the responses.

D'uh. My oversight. I have been composting for 16 months now so I have some real good "schtuff" in my compost piles. I was planning on putting in the compost as well.

Last year when I started composting, I apparently was putting in too much brown stuff so it didn't work too well. This spring and summer (well, at least until the heat wave killed all the grass) I put in all my grass clippings as well as my neighbors.

After a few times of turning it, I have some really good lucking compost.

Sooo, add compost before or after doing the cover crop(s)?

Thanks

I would do as you say and remove the sod from the area you intend to turn into garden. I would stay away from the sand though, because adding sand to clay will only make it worse, unless you added literally a ton. Just add the compost, and till it in before you plant. Another option is to plant fall crops like peas, carrots, turnips, etc. I did an expansion last summer as well, and basically planted out fall crops.

Also, be careful about making a patch of "good" soil surrounded by bad clay soil. You'll get a bathtub effect, where water will run off from the clay soil and pool in your garden.

Joe

I use a no till method that is a lot less work for me

First i tarp the grass and let the summer sun bake it to a crisp, then i lay down cardboard or several layers of newspaper, wet real good and cover pretty thick with compost. I mulch the compost with leaves because they are abundant and free in the fall. But if the leaves havent come down yet i would use straw. By the next spring this makes a great planting bed.

The cardboard only takes a month or two to breakdown, especially if it gets regular moisture and hot days. By the spring, the lawn at the bottom will have composted and added a nice layer of soil to your bed. The cardboard draws up earthworms which break up the native soil (i deal with clay here too). The straw will add organic matter and hold moisture. If your native soil is really hard and has terrible drainage, just add thicker layers of compost and straw. Fresh layers at planting time help too. Keep adding compost and leaves/straw every year and after a few seasons you will have great soil for growing anything! Grass clippings make a great mulch too. And dont worry about having too many weeds :)

I just wanted to add that if you wanted to plant a cover crop this season, you could skip the tarp and start with the cardboard. Layer on the compost and plant your cover crop. Baking the grass takes a few weeks and would probably push you too far back to plant a cover crop. By the time its ready to be worked in, you should have a endless supply of leaves to mulch with. I second Joe on the bath tub effect, but building the beds up instead of tilling down should help immensely with drainage.

Wow. Thanks so much for all the responses. Great feedback.

The reason for my original approach was to make sure I didn't have a nice layer of good dirt and then "boom" some rock hard clay under it. However, if I can get better dirt under there by just layering with cardboard and leaves I like that. Much less work for me!

I'll take some before, during and after pictures and post them here if anyone is interested.

This is fun. I can't believe I waited so long to get into gardening. My grandmother and mother grew up on the farm and were always into gardening but I didn't want any part of it.

Fortunately, my mom is still alive so I am getting a lot of tips from her now.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

Lots of good advice about ways that would work. I also have heavy clay and wanted to expand the garden a lot last year. In the fall we put down layers of cardboard and newspaper over our weedy lawn, wet them down well, and covered them with leaves. Then we watered more so they would mat down and stay in place. A thin layer of straw went on top because we had it around and thought it would also help keep the leaves from drying and blowing around. I wasn't sure this would work out but figured it was easier to try than digging or renting a tiller. I collected a lot of bagged leaves from neighbors and curb strips....even half-joked that gifts of bagged leaves would gain more Brownie points with me than bouquets or jewelry.

By spring the paper/cardboard layer was broken down, the grass below was gone and had become part of a top layer of soft soil. The only growth that came through the layers in the spring was from dandelion weeds that were in the lawn. None of the grass or other weeds was left. I was amazed that this worked so well and would do it again. We planted tomatoes, potatoes, melons, peppers, and cukes in this area by digging individual holes for transplants or hand turning a small spot for seeds. The remaining mulch stayed in place and has helped keep things moist during our extremely dry summer. When we want to plant smaller seeds into these areas in the future, we plan to spade the beds.

For a low work way to prepare the area, this method is great. If you start now using lawn clippings instead of leaves, you could have it ready to till in the fall and then layer on leaves to break down over the winter. Leaves and lawn clippings are good ways to increase the organic content and loosen up clay soil. We have found we are better off not tilling into the pure clay layer that is down about 6-8 inches. It makes our top clayey mixture almost impossible to work.

Yes, keep us updated!

One thing im doin is using pine logs from trees my boyfriend cleared from his moms to raise the beds about 6 inches. Not only do i have to deal with clay but the garden is in a low part of the yard, so im really having to deal with drainage. Plus, the logs were free so i thought why not :)

Thank you everyone for all the feedback.

I would love to make this into a raised bed but it's too expensive between all the wood and soil I'd have to buy. My current garden is 4'x32'. The cost of the wood and soil was a LOT.

So it sounds like my plan of action should be:
1) Cover the area with leaves (I still have a large pile left over from last fall in a corner of lot, compost and then cardboard
2) Keep the area wet to encourage breakdown of materials and "dirt improvement"
3) After a month or so of that, the grass should be gone and dirt should be primed for a cover crop
4) Plant cover crop
5) In spring cut cover crop and till it into the dirt
6) Plant veggies : )

I have a few questions about this plan:
a) Should I add some dirt in with the compost and leaves before I cover it all up with cardboard?
b) If yes to a) what kind of dirt? Just plain topsoil or something else
c) If no to b) should I add some dirt before planting the cover crop?
d) Suggestions for cover crop(s)? Since I plan on planting all kinds of different things in the new area (will be about 16'x40') I didn't know if I should use different cover crop based on what goes where in the garden

Thanks again for all the info. Love this site!

Oops, I noticed something wrong I put in my last message. I had it in my mind that I was supposed to put the card board on last but after re-reading the other messages, I see it goes on first.

FYI-Started covering a part of the "expansion" today. Now I have to round up more scrap cardboard.

Check grocery and dollar stores for cardboard, thats where i get all mine.

I would start with a pretty thick layer of compost over the card board. Keep it well watered for at least a week or two then plant a cover crop directly into it. Find a happy medium with the moisture level because you want it to heat up and breakdown and it wont if its waterlogged. The roots of the cover crop will help to break down the card board and native soil. You could also plant some cool weather crops into the compost. Deep rooted stuff like carrots probably wouldnt do well as a first crop but green and stuff would.

Cardboard, compost and a mulch are all you need to get a great garden bed going. Add in those composted leaves since you have them. Idk about different cover crops for different veggies though.

A good place I've found to get HUGE pieces of cardboard is home depot. You have to beg, but they get some really large pieces at home depot and it makes things a lot easier when you have big pieces to lay down.

If you have clay soil, don't add sand. It sounds like a good idea, but sand plus clay plus water makes cement. If you search the internet, you'll find warning from university extension services about this. You want to add organic matter, not sand. Cover crops and compost is the way to go. Best of all - though adding cost - would be to buy topsoil by the truckload and build raised beds. You still do the cover crop and composting, but bring in enough topsoil to make six inch raised beds, and you immediately have enough soil to grow veggies in. The cover crop roots will work down into the clay layer, and then worms will do the rest over time.

Got it. No sand! :)

Here's a pic of the garden expansion in progress. Almost done taking it the length of the current garden. Layered with cardboard and then about 2-3" of compost and leaves.

I need to look around and find free scrap wood so I can raise the bed a bit.

I'm excited about next year. Wish me luck.

Nows thats a garden! Maybe check with local tree trimming companies for free logs. IMO untreated wood is hard to come by for free. I have seen people use cinder blocks before. I made mini raised beds with pieces of firewood that were to big for my stove haha. Get creative!

1) no sand

2) you don't have to add finished compost, you can add anything organic right now, dug in and on top. I prefer a final layer of wood chips because they will keep weeds at bay for so long (I then commit to planting seedlings instead of direct seeding for a few years, until the chips dissipate). Also, they do not blow away even in 80 mph winds and they are free

3) beware of neighbor's clippings, if they used herbicides, they might kill your tomatoes next year. I use only leaves from my neighbors, and add urea, manure or kitchen scraps as needed

glib,

good call on neighbor's clippings. I hadn't thought of that.

Thanks

mari_88,

Thanks. I'm pretty excited about expanding it. Finished covering the new area today. Found a bunch of old hardwood trim at a house that's scheduled to be demolished. I'll use that as a border to make a shorter raised bed than the current one.

The one thing I might add to the discussion is N.

You're adding a lot of organic material and cellulose in the form of plant fibers to the soil, and the bacteria need nitrogen to break down cellulose properly.

In professional composting operations, they have to add some form of nitrogen to the manure/sawdust bedding to get it to "cook" properly, and adding N to your garden amendments in the fall will help speed up the breakdown of all that organic matter. If you add too much organic matter to the soil, in such a time frame that it can't all be broken down over the winter, then the bacteria will suck up available N during the growing season to finish eating the cellulose, and you might see it in your plants next year.

Note that there are a lot of "mights" and "ifs" in the above paragraph. I just wanted to add that in case you planned on adding a mountain of uncomposted grass clippings, leaves, or any other organic matter; adding uncomposted stuff is just fine but you just have to be mindful of the extra N requirements.

I add uncomposted horse manure/bedding to my soil in the fall and over the winter, mainly because the horses are constantly making fertilizer, and because I don't have a tractor with a bucket to turn it over. I just add more N to my soils to compensate. Works well, my soils have never looked more rich.

The one thing I might add to the discussion is N.

You're adding a lot of organic material and cellulose in the form of plant fibers to the soil, and the bacteria need nitrogen to break down cellulose properly.

In professional composting operations, they have to add some form of nitrogen to the manure/sawdust bedding to get it to "cook" properly, and adding N to your garden amendments in the fall will help speed up the breakdown of all that organic matter. If you add too much organic matter to the soil, in such a time frame that it can't all be broken down over the winter, then the bacteria will suck up available N during the growing season to finish eating the cellulose, and you might see it in your plants next year.

Note that there are a lot of "mights" and "ifs" in the above paragraph. I just wanted to add that in case you planned on adding a mountain of uncomposted grass clippings, leaves, or any other organic matter; adding uncomposted stuff is just fine but you just have to be mindful of the extra N requirements.

I add uncomposted horse manure/bedding to my soil in the fall and over the winter, mainly because the horses are constantly making fertilizer, and because I don't have a tractor with a bucket to turn it over. I just add more N to my soils to compensate. Works well, my soils have never looked more rich.

It's getting there. I put up the border for the raised bed. Got 7 yards of dirt and spent all day spreading it.

Here's what it looks like so far.

That looks great! Great find on the hardwood too. I worked on my own garden expansion today. I am officially known as the card board lady at the grocery store now, haha!

Chris thats a great point on N. What do you add in to supplement N?