Probably the simplest thing to do would be the mulching until fall.....letting earth worms do your deep drilling.

Thank you, Wayne.

I agree that would be the simplest (and my original plan before I considered tench composting).... but would it be the most effective in terms of the depth of soil readiness?

I'm surprised no one sent me to the FAQ for this forum.... the answer was right under my nose! It explains Wayne's answer in full detail.

Here is a link that might be useful: Creating a new bed without tilling

Tilling organic matter will mix that with your soil much quicker but it still will not be part of the soil structure. The no till method you have read about, covering the soil with newspaper or cardboard and covering that with some vegetative waste, works although it can take more time for the Soil Food Web to work that into the soil. This will happen in a soil that does have a fairly active SFW and much slower in a soil with ver little activity by the SFW.
That method has been described here for many years which is why it is now on the Frequently Asked Questions list.

I believe double dug is the best way to make a raised bed.
But if you do not have the time or tools to break up the clay then maybe wayne 5's way is best for you. I would cover as much ground as I could if I was you.
Once you get the bed to work for you, you are going to want more beds. So start as much as you have time for, now.

An article in the last year in Organic Gardening magazine indicated that double digging did not really provide the benefits often espoused about doing that. With much less work adding sufficient quantities of organic matter will do the same thing eventually.

^^^^Thank God!! My back wouldn't survive double-digging.

If you do not break the soil 14-18 inches, then you are planting the old one row garden, without the wasted space.
I know the new fad in Permaculture is to put down paper & build up, but the double dug bed has never failed me in S.C.
O.G pushed the Bio-Dynamic/ double dug movement for many year & got rich off book sales. Now the urban easy way will replace it. What will be next, just a little herbicide will not hurt?

jolj, permaculture has been around since about the 1980's. It is not a new fad.

Compared to raised beds that used hand tools, 30 years is a fad. And few people in the 70-80's used this system. It caught on more in 1990's, when people found out they did not have to dig to have tomatoes.

Jenn, you mentioned you're preparing the soil this spring/ summer for planting perennials this fall. Both heavy composting and mulching, or a cover crop, would work to increase the organic matter content in the subsurface clay.

However, since you won't have the option to plant a cover crop after the perennials go in the ground, I'd be tempted to try a summer cover crop this year -- then follow up with heavy composting and mulching around and between the perennials, once they're planted. Seems to me, that way you would get the best of both approaches.

Some cover crops root very deeply and widely. Those decaying roots can provide food for earthworms, and the resulting worm channels and casts can be great for easy root growth of your perennials, and for drainage.

Yes, earthworms feeding on surface compost and mulch layers will make their own deep channels too. But IMO you could enlist both the cover crop plant roots, and the surface residues of the cover crop once it's died back or cut down in the fall.

Some cover crops die back on their own, others need to be chopped down. If it was my garden and I had good access to a variety of cover crop seeds, I'd seed both a fast-growing, deep-rooted annual for carbon content (rye, etc.) and a legume or other nitrogen-fixing plant.

This fall you could chop the mature cover crop(s) down to soil level, lay down a light barrier of cardboard or newspaper, compost and mulch overtop -- then plant your perennials right through the cardboard/ newspaper into the enriched soil.

ATTRA's Overview of Cover Crops and Manures is a good place to look for general information; the SARE online textbook Managing Cover Crops Profitably provides more detailed info on specific cover crops.

All the best,
-Patrick

Here is a link that might be useful: Managing Cover Crops Profitably

madmagic, thank you so much for your reply; I completely forgot about this thread and thought about it today while I was out mulching the new beds. :-)

What I've read so far about cover crops barely scratches the surface; I hardly know where to begin. I read most (so far) of the ATTRA article and found it fascinating. I didn't realize they can be grown to loosen and prepare soil for perennial plants.

Well, I have already started layering OM on the new beds. So far, the mulch consists of a layer of newspapers (bottom), then about 2 inches of garden clipping run through the mower (browns), covered with a 1-2" layer of a high-nitrogen mix (chicken poop, horse manure, some browns --- the whole pile has a strong ammonia smell).

Today my husband suggested we plant summer veggies through the mulch, and I suggested a pumpkin to train laterally along the fence (on left side of photo). Or, could we sow beans or other cover crop right into the mulch?

In the photo, the new beds are the dark brown areas on the left, right, and the small patch in front of the large bare wall at the back. The big pile is the ammonia-smelling mulch. The round stones and flagstone are temporary; they will be replaced with decorative gravel. In the center of all that (where the wheelbarrow is resting) are 2 new apple trees; the onions (left foreground) and orange Nasturtiums will be removed, soon, and the whole area around the apples mulched with bark. This is our side yard which faces south-east.

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I grew watermelon as a cover crop and left the fruit in the beds to rot last year. Watermelon has a vast and deep root system and is surprisingly drought tolerant in a high raised bed. I don't know if you can grow that, and perhaps pumpkin has a similar root system. Swiss chard is known as well, to have extremely deep roots. For me it's not as important to have a nitrogen fixer as it is to create root chanels deep into the bed legume or no legume. My cover crop of rye in the yard this winter I didn't fertilize once and was a deep dark green. Rye is known to have fairly deep roots.

I guess what Im trying to say is that I don't worry about nitrogen ever and rarely add it as a fertilizer. I'm not sure why everyone thinks it as necessary, compost seems to do the job very well, I use free grass clippings and leaves for mulch with over a thousand square feet of high raised beds.

For poorly draining clay, serviceberry is another fruit that does well to establish some organic material in the soil, I know there are others but I like the idea of growing a crop as a green manure and just letting it rot back into the soil, and maybe eating some of it, makes senser to me.

mackel, thank you. I'm not so concerned about nitrogen fixing either --- mostly, breaking up the compacted clay soil. In fall, I'll plant perennials and shrubs.

I added more layers yesterday so the beds are now at least 6" deep in the middle. I would like to build them up to at least 18 inches to 2 feet ----- just as soon as my back and arms get a little rest. :-)

My question: Can I go ahead and plant a summer crop (seed or seedlings) straight into the layers, and then add more layers around them as they grow? The layers now include a rich (still ammonia-smelling) mulch which includes chicken poop, a finely-shredded woody mulch, shredded dry leaves, mowed fresh garden clippings, and green grass --- alternating layers of carbon and nitrogen.

Hi Jenn,
Life is a crapshoot, but it is fun experimenting, a lot of people do just as you described and feel blessed, I am giving it a shot this year, I have 10 yards of steer manure ,6 yards of Horse Manure, I piled up 1500 lbs of Bolted Cabbage Leaves, and then covered up that with 6 yards of my own Homemade Compost, I planted Watermelons, Honeydews,Cantaloupes
and Butternuts...so far so good, and yes I will do continuous updates as to how this experiment is working.

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All the Cabbage Plants you see in the beds got tossed on the pile before covering it with my compost.

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LOL Jon - those are some BIG, impressive piles! Where do you get your materials?

I'm up for experimenting --- after all, I'm not planning a garden at the Getty Museum. :-)

Another question about planting pumpkins in these beds: If I plant pumpkin seeds/seedlings the entire length of each bed, we'll have vines eating the house. One vine seems adequate for each bed --- but will 1 plant develop enough root structure to break up the whole bed? Seems we'd need another crop to plant in the rest of the bed that won't take over the world or be suffocated by the pumpkin.

Nearby Farms ;-)

I don't know if that works (Pumpkins/Deep Roots), I have no experience with them (for that particular purpose).
But I know what does work and is manageable and overwinters..... Swiss Chard 2' long roots, big heavy tap roots.... they will break up concrete ;-)

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Wow... that is an amazing root. It's a cool season crop though so I may be a little late...

I know that it says "cool season crop" ,but I planted these March 2010 and just pulled them last week (because I wanted to try different things), but it was still thriving after all this time, I was able to donate 142 lbs from them 4-18 to 5-24
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WOW!!!! It's getting a little late to count on much more cool weather here (inland SoCal, but who knows. I could try and if they don't make it then I could plant something else.