Re: bed renovation

Nan Sterman asked:

>What can you tell us about kind of soil you have there in Arkansas?  
Here
>in So. California, we deal with hard soil by adding powdered gypsum 
<snip> >in much of the country the soil is acidic and I'v read that lime 
is used >instead of gypsum to achieve the same otucome.  
------------------------------------------
The soil varies a lot from place to place, but it's pretty consistently 
acidic.  I know that the soil in our vegetable garden is really nice 
now, after years of tilling in organic material.  What's in this bed 
probably has a lot of clay and and I know there are lots of rocks.  In 
the summer, when I water it, the water just barely moistens the surface 
and drains down the hill, even though the bed is bordered with landscape 
timbers.  I'm thinking if I remove about half the soil and replace it 
with compost, then mulch it, maybe it will have a chance.  (But it will 
be a lot of work.  The ground is so hard now, the only way I can weed it 
is to run the hose in the bed at the same time so the ground is soft 
enough to pull the roots out!)  

We used gypsum on our vegetable garden in Kansas, and it seemed to me it 
worked almost like magic on the clay soil, but I don't recall ever even 
seeing it for sale around here.  I'll take your advice and check with 
some of the garden centers to see what they recommend for this area.

If anybody else has suggestions, send them on!!  I think I'll spend the 
next month or so planning what to plant (and replant).  And I'll check 
on the book.  We're heading for Colorado in a few weeks, so maybe if I 
can't find it locally, I can locate a copy there!

Thanks for the help,
Nancy Lowe
Arkansas, zone 7

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index