Heavy, compact fine sandy loam.

[641Dave]

I've got a spot picked out for a garden at my new place. Problem is, it's heavy and compact soil. Set up hard as concrete at the moment.

The soil for next year's garden isn't so bad but getting back towards the pond where the sloop is, it gets tough. I'm talking about an acre and a half sized garden.

My plan is to break it up with the sub soiler and haul in some wood mulch and leaves as folks give them to me. A friend of mine suggested to maybe plant some wheat and til it under next spring.

Any other advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
 

[IaGary]

I would not use the wood mulch. And don"t go over board on the leaves.

Wood mulch ties up your Nitrogen.

Gary
 

[dino in iowa]

Plow it deep, let lay until next spring, disk or rototil,
and you are all set to go
 

[Glenn F.]

If it's clay you'll never be happy with it.

Glenn F.
 

[pete black]

think i'm have to go with glen on this one. i
believe the addition of leaves is best but, likely
on this size garden it will take a long number of
years to amend the soil.
 

[Rick Kr]

I turned a heavy clay area into a great garden. Took a few years to get perfect.

20 inch subsoil, deep plow, then worked in compost. After the second year it was looking good. I would avoid wood chips.

Rick
 

[Adirondack case guy]

Gary is right, on nutrient lockup. You need to add a lot of lime to unlock the Nitrogen and other nutrients also if you introduce wood chips and leaves. If you could find some good old Cow/Horse Sh!!, also, you will be on a quicker path to a great garden and a lot of WEEDING, LOL
The pond may turn green also. There is a "dance "between crop productivity and the enviroment.
Loren, the Acg.
 

[pete black]

my pond gets a lot of runoff from a horse pasture and turns green. is there an effective way to control the green?
 

[old harv]

I have read of guys putting a bale of straw in dugouts in Saskatchewan to control algae, it might help. Don't have any experience with it myself.
 

[gene bender]

There you go plow it deep now and wait till spring and DO NOT WORK IT WET wait till its dry in the spring dont get in a hurry then. The rougher it is now the better it will be in the spring.
 

[old harv]

I would not use wood chips, but I would use old manure, and lots of it. Old sheep manure is my favorite, but cattle or horse will work fine to. Don't use too much of something really rich like liquid pig manure or your root crops will grow all tops and no bottoms from the excess nitrogen.
Old junk hay or straw or grass clippings would work to.
 

[43 m]

Barley straw for the pond. It keeps the scum down.
 

[J. Everett]

I personally would add all the Oak saw dust an shaveings I could to the area. Not Maple, or especailly anything with wood preservative in it, Maple leaves are poisenous. Plow all this under this winter and then add all the old straw and hay you can get on the top of this.
Next spring add some 10/10/10 and disc this up, seed some small grain like oats/wheat and when it reaches 15 inches high plow it under again, disc it up when it dries up and plant you'r garden. it will not be so great the first year, but subsequent soil tests will determine what fertilizer you will need to add, keep adding hay/straw and other fodder and start a compost bin/area...add this also.
 

[MarkB_MI]

Gypsum will help break up clay. A cheap source is scrap drywall; break it up and till it in.
 

[wisbaker]

I would see if there is someplace you could get peat moss in bulk. I had a much smaller
garden space that was a heavy loam and it didn't want to yield. It had been crop land
(soy bean & corn rotation)and even after 2 years not much was growing there. Someone gave
me a bag of Peat Moss and I dumped it in one area, freed the soil up and the garden grew
much better there than places without it. Aged manure is also good but be careful
sometimes the wrong manure will cause a lot of weed problems if the weed seeds come with
the manure. If you want to use leaves and wood mulch compost it first before you apply it
that'll free up some of the nutrients in it. Green manure (crops you plant to turn under
can) also be effective in getting your soil more productive and may help get your weeds
under control. I also had one area I planted pumpkins in, they canopied out and choked
the weeds and most of the pumpkins got broken up and turned back into the soil.