mulch, compost, fertilizer:

Mulch is material put over the soil, primarily to prevent the growth of weeds. Using organic material (wood chips, bark, shredded leaves) has the additional benefit of eventually breaking down into soil and providing nutrients. It must be replenished on a regular basis (because the 'old' has decomposed). Non-organic materials (rubber shreds or mats, gravel, plastics) will last more than a season but don't nourish the soil. Plastics are notorious for breaking into small pieces, sooner or later.

Compost is the result of the decomposition of organic materials. Made with a proper balance of assorted green and dry, it will provide much nourishment to plants. Improperly made compost and specific 'cold' processes such as "lasagna" will not kill weed seeds; however, keep in mind that most weed seeds must be near the surface before they can sprout so consistent mulching is sufficient to prevent their growth. Also consider that 'hot' compost [when properly made] does indeed kill most weed seeds along with bacteria and pathogens. Compost in general is very rich -that means it's full of nutrients the plants like- and is usually used a growth medium rather than as a mulch.

Fertilizer is a product containing specific nutrients required for plant growth; commercial firms must label the percentage of each nutrient in their product. See link for a basic explanation. Organic gardeners rarely buy pre-blended fertilizers; instead they operate on the experience that a soil which contains much added organic material will have most if not all of the nutrients required by their plants. The primary definition of an "organic" gardener is one who does not poison the soil either directly or indirectly; it is very easy to over-use a standard commercial fertilizer with the result of an unbalance in nutrients - which is too close to poisoning the soil for the comfort of many organic gardeners.

Putting down wood chips last fall was a good beginning. Unfortunately, it will take time for the chips to decompose and improve the clay soil. Your plants will likely bloom this year, but not too happily as it is difficult for most of them to get sufficient air and water from a heavy clay. You can choose to let the plants be (crossing your fingers) and build the soil around each plant by using a quickly decomposing material such as shredded leaves for a 2" mulch. If you pay careful attention to watering, they should be all right.

Or you can choose to lift the plants and improve their soil now. This will make for happier plants but it is a LOT of work, best done in one small section at a time. Fixing a bed of a square yard (3'x3') will take most of the day even if you are young and strong. You remove the plants leaving a bit of soil on the roots, so as not to disturb the roots, lay them on a tarp and cover with a sheet to keep shaded. Now remove the rest of the soil to a depth of about 6" -shovel it onto a sturdy tarp. Add compost at the rate of 1 shovelful to every 3 of clay; add very coarse wood chips or bark and an equal volume of shredded leaves. Mix together with a shovel or by rolling the tarp back and forth -that's easier if someone will help you. Replace the amended soil into your hole; it should pile up a couple inches above the previous level. Replace your plants and then water very well. The amended soil will sink a bit, but it will likely remain slightly mounded compared to the un-amended bed. After watering, mulch by laying down a couple sheets of newspaper and then topping that with 2" shredded leaves or wood chips/bark. The newspaper will prevent weedseed sprouting as well as helping the soil maintain proper moisture levels. Be sure all paper is well covered with mulch. Do a 'search' on this forum for "lasagna" for more info.

Here is a link that might be useful: about fertilizers

this was a really big help, thanks so much. should i uproot existing plants and follow the same procedure? most of what i planted last fall is growing, but weakly.

how much should new plants be watered? i thought i should give a lot of water after planting, but they're really wet now.

also, is peat moss a compost? a local garden center suggested i mix sand, peat moss, and the clay together to get a better soil.

last weekend i planted a bunch of bulbs upside down. i won't have a chance to dig them up and turn them around until next weekend. will that be too late to save them?

and is it more trouble than it's worth to get my own composter? i have a lot of produce scraps and would love to use them if i can actually get usable compost out of them.

if you are able to help with all that, i'd be really appreciative. thanks again.

Your garden center is wrong about the sand. Organic (anything that was once ALIVE) components are what will improve your soil in the long AND short run.

And peat is the product of long-dead plants; it is not a renewable source. In good conscience I cannot reccomend using peat moss. A similar benefit can be obtained by using "coir" which is made from coconuts and *is* a renewable product, although not as acidic as peat.

I agree with Rhizo in that sand is not necessarily a good amendment. The center suggested it because many believe sand is good to "lighten" the soil -- that means loosen the clay structure enough so that there are minute spaces in it for air and water. If you use the wrong type of sand, it will percolate downwards and not be of much use. It is easier and more practical to lighten the soil with chunky bits of organic material such as coarse sawdust, coarse wood chips or bark. The secondary advantage is that those wood products will eventually decompose which improves the soil fertility. Vermiculite and perlite are more effective in lightening the soil structure, but there is controversy as to how "green" the manufacturing process is. Gypsum can be used throughout much of the US, and is an excellent long-term method of loosening heavy clay. Check with the manufacturer to see if it is of use in your area; if so, apply at their suggested rate.

Watering is variable according to your plants' needs + your actual rainfall. The general rule of thumb is irrigate enough more so that rainfall plus irrigation equal one inch of water per week. Plants have a great deal of difficulty reaching and absorbing the water in clay, which is why they may look withered even though you have irrigated. The only cure is to improve the soil so the plants can actually get a drink. Once clay does absorb water, the clay seems to "grab a-hold" of it, which means that not only do the plant not get enough to drink, the roots may be sitting in mud which is very bad for them -- unless they are bog-dwelling plants.

Turn your bulbs around as soon as you can. Most bulbs won't make much of an effort to grow if they are upside down -- I think that has something to do with the sprouts heading for the source of light-heat: if you point the tip (sprout end) down then you are aiming them away from the sun.

Read up on lasagna.

Your kitchen scraps can go into your in-progress lasagna bed (and if you don't have one in progress yet, you probably will soon) or you can use another method. The point is to have a mix of wet [fresh scraps] and dry [shredded paper, dry leaves, etc] in almost even portions mixed 50/50 with soil. I use an old garbage can and build the compost by always wrapping the kitchen scraps in several layers of newspaper and then covering them with an equal volume of soil or sawdust (depending on the season). Twice a year I empty the can into the garden. It will be mostly compost; I bury the top portion which has the freshest scraps. The summer can will have had some weeds ( I mulch so there aren't very many weeds) and soil, the winter can is mostly scraps and sawdust. Both will have lots of worms in the bottom section when I dump the can. You *can* buy commercial composters or commercial vermicomposters, but I'd rather spend my money on new plants or more bulbs -- we each choose what we prefer :)

thank you both. meldy, could you explain what it means to be a "renewable source"?

i will take your advice and learn more about lasagna. can i use a new mixture in new beds or do i have to store the mixture until it decomposes?

i am pleased to find that you use a garbage can - i was wondering if that would work. the composters i've seen look a lot like garbage cans.

when the time comes, do i just dump the compost on top of the garden bed or does it need to be worked into the bed?

thanks again. i appreciate that you're willing to share your knowledge with a novice like me and i can't wait to share what i'm learning with others.

A "renewable source" means that the organic product is and continues to be made comparatively rapidly. Shredded dried leaves are renewable in that every years trees and other plants drop their old, dried up leaves. Coir is renewable because it is produced from coconuts growing now and we can plant more coconuts if we want even more coir. Peat is not renewable, what's there in the peat bogs is all there is because it takes about 10,000 years for the Earth to reduce those plants into the material form we call peat. Like coal or oil, once peat is removed from the Earth, there won't be any more. We may not have much choice about using coil, oil or gasoline but as gardeners we have plenty of choice about using peat. I choose not to.

One of the nice points about lasagna is that it is usable almost immediately. If you plant annuals in a fresh made lasagna, the only special thing is to leave about an inch of the original potting soil around the roots. By the time the roots grow through that inch, the lasagna is safe for the new roots to grow in.

Everybody treats their compost just a bit differently, and you will too, depending on the season and your needs. Some folks save it, and dole it out sparingly rather like putting salt on french fries. Some folks use it as a mulch but that is only for hot-cooked compost (where the weedseeds have been killed during the process); frankly, I think that goodcompost is not a good mulch. I'm in the group that sort of shoves it wherever it looks needed without being too picky. You want compost to enrich the soil where your plants are, either by putting the compost around each plant or by working it into the soil; either way the nutrients are going to get to the plant roots sooner or later. Because the kitchen scrap compost is a big amount, I usually dig a shallow hole in the garden and turn the can upside down into it. That puts the least-decomposed stuff on the bottom of the hole, and the good stuff on top where I can scoop some for whichever plants seem to need it. I put the compost in a ring around the plant and then put mulch over top.

Gardening's fun, enjoy it. And when you get tired of reading about lasagna, do a search here in the newbie forum for "notebooks." Another necessary subject that ranks Just below sun, soil and water.

Gypsum 'may' improve the consistency of clay soils IF those soils are sodic (full of sodium). It's also a short term improvement. If the soil in your location isn't sodium saturated, the gypsum can cause more harm than benefit.

I used gypsum a great deal when I lived along the coast in SC. Sodium in the soils caused a lot of problems, as you can imagine. But the stuff is not the magic bullet for clay soils that people think it is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gypsum information

LOL, Al. The short-term benefit of gypsum in my garden turned out to be about 15 years... and actually the soil remains very friable (20 years and counting) however, I think the gradual build-up of organic material can now take the credit for having good soil instead of clay. But seriously, IF one has the type of soil that can be helped by gypsum, I say go for it! And apply plenty of mulch :)

Yep, all that good stuff you apply to your soil has done the magic trick! And you've given gypsum all of that credit!

(By the way, not Al, but Dorie FROM Alabama!) :-)

Dorie -My apologies, I know who Al is, and I know you aren't Al. He isn't from Alabama, either. My fingers apparently did a major typo along with a mind glitch :(

BTW, the only reason I'm willing to give the grey stuff credit is that it was part of a 2-bed experiment, and it took bed-2 more than 5 years to become near-to-equally friable to bed-1 which had the gypsum. I probably wouldn't have paid so much attention except that I was trying to keep lavender plants happy in both beds - and Virginia clay is not conducive to happy lavender, sigh.

Peachface ~ please excuse me for getting off-topic.

Hello, peachface - when I saw the title of your post I just had to chime in.
I'm a long way from being a very knowledgeable gardener; I've only had a yard to work with for the last 4 years or so but I had the advantage (although I didn't think so at the time) of being my mother's garden helper as a child. When I first started working on our yard it seemed like there was so much to do and so much to learn about. Things weren't turning out the way I thought they should or as quickly as I though they should - patience is definitely not one of my strengths! In retrospect, one of the biggest mistakes I made was not digging up the foot or so of sand that the PO had added to one of the flower beds. I've been amending it ever since and will probably have to do so forever!

Anyway, I've realized from reading posts in various forums on GW that gardening is always a work in progress. Even people who have been gardening for years admittedly make less than perfect choices :-) and end up moving plants, yanking them out and starting all over again, etc. etc. But there is such a wealth of information and reassurance on these forums.

Hope this post doesn't sound 'preachy' or anything like that - you sounded a bit overwhelmed so thought I would add my few bits of words...as a poster on one of these forums says "enjoy the journey".

HTH
Margaret

Oh thank you for explaining renewable sources - that is very important to me and i will not use peat moss.

i bought gypsum and lime, enough compost and mulch for a couple small gardens. i added compost and lime in one garden. i will try compost and gypsum in another. i don't have enough materials for lasagna right now. i'll trek to the local park where they give compost away or i'll buy it. same for mulch. i'll save materials and use them next year.

As for anything "off topic" - everything for me right now is ON topic! all by my front lawn is bare but i have beautiful locations for gardens. i've been successfully planting grass in the back, but otherwise reading a ton about how to combine plants for soil, water, size, season, etc.

Margaret, you are right, i am overwhelmed - worst of all i have to patient! ;)

thank you all for your helpful words.