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(I may have been in the wrong place when I posted this, so I am trying to correct my mistake.)
Hi there! I'm new here, so please forgive me if I sound dopey. I have started a flower bed by creating my design, and taking out all of the existing grass, weeds and what ever else may have been there. I have soil that has a pretty good mixture of clay, dirt and small rock. I have stripped it to a depth of about 2 inches. Next on my agenda is to put down a layer of manure compost and peat hummus. Then my plan is to till all of the soil, and mix it up fairly well, then to top off that layer again with more hummus and compost. Is this the way that I should be doing that? I am planning on planting some tulip and daffodil bulbs, a few perennials, and filling in the gaps for now where the bulb plants will eventually be with annuals. Any advice that anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Georgianne
Plants: 2 | From: Fort Wayne, IN | Registered: May 2003
| Seeded: 12.84.250.83
posted
Basically, if i'm planting perenials, i concentrate on the soil in that one spot. Since i have clay soil, i go to the trouble of digging a "huge" hole (1 ft wide by 1ft deep ) and removing the clay. I put prepared garden soil back in its place and dump the clay in a place i've got designated for it. If u have good soil, u may not need to take such a drastic measure. One thing to keep in mind... with perennials, u know that they are there to stay. With annuals, u know they are going to die;so, u may not worry a whole lot about the "long term" with them. If u are doing a mass planting and have good soil to work with, i would ammend the soil and then till it. I can't use a tiller in my soil, because i don't want to plant in red clay! I want to get rid of it. Gardendreamer03@aol.com
* * * * Bob Plants: 640 | From: in my garden | Registered: Jan 2003
| Seeded: 205.188.208.104
posted
Tilling is definitely much easier than trying to work the additives into the soil with a shovel. You may still have to do some extra digging after you till in order to get the soil worked deeply...the deeper you work it the better. One caution...overtilling is not good for the soil, so only go over it with the tiller enough to loosten and incorporate the additives. Then take a shovel or pitchfork and loosten the soil underneath that the tiller couldn't reach. Good luck and happy gardening!
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