Inheriting a clay garden for veggies

[Barbee]

I will chime in in favor of the hipped rows. I make mine with a long concrete rake each spring. Lots of work but really does the job in that old sticky clay. I would also pay attention the next few rains to where the water wants to lay in the garden and dig a drainage ditch to help it drain faster.

If you have access to a sub soiler you could work in some sand and organic matter and bust up that hard pan before your season starts. I would highly recomend getting a soil test before doing anything to see exactly what you are dealing with. It is truly the best money you will spend in your garden.

Main thing to remember with clay is not to work the bed if its wet. You will end up with tons of little hard concrete balls that will take years to bust up. Let it dry up before trying to work it.

[kevn357]

Originally Posted by dice

Lower NPK than rabbit or horse manure. If you can pile it up 6 inches
by a couple of feet in the rows, it should be enough, though. If the
plants look a little underfertilized, you can fill a plastic garbage can
about 1/3 with it, fill it up with water, let it sit for a week, then water
with it for a supplement. Or dig a shallow trench along the edges of
the rows and fill it with more alpaca manure. It won't burn the plants,
so you can put it on any time during the year.

I cannot really guess about micronutrients without a soil test or
seeing the growing plants. What did your father use for fertilizer
the year of the drought, when the garden performed well?

He used Tomato-Tone for side-dressing along with that Miracle-gro that "feeds the leaves" bs. He didn't fertilize much after the first red tomato so I threw on some triple 13 mixed with epsom and borax every two weeks. The drought was last year.

I'm really not looking to use the alpaca manure as a fertilizer but as a soil helper. So I'm worried about adding my fertilizer and burning the plants out.

[kevn357]

Originally Posted by neoguy

this is how we do it in our backyard.

I can't do that. That would just create nesting for mosquitoes until the landscape evens out in a month or two.

[kevn357]

Originally Posted by Barbee

I will chime in in favor of the hipped rows. I make mine with a long concrete rake each spring. Lots of work but really does the job in that old sticky clay. I would also pay attention the next few rains to where the water wants to lay in the garden and dig a drainage ditch to help it drain faster.

If you have access to a sub soiler you could work in some sand and organic matter and bust up that hard pan before your season starts. I would highly recomend getting a soil test before doing anything to see exactly what you are dealing with. It is truly the best money you will spend in your garden.

Main thing to remember with clay is not to work the bed if its wet. You will end up with tons of little hard concrete balls that will take years to bust up. Let it dry up before trying to work it.

What if I want to add alpaca manure into it while it is pretty wet now and trying to rototil it in? The worst I see is getting all muddy and maybe ruining my boots... I had to dig out grow beds in the hard clay last year and have no interest in doing that ever again... Will now google "hipped up rows".

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by kevn357

What if I want to add alpaca manure into it while it is pretty wet now and trying to rototil it in? The worst I see is getting all muddy and maybe ruining my boots... I had to dig out grow beds in the hard clay last year and have no interest in doing that ever again... Will now google "hipped up rows".

Whatever you do, don't rototil wet clay

[Barbee]

Originally Posted by kevn357

What if I want to add alpaca manure into it while it is pretty wet now and trying to rototil it in? The worst I see is getting all muddy and maybe ruining my boots... I had to dig out grow beds in the hard clay last year and have no interest in doing that ever again... Will now google "hipped up rows".

You can throw the manure on there now but I would strongly advise against trying to work it in while the ground is wet. One thing you could do now is dig ditches wherever you see a wet spot to help it drain away from the garden faster.

Now then...
We have a nice long growing season in Ohio. You can put your garden out as late as mid June and still have plenty of time to harvest your food. There's no need to rush your soil prep. Your clay soil won't be hard as a rock in the spring. You are going to work your organic matter (manure) in before it gets to that concrete stage. I saw someone earlier mention gypsum. See if you can find a bag of that too and have it ready for spring.

So the basic idea is to work your clay soil while it still has enough moisture in it to get the tiller in there, but its not wet. If it's sticky or tacky, hold off and check it again in a few hours. If you can't walk across the garden without getting mud on your shoes, its too wet.

You do not have to do the hipped rows, but it will help your roots drain a bit faster, which always makes for happier plants. A hipped row is just a raised row that is flattened on top to make a level surface.

I personally have always looked at manure as organic matter and do not rely on it as a fertilizer. I don't add any manure to the gardens that has not been composted and is no longer hot. After my soil test comes back and I see what I need, I buy specific items to fix the issues my soil has.

[Riceloft]

Welcome to the neighborhood! I had a similar situation when I moved into my house a few years ago. I didn't belong to Tomatoville or read any garden sites at the time, and here is what I did...

Its a pretty small area... maybe 6'x15'.

1. I dug out some of the larger clumps of clay. It was pretty easy to see the red/orange clay vs actual dirt.

2. I amended in year 1 with some generic top soil (Scotts), some "manure/humus" stuff from Lowes, and Miracle Grow Garden soil. I tilled all that in the first year. Probably 4 bags of the top soil, 2 of the manure, and 2 of the garden soil.

3. The next 2 years I added only the miracle gro garden soil. (2-3 bags)

4. The first 2 seasons, 90% of my fertilization came in the form of miracle gro watering can singles (24/8/16 - yeah, not exactly the perfect mix for tomatoes!). Last season I used Tomato Tone and Kelp Meal.

I have had 3 very successful years in a row of gardening from that spot. Its about 2 inches higher than the surrounding area which lets it drain a bit. I've had great tomato crops, good cucumber crops (when the cucumber beetles let me!), radishes, onions, carrots, etc. AND the spot only gets ~6-7 hours of sun to boot!

Now, having been at tomatoville for around a year, reading and learning, I wouldn't do it that way again... but it was cheap and it worked!. Maybe you can use some of this for a "year 1 quick fix" and then implement some of the better, long-term solutions afterwards.

[Riceloft]

Originally Posted by Barbee

Now then...
We have a nice long growing season in Ohio. You can put your garden out as late as mid June and still have plenty of time to harvest your food.

In southern Ohio, you have a longer season than we do up north. He'll need to grow mostly mid-season tomato varieties, otherwise he won't be harvesting until late August if he waits to plant until mid June. Our first frost can hit as early as late September, though the average is around Oct 15th.

[Barbee]

Originally Posted by Riceloft

In southern Ohio, you have a longer season than we do up north. He'll need to grow mostly mid-season tomato varieties, otherwise he won't be harvesting until late August if he waits to plant until mid June. Our first frost can hit as early as late September, though the average is around Oct 15th.

Yes, that would be a worst case scenario situation. I was just pointing out that there is no need to rush to work clay soil when it's wet. That also gives him a nice long window to try and get the garden prepared a little better.

If I had to choose between putting out a later garden or making short cuts on garden prep, I would choose planting later. Once he gets this year out of the way, he can amend in the fall and not have to worry about things.

[Stvrob]

Clay soils are good soils, unless you ruin them by working them wet. Pick up a little clod of clay soil and squeeze it. If its plastic and gives, its too wet to work. If it breaks, it is dry enough to work.

Natural undisturbed clay soils have little openings between the particles allowing them to drain, but if it is worked, the surface of the clay will become glazed, like pottery, and be impervious to water.

The trick is going to be working in lots of compost into the clay, but ONLY after it is dry enough to be worked. If its never dry enough, and it were me, I would just start piling compost on top of it and garden in that. Eventually the worms will come back, and start improving the interface between your clay and the organic rich soil.

[dice]

My view on fertilizing is that if you have too little, the plants will show
it, and you can adjust by side-dressing, top dressing, watering with
diluted liquid fertilizers, foliar feeding, etc. If you have too much,
there is nothing much you can do about it until next year.

In well-draining soil or containers, you can overwater to reduce
the impact of excess nitrogen if the plants are big enough,
but you cannot effectively do that with clay loams that are
mostly clay. The overwatering in those soils will be worse than
the overfertilizing.

You could always make the piles of alpaca manure a foot high
by two feet wide, instead of 6 inches high by two feet wide,
then cover them with a few inches of the clay soil from between
the rows before you plant. You will get more soil aggregation
under a foot of alpaca manure than you would get under 6 inches,
so that should help with restoring large pore air space to the soil
in the rows underneath the manure. (Glomalin is your friend.)

(I am thinking you are not going to try to turn it all under with
soil that is hard to dig, but build it up on top instead to make
your rows. The next year, what were the rows will be looser
from the alpaca manure, and you can build up what were
the paths between rows the same way, in effect alternating
paths and rows in alternate years, while maintaining the raised
row approach for water runoff, until the whole garden is loosened
enough to not be such a hassle to amend with a shovel or tiller.)

[Got Worms?]

No working wet clay soil! Why would you want to torture yourself like that, and ruin your garden for the coming season to boot.

[Mark0820]

Maybe you can contact this person and see if they can help you?

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/fgs/3644306605.html

[kevn357]

Thanks for all of the replies everyone.

The ground is iced now. I have no intention to work with it now or until late April. I wasn't clear. I just want to pile anything I can find right next to it and hope we have a dry spring. As I said, I built compost bins next to the garden.

[kevn357]

Originally Posted by Mark0820

Maybe you can contact this person and see if they can help you?

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/fgs/3644306605.html

lol, I like that guy but I have 4 rototillers at my disposal. I just want to amend the clay soil the best I can before planting.