So there I was without a garden. At the time, the neighborhood was mostly treeless except my West neighbor's yard. So I had a lot of sunlight. But the soil was terrible; all sand and gravel. The first thing I tried was to dig 5 gallon holes and fill them with soil from the woody half. I read about that in a gardening magazine.
The idea was that you would do that one year, then do it again in new spots between them the next. Gradual improvement. The next year, I decided the digging was just too hard. Ever dig a twenty 5 gallon buckets of dirt?
So I tried something else. The County offers free mulch. Residents bring in all the tree/shrub debris, they pile it up for a year, bulldoze it around into new piles and 2 years later - something close to compost! And if you bring a trailer to the place on a Saturday, they load it up for free!
I covered the area in 4" of the stuff one Fall. And then bought a roto-tiller and turned into the soil. And did it again the next Spring. I planted tomatoes and corn there. And built a few small raised beds for smaller crops like beans, broccoli, carrots, etc. Worked well.
Not the exact model, but representative... But well worth the cost. I used it a lot. Lowered some ridges, flattened some mounds of gravel, dug down almost 6' along 60' of the fence for a flowerbed.
It needs some professional maintenance now though. I stupidly left old gas in it for 2 years 😱 and gas engines are bit of a problem for me to clean or fix.
Tomorrow, "Edging"...
2 comments:
The roto-tiller was a great idea! I can only imagine how many years it might take, a few five gallon buckets at a time.
My hubby's rototiller is old and not currently running so for $100 on Amazon he got a mini tiller with a rechargeable battery. It works for the small area he needed it for. I told him it looks like my 2 yr old great-nephew's toy. :)
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