Soil amendments?

[Horseyrider]

It's about that time of year again. Much of the gardening is about over, and it's time to get the garden put to bed for winter.

But before you do that, are you planning any special soil amendments to improve your garden for next year? Any green manure crops? Organic material? Sand? Gypsum?

What kind of soil do you have, and what sort of amendments are you planning this fall?

[Danaus29]

Sticky mucky clay, some with gravel, some without.

Amendments, used potting soil, grass clippings, sawdust and rabbit poo/pee, shredded leaves, some shredded newspaper, old moldy straw if I can get it.

On the other property it looks like I have a good rich loam.

Amendments, horse manure and old moldy straw or hay.

[Katey]

Here in the Pacific Northwest, I'm still able to plant cover crops this late. I'm trialing a bunch of stuff: crimson clover, peas-n-oats, and a micro-clover. Anything that I don't get seeded in time or fails to cover well will get covered with a whole lotta straw, to keep the rain from pounding on it all winter.

I hauled in my garden soil, since I'm on glacial till. It was a nice mix of sand and compost when it arrived, but a couple of seasons have burned up the organic matter more than I'd like and I'll be adding more straight compost next year-- hauled in; I don't make enough myself to do the whole garden.

A wise farmer told me to never feel bad about buying in nutrients.

[Backfourty,MI.]

We have really nice black dirt, but this was a farmers feild when we bought this property & had corn standing on it still.
I add wasted & soiled straw & hay from the goats, rabbits & ducks along with all there poo & plow it in, the next spring you don't even know it was added.

Dh goes over it really well in the spring with the rototiller & it is so nice & fine, I just love to get my hands in it to plant.

[wyld thang]

WHen my plants are done I chop them up and drop them in place. Over the winter I'll throw down the kitchen compost and wood stove ashes. Right now I'm digging up dry pond goo from the pond part the dried up. Also add maple leaves that fall. I'll pull moss off the trees we cut for firewood and put it on the berries for mulch.

I have clay soil. All that stuff above is free for my labor.

[Callieslamb]

I limed mine this year per the soil test and planted annual rye. I am pretty sure I planted too late to get a good stand, but something is better than nothing.

[mnn2501]

I just planted my fall crops
But I always till in grass clippings and leaves

[SueMc]

We have deep black soil that has been on a soybean/corn rotation for decades. We had the soil tested because we had 13 acres planted in mixed grass for hay/pasture but found we didn't need anything added for pasture. The garden itself will be getting composted horse manure/bedding/kitchen scraps spread this fall. The partially rotted straw that I used for mulch this year will be added (what I don't need to mulch the strawberries for the winter). We've been burning some small limbs and have been adding the ash to the manure pile. We usually chip the small stuff as it's cut but had a bunch of tangled stuff in piles before we got the chipper (love the wood chipper!).
I started bringing cardboard home from work to compost and use for mulch, but haven't got a big supply of that yet. Will also add leaves.

[Fae]

We are rebuilding our raised beds and planting our fall garden. We will be planting clover between the beds but doing square foot gardening there really isn't much need for mulch. we have a lot of clay(right now it is sand like due to no rain in a long time) and that is the reason for the raised beds. Those beds are full of some great stuff.

[Paquebot]

Added an inch of sand and compost to one large allium bed and worked it in 16" deep with a trenching spade. Then another inch of the same mix for the top 8". Already planted with over 100 garlic cloves which should be very happy.

Tired of fighting everything else trying to move in with some wild roses. Everything was grubbed out, reduced to tiny bits, and tilled back into the ground. Still need to apply about an inch of sand to have that ready for planting next spring. That will be a 10' row of cannas.

Martin.

[Micheal]

I'm doing the same this year with the garden that I do every year; cover it with an assortment of leaves, grass clippings, sawdust, wood ashes, and a few buckets of aged cow manure; then leave it till next spring.
Although, I do dig a few deep holes in the garden so I can dump my kitchen waste (peelings, coffee grounds, etc) over the winter months. Kinda hard to sheet compost after the ground freezes........

[ldc]

I have yellow gumbo clay, so I add as much organic matter as I can round up, and gypsum, to break up the clay and make calcium available to the veg (for ex., to not have tomato blossum end rot). Compost, yes, but can never make enough, old leaves. ldc

[sirquack]

I cleaned out my compost bins this spring and have been grabbing the neighbors leaves and grass clippings all summer.
I have a couple of piles going on the country property, but will be going down in the next few weeks to get some more work done on the piles. It would be fun to actually bring some of the finished compostables from the country property to be used in my city property. After seeing some of the work that others have done with composting, I have a long way to go before I any good at it, but I sure love making piles of compost now.

[Fae]

Martin, could you please tell me what kind of sand you use. I think we talked about this a good while back but I don't remember what you told me. I am doing raised beds but thought sand would be a good addition to potato and carrot beds and possibly others.

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by Fae

Martin, could you please tell me what kind of sand you use. I think we talked about this a good while back but I don't remember what you told me. I am doing raised beds but thought sand would be a good addition to potato and carrot beds and possibly others.

The sand I use is from the Wisconsin River. A lot of it is silica and most is real fine. Sandbox sand, available at many garden centers, also works but is generally coarser. For raised beds, don't go over 25% or they drain too quick. I try to maintain about 15% for everything.

Martin

[Fae]

Thanks Martin. I'll try to remember it this time.

[jwal10]

I used well amended soil when I built my 2' deep raised beds, (garden soil, peat moss, potting soil, blood meal, lime, bone meal, compost). I don't dig in it except to place seeds or plants. In the fall I remove 3"of the soil, add 3"-4" of good compost and 4"-6" of shredded leaves on top. In the spring I remove any uncomposted leaves and place seeds or plants. The less it is dug into the more worms there are. When I remove the leaves there are lots of worms between soil and leaf layer. I remake the large compost pile right then with the leaves and compost made the summer before (dirt removed from raised and yard beds, ground wood waste (trees ground up by tree companies) grass clippings, garden waste, animal waste, straw bedding, lime, peat moss blood meal, bone meal, fish waste, kitchenscraps, yard waste, anything). This becomes the 3"-4" layer put on the beds in the fall. I always have a composter going all the time, I have a covered bin to keep it dry after coming out of the composter, I use it for potting soil, any extra is added back to the raised bed compost. I also have 8 compost piles going at all times, all over the 1 acre homestead. These are all brought together for the raised beds. My yard beds are even made with raised borders. My native soil is rocky river loam, remove the rocks and add humus and I have beautiful soil. Raised bed soil is awsome....James

[casusbelli]

I'm just second year at this place of mine. I layed down black plastic to kill grass on an area next to my raised beds, to be an extension of garden - but will stay a 'flat' garden. Once I turn it (soon i hope) I will be adding biochar. I've got several 20 lb bags of old natural charcoal, which I'll grind on my concrete driveway under a cinder block, just several feet from the new plot. I'll mix it in, and fertilize the heck out of it (saturating the carbon binding sites), add compost and sand, and be ready for next year.
Katey mentioned compost 'burning up'. That happens, plus the dang alien earthworm eat organic material and turn it into CO2. But that yearly loss is not a problem with biochar. It's indigestable, and the carbon is stable. It persists for years, decades or centuries, like the terra preta soils from past Amazon cultures. You only have to add it once. It binds nutrients tight enough to prevent leaching (unlike sand) but loose enough for plant roothairs to extract them. It also improves tilth, and also moisture holding capacity. My arugula especially loves biochar.

[Oldcountryboy]

My garden lacks nutrients. When I worked in town I would make a drive threw the neighborhoods after work and pickup bagged leaves to till in my garden. Since I'm not working in town anymore, I don't get to add much to the garden and it really shows.

But last weekend I went to a family reunion very close by and a cuz of mine sayed he had several round bales of rotten hay that I could have. He only lives about 4 miles from me so I'm gonna get everything he's got and till it all into my garden next spring.

[JuliaAnn]

I like to plant elbon rye to overwinter in beds I'm not going to plant for fall/winter vegetables. In mid January, I mow it with the mower, then till under and then plant mid March. Really builds nice soil, and with the root knot nematode issues we have here in the hot, humid, sandy south, it really does seem to be the most beneficial treatment for them I've found, besides rotating where I plant things.