Loam is the good-smelling dark soil that is more like potting soil than dirt.
I would recommend that you build up from the ground and container garden instead of digging into the ground. My mom and I have had a lot of good luck with doing that when you're working with a poor-dirt place - then if you want, you can start composting and switch over to that for your garden instead of doing storebought fertilizers, etc.
(And yeah, building up means drainage and thus protecting against summer scorching, but I have methods against that, as evidenced by 5280 elevation and 100+ degree summer days. We can talk.)
Dirt?!?!?!You say dirt?!?!?rough_diamondJanuary 3 2008, 22:23:06 UTC
WHEE!! getting dirty, my kinda girl! K.. Yeah.. thinning out the sprouts will help a ton... As far as s oil content.. betting on a lot of sand and clay.. loam has a lotta oranic stuff in it as well as good ol' dirt. a lil (composted) cow manure would help out veggies. can get bagged loam as well. lil mix of everything is best.Raised bed means awsome drainage, but may require more watering. ( thinking summer scorching here..)As far as moving stuff outside, you have it tons easier than me. ( can you say-2 windchill?? uh huh...)bringing in and out from the outside to shelter in at night would be good to ease the lil ones in.. shessh hunny, in all honesty. ( and NO insult intended) "Gardening for dummies" I got it in the other room. Would be a HUGE help to ya!Even got a book just for veggies. You ask.. I will research for you to bestest I can. ( will play in your dirt via lj.. heh.. thats bad)
I'll second the suggestion to build up beds, instead of going down into the dirt. We built ours with 1x9"s (I think, no way I am going outside to measure right now, sorry. It's cold enough that I'm currently finding out if my car's block heater actually works, 'cause she ain't starting) and then had a local garden place come and dump some loam in them. They're roughly 4'x8' (you don't want to have to walk in the beds -- it compresses the soil and can harm roots -- so we figure 4' would give enough room to lean in), and we're going into our 4th year. We then added in a bunch of compost (I think we went like, 1/3 compost, 2/3 loam). Last spring when I was turning over the soil, we had so so many worms, so we've done something right! =) We don't grow in rows which helps with the moisture loss (I do a sort of hexagonal layout)... Plus, New England and all.
Square Foot Gardening might be a really good read for you! Of course your conditions down there are so different from here, so I would see if you can find a local garden supply/nursery
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I would recommend that you build up from the ground and container garden instead of digging into the ground. My mom and I have had a lot of good luck with doing that when you're working with a poor-dirt place - then if you want, you can start composting and switch over to that for your garden instead of doing storebought fertilizers, etc.
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K..
Yeah.. thinning out the sprouts will help a ton... As far as s oil content.. betting on a lot of sand and clay.. loam has a lotta oranic stuff in it as well as good ol' dirt. a lil (composted) cow manure would help out veggies. can get bagged loam as well. lil mix of everything is best.Raised bed means awsome drainage, but may require more watering. ( thinking summer scorching here..)As far as moving stuff outside, you have it tons easier than me. ( can you say-2 windchill?? uh huh...)bringing in and out from the outside to shelter in at night would be good to ease the lil ones in..
shessh hunny, in all honesty. ( and NO insult intended) "Gardening for dummies" I got it in the other room. Would be a HUGE help to ya!Even got a book just for veggies. You ask.. I will research for you to bestest I can. ( will play in your dirt via lj.. heh.. thats bad)
Miss you shnookums... with sprinkles.
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Square Foot Gardening might be a really good read for you! Of course your conditions down there are so different from here, so I would see if you can find a local garden supply/nursery ( ... )
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