Where are you?

Personally, I think high quality, imported topsoil is an oxymoron. Also, it's the beginning of mud season around here, so the idea that you have mud is not surprising. Years ago, my MIL used to send her dog up here around this time of year while they went golfing in Florida. The amount of dirt she tracked in after every walk was amazing.

I think mad_gallica is right in saying that mud shouldn't surprise you at this time of year.

I haven't had this problem, but on principle, I'd be sure to work plenty of organic matter into your soil, in the hopes of encouraging earthworms, who will help aerate your soil. This can be slow, but you need to start somewhere.

Good luck.

I have heard about mud season. When I step into my backyard, my foot sinks down about three inches into sucking mud. Is this what I should expect?

Mad_g, I agree that good topsoil is hooey. That is builder-talk for "leave me alone" at the end of the project. It was a least very dark brown and not utter carp.

My local garden center says the same about working the organic matter in, but I don't know how to deal with the fact that the layer under the mud is like concrete. I can't go through and dig up my entire property to the level I'd need to in order to have decent beds. I worry that the few shrubs I planted last fall are sitting in "buckets" of amended soil dug into the concrete.

A friend suggested we could have the whole thing bulldozed, removed and refilled, but that seems wildly expensive and maybe not much better since then we'd have several feel of fill dirt. But, at least it would be workable. That's my problem...workability. Pretty depressing...

Oh, to answer your other question...I am in Western MA.

Don't underestimate the ability of earthworms and microbes to solve all sorts of ills, assuming they have some good food to start with (which you'd be giving them when you work in that organic matter). Most any type of soil can be corrected with some time and effort.

Working good stuff into the top few inches of soil and then waiting really will help the deeper parts over time.

If you wanted to get better success sooner, raised beds might be an option for you...but then you'd need to buy or otherwise acquire something to fill the beds with.

First off, make sure your eyes aren't bigger than your stomach. I *have* gone through my entire yard and dug down to the necessary level to have decent beds where I want beds. It took several years, but was very much a one time only job, and now I don't have to worry about finding rocks every time I want to plant anything. Mostly what I have is compacted clay soil on top of rock.

The builder *is* putting in a lawn, right? Under these circumstances, grass is your best friend until you can get a handle on things.

Unless you are dealing with a true hardpan layer from agricultural work, I honestly don't expect this is nearly as bad as you think. It's just what the rest of us deal with pretty much as a matter of course. If you have trees, the tree roots have found a way through this stuff. Most shrubs will figure out how to get through it also.

BTW, I dug the beds directly behind the house to about 12 inches about 15 years ago. About ten years ago, I got the mental idea to dig them a bit deeper. The line between the loosened and amended soil and the untouched soil was extremely clear.

Welcome to the New England forum!

Before you get too worried about your mud, be aware that it is normal for bare soil to freeze for a foot or more down, depending on plant cover, snow cover, temperatures, etc. When the ground thaws in spring, it does so from the surface, so moisture from rain and melting snow gets trapped by the frozen ground underneath. Some years when we have thaws, we go through several mud seasons. Once everything thaws, you will be able to evaluate what you have. Don't start digging (or even walking on) your soil in garden/lawn areas until it is relatively dry so you don't cause further compaction.

Construction equipment will compact soil, and a bulldozer isn't likely to fix it. As others have said, organic matter is your answer to just about any soil problem, so right now you can research sources in your area for manure and compost. If you live in a city, often compost is available to residents from garden debris and leaves picked up the previous years. Build a composting area for yourself as well, so you can generate your own supply. My husband has been known to pick up others' bagged leaves in the fall to add to the compost pile, but I've also heard of people getting coffee grounds from commercial coffee places, etc. . . . Sometimes Craigs List will have folks offering manure for pick up or delivery, but in my area, I talk to a neighbor with horses (more weed seeds, though) or cows. Someone with pet rabbits or goats or even chickens is good also. Different kinds of manure have different levels of nitrogen, so do some reading since some can be used fresh, while others need to have aged some so they don't burn plants. If you live in a neighborhood where the smell would be a problem, you can get dried bagged manure which can be used right away and won't smell. Your public library will have books that tell how to build soil in garden beds, and there are composting and soil forums here on garden web. Your local cooperative extension may have online publications as well.

As Mad Gallica said, dig an entire bed, not isolated holes for your plants. That will eliminate the bathtub effect on your shrubs, and is something you should do regardless of how good or bad your soil is if you are adding improvements. Otherwise the roots will want to stay in the improved soil in the hole, and water won't move in and out of the improved soil as well as it will through the native soil due to texture differences. If you have a whole bed of improved soil, then this isn't a problem. If you plan your yard and prioritize one or two beds a year to make and plant, the digging won't seem so overwhelming. There are many ways to make garden beds, and if you search lasagna beds, raised beds, double dug beds, you'll get lots of information, again using Google, garden web, books. The amount of work varies, and you can make dug beds this year as well as start lasagna beds this year to plant next year, for instance.

Good luck and let us know how you progress with your garden. I enjoy the process as much as the results. I've been making and planting beds around our family wood shop for several years now which is situated in an old pasture with fine sandy soil with no nutrients or organic matter. (We'll eventually have a house there as well.) The first beds I dug, but have since mostly done layered/lasagna beds using well rotted manure and wood shavings as I'm getting older and the body doesn't recover as quickly from heavy digging! The first several years' work are looking great, and I have high hopes for the bed I planted last fall, though I can't see it buried under the snow right now.

Hi,

Can you break through the hardpan with a pickaxe? If you can, it might merely be compacted soil from the construction equipment. If it's a clay hardpan formed over years, it would take a tractor to break it up...been there!

One of the best (and cheapest) things you can add to the top of the beds is gypsum. It's sold in large bags and frequently added to heavy clay soils to break them up. You don't have to shovel it in...simply spread on top of the soil...I'd recommend twice a year for several years. Also earthworms....get thee to a bait shop in spring lol.

We had the WORST hardpan under the soil of our horse's runs years ago...NOTHING would drain if you get my drift...yowza! My husband could barely penetrate it with the pickaxe so we had to hire out to remove it. Wasn't really a big deal and not that expensive to find guys with tractors who do this type of work on the side. Even with the tractor breaking it up, it looked like huge slabs of cement being excavated...about 8" thick.

And yes...we have good soil and will be deep in mud shortly...if not already in the sunny areas of the yard.

Oh...to speed up the process, it is ideal to dig the gypsum in as deep as you can but if you're talking huge beds, just do what you can. Gypsum doesn't have any nutrients so do add tons of compost "etc". I'm no fan of topsoil....dries out too fast.

Thanks for helping me to feel more optimistic everyone. I had hoped to get a lot of planting done this year since the place looks pretty nekkid, being new and all. I guess this is just a metaphor for life (which growing a garden always is)...to be patient, work slow and do it right, and all that stuff.

I do have a source for amendments -- local garden center -- but I will look further for manure, etc. My DIL has chickens. Not sure what she plans to do with the manure.

I have composted before but am a bit worried about bears here. I don't want to attract attention to our yard. So, I have thought about vermicomposting inside the garage instead. It's not the same but better than nothing. Do I assume correctly that bears and compost piles are an issue?

I eradicated a lot of lawn at my last house using lasagna gardening. I never really thought of doing that here...thanks for that suggestion. As for double dug, well...the thought of double-digging through the hardpan is what makes me want to cry.

So, how do you dog-owners stay after the clean-up process without walking in the yard/goop? I thought the snow made it tough.

Oh, and yes, the builder did plant a lawn and it took pretty well. I suppose I'll seed over it a bit in the Spring, just to fill it out. I have always been anti-lawn, preferring beds and ground cover. I suppose that I will just have to surrender to the lawn for a while.

Jant, we cross-posted. Thanks for the tip about the gypsum. I read somewhere that there are things to add into the soil which seem to break up the mineral deposits that bind certain forms of hardpan.

I am thinking I should hire someone to come dig for me this summer. Getting the bulbs planted in the fall was really difficult and I think that doing bigger projects will take its toll on my back. I normally like doing all the work myself, but this may be a good thing to farm out.

If you hire somebody, make sure they are going to use a backhoe. A tiller isn't going to make a dent in the hardpan, and will just run over top of it.

Bears are interested in food. I've never heard of them going after leaf piles or garden debris. Around here, one of their favorite places to go is college food service dumpsters. The biggest problem with homemade compost is that there just isn't nearly enough of it.

An established lawn isn't particularly muddy, even this time of year.

"An established lawn isn't particularly muddy, even this time of year." :>) This made me think of the mowed ball fields at the school where I used to work. Various construction projects over the years had interrupted surface drainage, so during the mud season, sometimes the mud was so deep some of the little ones lost boots or even got stuck in the mud and had to be lifted out. Not a standard suburban yard, and it never lasted more than about a week, but the memory made me laugh.

We have a compost pile that we put kitchen scraps into along with manure and garden debris. We get coyotes and crows scrounging in it, but the bears don't bother it, though they do get into the neighbors bird feeders and I see them within 100 feet or so of the house. If you are concerned, just don't put food scraps into the compost pile. Vermicomposting should work fine for food scraps and has the advantage that you can expect action during a longer season than an outside pile. (My pile is currently completely buried under snow.)

I agree that the "hardpan" is more likely frozen ground. It takes a long time, esp here in northern New England, for the frost to go out. Often it doesn't happen here until nearly June.

Is any of your muddy area going to be planted as lawn? Well established lawn grass should end the mud problems, although it will be wet every spring. Pathways paved with flagstones or bricks should make walking around your property drier in springtime.

Well, the hardpan was there long before the freeze. I wish it were just frozen ground....

The lawn was planted last fall, and it never quite became "established." Lots of fuzzy green stuff everywhere, but not dense at all. I'm thinking all the snow cover this winter will have been good for it. But, what do I know about snow and lawns! ;-)

Spedigrees, I think maybe I will get some flagstone now and start to lay it out in paths. Is it too soon for that? I just want to be able to walk around a bit...

Hi Amy,

Putting flagstones down now is a great idea, because they will sink in on their own. No need to dig them in. :-)

I think I would just start small this year with a lasagna bed or two and do up a nice organic lawn. If you aerate the lawn and add worms, compost, etc. annually, maybe the hardpan issue will take care of itself over the next few years. Do you think it is the result of the construction?

I think if you approach a couple of smaller beds as an experiment you might save yourself a lot of frustration. Trial and error is much easier in a small space. But this will require lots of patience. Maybe you can spend the time that you're waiting doing things like working on the landscape design, and reading books about zone 5 plants?

Putting flagstone down now is a good idea ONLY if you have a good idea where they should be. Otherwise, it will just mess up and destroy future lawn. It can take three to four years for a lawn to really settle in, so messing it up now will just delay things. Best things to do are mow high, and leave the clippings.

What are you trying to dig holes with? A shovel is practically useless where I am. A digging fork, though it's very hard to find a good one, or a pickax are more useful. A shovel digs out loose soil, it doesn't loosen the soil to be dug out.

Luckily, the property I bought is relatively small. That was intentional...a way to stay in control! There are only so many places to put the paths and I have been pondering their placement since last Spring. So, I feel safe in laying out a few paths here and there.

My DIL is going to lend me her blade mower (manual? don't know what to call it...) to cut and mulch with. That's a long time for a lawn. Hmmm...I don't even like lawns...that is, until now.

We used a shovel in the Fall, to put the bulbs in. I had the most gorgeous soil in Florida (I know that sounds like an oxymoron) so, I never needed a fork, much less a pick axe. I think I need to hire a pick axe and someone to swing it. Will look for a fork, as well.

DH is a sharpening maniac in the kitchen. I need to turn him loose on the garden tools this year.

I noticed paige mentioned lasagna beds, which is definitely what I would do. A whole lot less work than anything else you can do, wonderful results. You can plant right away and no digging. You can layer with ingredients that the bears would not be interested in. If you have composted you can lasagna garden. It is like 'sheet' composting. I have done it before and was so amazed at how easy it was and it worked out better than other areas of my yard. There are books in the library on the subject. I think they also have Lasagna Gardening for the Small Garden.