Least expensive way to improve my soil (sandy 'fill' from 1956)?

15 years ago

Hi all-

Sorry if this is sort of a basic question.... I understand the basics but am working on a much larger scale than I ever have before!

I've been organic gardening for years but on a very small scale in an urban lot, so making enough compost and buying some bags of amendments wasn't the end of the world.

My new garden (yay!) is 1000 sf, and the soil pretty much sucks. It's sandy fill from the 50's, and a soil test last fall showed only 1% organic matter, low phosphorus and low sulphur.

I had a local farmer come dump some of his cow manure and till the sod in for me with his tractor last fall. (It was just lawn grass before.) I was expecting a good 3" layer of manure, but he only brought about 1/2"... and he was so nice I couldn't complain.

I'd wanted to be all ready to plant my early legumes and spinach and stuff when the snow melts, but now I've got a lumpy, not-really-deep-enough area that still needs work.

I have chickens but we haven't been here long enough for any litter to be composted yet.

Do you think I need to invest in another truckload of manure/compost (a couple hundred bucks!!!!!) and till it into the whole garden again (another hundred bucks).... or should I buy/find smaller amounts of something and dig it into each row as needed (like, a bucketful for each tomato plant and a rowfull for carrots, etc.)?

I guess I need to do two things, as I understand it: improve the soil long-term with organic matter, and add stuff for this years garden to use immediately. What's the best/cheapest way to accomplish that?

I'm in southern Maine, if that matters.

Thanks so much.

Stacey

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Comments (13)

lou_spicewood_tx
15 years ago
How about growing winter crop next time? Elbon rye would grow massive root system. You simply sow them, let them grow tall. Cut them down to the ground and let them break down for a while before planting. Root system is your organic matter.
Stacey Collins
Original Author
15 years ago
Sounds like a good plan for next winter. CAn I do that in rows without tilling up the paths, too? I was planning on making 4' wide hilled up row/beds and semi-permanent paths between.

But- what about for this season?
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leira
15 years ago
If you want to continue with the manure approach, I'm sure that with a little bit of asking around, you could find a free source of it. From what I can tell, most farmers need to pay to have it hauled away, so they'd be happy to have you take it off your hands.

As for this year, I'm not sure what to tell you. I'm in a similar situation, though my soil is in better shape to start with, and my garden is a lot smaller. I've got a small amount of compost from last season, and some worm castings saved from when I had a worm composter years ago, and I recently acquired quite a bit of rabbit manure (which can be applied without composting first, if you follow conventional wisdom). I may buy some peat moss from Home Depot or a garden center, since it's compressed when you get it, and expands to quite a volume for the price. Of course, if I add peat moss, I should add some lime to balance out the pH.

Getting the soil ready NOW, and inexpensively, is difficult. Good luck!
Kimmsr
15 years ago
Instead of trying to build up 1,000 square feet, more than half of which would be wasted space between rows anyway, work on smaller beds in the manner of square foot gardening. You can grow just as much in several 16 square foot beds as you can in one large 1,000 square foot garden but with less work and material. What organic matter is available around you for free? Where did all the tree leaves that were raked up and collected last fall go?
Stacey Collins
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks. I have been thinking about this overnight and I do think my best bet is to improve the individual bed/rows rather than the entire thing.
We just moved to this town, and I don't know if there's a place to get muni compost... there's no leaf collection here so folks are on thier own. I think most people have enough land that they just have a pile out in the back woods... but I'll look into it. I do worry (A LOT!!!) about the potential for pesticides and herbicides in municipal compost. I know a lot of folks spray their yards. I'm a cancer survivor and that scares the heck outta me...
leira
15 years ago
If most people have a pile of leaves out in their back woods, maybe with a bit of asking, you could find someone who wouldn't care if you helped yourself.

I think your idea of doing spot-improvements for this season is probably a good one. I've found that getting started on this is the hardest part. Until you've got a garden established, you don't have a lot of sources of organic matter to incorporate into a garden...but then how do you get a garden established?

This year's garden might be smaller or less productive than the ideal, but take heart that you can improve it with each passing year, and that the garden itself will help you to do that.
organicguy
15 years ago
I would contact a local landscaper that services organic lawns, and arrange for him to drop off lawn clippings and leaves. You can mulch the whole area with 3-4" of fresh lawn clippings every couple of weeks, with out them matting down, and leaves can be chopped with a lawn mower. Keep pileing on the mulch, and at the end of the season, till it in. That would do wonders for your soil!

Ron
The Garden Guy
www.TheGardenGur.org
"New article & journal entry for Feb."
Stacey Collins
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh, great ideas asking for nieghbors' leaves and about the lawn service! I will definitely do that. I've always wanted to mulch with grass clippings. I know there are a couple of companies that advertise being organic, so I'll get in touch with them in the spring. Thanks!
mommyandme
15 years ago
While you're making calls looking for grass clippings and free manure, call local tree services looking for free wood chips for your pathways. Cover your paths with newspaper, top with wood chips & you'll be all set. It's also a great mulch for patches of blueberries & raspberries. When I was living in CT, the tree & grass people told me they had to pay $25 per truck load to dump the stuff. Every load they brought to me was $25 in their pockets. What I couldn't immediately use as mulch went into my compost bins. Also: check the compost forum for other ideas, such as spoiled hay & straw from local farmers, coffee grounds from local coffee shops, etc. I got a load of spoiled pumpkins from a church after a pre-Halloween sale. I had a deal with a lady who lived near my grocery store. Every time I went to town to pick up groceries, she had 7 or 8 trash bags of rabbit & guinea pig bedding waiting for me. She kept what she could use herself; what she gave me was excess that she couldn't use.Best wishes !
BuildASoil
10 years ago
If people are still looking for a cheap solution I had the same challenges on a similar size garden plot. I added compost and manure but not enough.

Before I planted for a couple weeks I sprayed Compost Tea on the ground to add moisture and then I added gypsum rock dust to help break up the clay a little bit.

The compost tea was by far the cheapest way that I could help the plants. Because my soil needed so much help I ended up spraying with compost tea almost every watering, but they loved it and it was very affordable.

I found DIY compost tea brewer instruction posting that really helped, and another one on the best compost tea recipes. After reading for awhile I decided I love Compost tea.

Try this recipe, it's been proven under a Microscope.

Compost tea:

5 gallon bucket
4 gallons of water
1.5 cups of Earth Worm Castings
1/3 Cup Molasses
Aerate with 18-20watt airpump for 30 hours.
Use immediately!

You can pour the tea through a filter and into your sprayer or just water each plant with an equal amount.

You Cannot hurt your plants with compost tea when done right.

Just make sure that it doesn't smell awful, or sweet. You want it to smell earth and pleasant when you use. To sweet and the molasses hasn't been used up yet and you don't want too much of this in your soil.

Also, if it smells foul, then it hasn't enough air and should be tossed!
Kimmsr
10 years ago
Compost tea is a crutch and a not very good substitute for making a good healthy soil.
pnbrown
10 years ago
Leira, you actually know farmers who pay to have manure taken away? I can't imagine that is so - anyone who would do that cannot possibly be a serious grower of food crops. An equestrian estate, maybe, but IME those places give it away, they don't need to pay for it to be removed.
Stellabee
10 years ago
Manure is nitrogen with some other nutrients. It sounds like you need to balance out the soil there by tilling in a bunch of carbon compost. Carbon compost is usually free-stuff like wood chips, fall leaves (brown/dead), brown straw, etc. This is what most of a garden's compost should be anyway. Things like manure and fresh kitchen scraps are both nitrogen, and are supposed to go in the garden in very small amounts compared to the carbon compost! I do about 85-90% carbon and 10-15% Nitrogen for my veg garden and get loads of food. My soil looks great now too...

Some egg shells for calcium wouldn't hurt either... :-)

Least expensive way to improve my soil (sandy 'fill' from 1956)?

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lou_spicewood_tx

Stacey Collins
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Least expensive way to improve my soil (sandy 'fill' from 1956)?

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Stacey CollinsOriginal Author

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