Re: plant spacing
Here, in Houston, the soil is very clayey. In fact, we call it clay, or
gumbo.
I've improved about 100 sqft of soil in my backyard. First I tilled it with
my manly 5.5hp 110lb. tiller. Then, I added a variety of amendments, mostly
composted manure and rice hulls. As I was digging with a trowel a few weeks
ago, I noticed that I <was> digging with a trowel! I've created a still
clayey, but almost friable soil. I figure each tomato costs me about $20 at
this point ;-).
As I've been paying a lot more attention to plant spacing and actual square
foot management this year, I thought I would try growing my cantaloupes,
honeydews and crenshaws vertically this year. Last year was the great
cataloupe blowout! I had several vines producing bunches of the things. So
I stripped the grass from the clay under the trellis, then a friend and I
dug a four cubic foot trench. I filled it with the recipe in Mel's book.
Boy, that stuff is weird! It's so loose that it bears almost no resemblance
to what passes for soil here. I planted two melon seedlings and I'm looking
for something else to add. I'm going to build a 4'x4' raised bed and plant
other stuff, including watermelons. It's really hot here, but I thing the
heat gets a bad rap for failed plants and poor yields when the poor soil is
really the problem. Oh, yeah, and it seems that I've actually been in zone
9b-10 for the last few years of global warming! Mel says it's actually a
desert environment with some added moisture!
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