I defined my garden beds last August, and put down loads of cardboard, newspaper, and dead grass, hoping to do a "no-till" method.

Come this spring, and now I find I have a mess of cardboard and newspaper blowing around the yard, none of it seems to have broken down.

Wanting a garden in the worst way, I then decide to do raised beds on top of the sheet composting mess. I put up walls, and order 4 cu yards of what is advertised as "garden soil, a nice mix of topsoil and well composted manure". A very nice young kid delivers the soil last Friday, and I pay my brawny cousin to cart it back to the garden for me (the spirit was willing, but the flesh was very weak!). I now have garden beds with about 6-8 inches of soil, on top of dead grass, cardboard and newspaper.

Now for my actual problem: this soil does not seem to be very good. I am not a qualified judge of soil by any means, but this soil seems very heavy. It turns to incredibly sticky black mud as soon as water hits it.

Realizing that anything I add will have to be mixed in by hand, what are the most immediate things I can do to improve this mess? I've already planted peas, spinach, lettuce and onions in their assigned places, but can definitely work with the rest of it.

I can post pictures of the soil when I get home, if that will help.

Please, any response would be appreciated!

So if you want grow like you are trying get that cardboard out of there and find or make some food scraps(banana peels,fruit,veggies,browns like twigs dead leavs you must have a good brown and green mix. I know for a fact that just barrying some food scraps even with no browns will result in a good organic finish.

Try digging a hole placing the food skins barry over (with good soil) let rot for a week by then it wont be rottin however by the time the plants roots reach the food scraps they will be well ready for the plant especially if there are alot of earth worms and microb, ect.. to compost it.

If you have access to shredded leaves, that would also be a bonanza for your soil.

High C:N ratios can be lowered by incuding grass clippings or manures ect.... Low C:N ratios shall be raised by adding paper (CARBOARD), dead leaves or wood dust. You will not have a good make up of NPK in that paper waste.(but im new so dont listen to me ;)

I am explaining the basic of composting. If there is only cardboard then it needs some green. Not sure what the above poster is saying/doing besides showing pictures of crops and compost piles?

*-* The following is NOT True:
"Cardboard might need to be composting as a HOT method for faster composting but the cold method you are doing would take years and years. "

*-* This part makes no sense:
"Now adding food scraps in a hole then barry then plant on top of that (kinda like you are trying to do but with green material) the plants roots will reach down and feed on the roting food. "

*-* This part is not necessary:
"On the bottom of your beds it would be better to put rocks for drainage. "

*-* This part would cause you some serious problems:
"Some lay plastic at the bot of the bed which is best."

*-* This part is NOT TRUE:
"So if you want grow like you are trying get that cardboard out of there "

*-* This part is the only good advice MG1 offers:
"and find or make some food scraps(banana peels,fruit,veggies,browns like twigs dead leavs you must have a good brown and green mix. "

*-* This part is marginally acceptable, but not good advice:
"I know for a fact that just barrying some food scraps even with no browns will result in a good organic finish."

*-* This part is not good advice either:
"Try digging a hole placing the food skins barry over (with good soil) let rot for a week by then it wont be rottin however by the time the plants roots reach the food scraps they will be well ready for the plant especially if there are alot of earth worms and microb, ect.. to compost it. "

Jon has the right idea.
You would be better off just putting mixed compostables on top and let the worms work it in for you.
There are many successful gardeners here who have proven time and again that it DOES work.

I hope that some of the other gardeners and composters here will contribute some advice for you, too.
annpat, please help this guy out.

I feel your pain about the sticky mud for soil - that's what I got with my new house. I do look forward to making good soil out of it by adding mostly compost to combat the clay. Your soil and mine both need organic matter, that's for sure. It's about the only thing that will hepl clay soil. (I got some awesome results at my old house by amending with compost.)

*-* This part is not necessary:

On the bottom of your beds it would be better to put rocks for drainage. " Do you know how golf greens are built?

*-* This part would cause you some serious problems:
"Some lay plastic at the bot of the bed which is best."
Weed Barrier. Go look it up... (that cardbord is nothing more than a weed barrier right now lol) What kind of probs? drainage lol you are funny I know people who grow in 30 gal garbage pales with NO holes at the bot for drainage NO NEED at that point.(go do some research)

Please these people have been doing it their way for a long time with no R&D. "They Know it all."

*-* This part is not good advice either:
"Try digging a hole placing the food skins barry over (with good soil) let rot for a week by then it wont be rottin however by the time the plants roots reach the food scraps they will be well ready for the plant especially if there are alot of earth worms and microb, ect.. to compost it. "

Yes give it a shoot in your yard it is the way people have been growing for centuries so I hope it works ;)

As you can see by those pics that john has bountiful harvests from his raised bedds. And that leads to a question to john in which I think we all here can learn from so I will ask it. here it goes. What do you put into your compost piles? With that hot method do you really just put anything as long as it is a good ratio? Does the heat kill bad things only or good aswell? I am interested because with that method it looks like you dont have to worry about what you compost for the most part. So please any bit of info would be good. And yes you are alot more experienced than I this is why I am asking you this question lol.

1. dragonjaze said " I defined my garden beds last August, and put down loads of cardboard, newspaper, and dead grass, hoping to do a "no-till" method."

I understood that to mean that dragonjaze wanted the cardboard to be a barrier, but didn't know exactly how to go about it, so what ensued was "mess of cardboard and newspaper blowing around the yard, none of it seems to have broken down."

and that is why I posted the original pics(first four) to show dragonjaze ,how I do it..

1. wet the carboard, install the borders,fill with soil mixture (steer manure/compost/decomposed Granite and Pumice),when the roots get down past the saturated cardboard, they will have access to my clay.....

2. When it comes to making Compost,I have it easier than most do, because I own equipment, I use a excavator to turn my piles, my piles are hot until they are finished, because I have it so easy, most here aren't able to access such equipment, so I don't expect them to kill themselves trying to keep up with that kind of work, I wouldn't do it without equipment, I would do "cold composting only", I am way too lazy to try to turn my piles by hand, but yes , If I wanted I could compost a horse..... and if someones offering ;-)

^(clearly has no knowledge of growing at all. Or the history behind it.)

"Try digging a hole placing the food skins barry over (with good soil) let rot for a week by then it wont be rottin however by the time the plants roots reach the food scraps they will be well ready for the plant especially if there are alot of earth worms and microb, ect.. to compost it. "

"Yes give it a shoot in your yard it is the way people have been growing for centuries so I hope it works ;)"

Here is a link that explains this.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7908354_plant-banana-peels.html

Not to get off subject.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains� too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

tp see what else you might need to do to make that soil into a good healthy soil that will grow strong and healthy plants.

I'll have to save leaves this fall to mix in the beds. Wish I had thought of that last year!

I suspect in the fall you might become a "leaf hoarder" like many here. Welcome!!

Rachel

Now my question is: How do I actually mix stuff into the soil? It doesn't seem to want to mix well. The clay just clumps up, and then I have balls of clay. I understand that I shouldn't work clay soil when it's wet, which means not at all right now, because we've had 4 days straight of rain. But even when it was dry, it was just little balls of clay. I don't see how anything can physically be mixed with this stuff!

For right now, I think I'll just toss organic stuff on top, and mix it in when I can.

Dragonjaze, it sounds like your soil is lacking porosity and AIR. Do not use sand: it can turn your bed into concrete. Do not use vermiculite or perlite: these will ultimately wash away because they are too light for use in gardens.

Instead, I suggest you buy a block of coir (coconut husks) which is a sustainable alternative to peat moss. It is available at Home Depot and garden centers. Hydrate the block in a large wheelbarrow and break it apart; then till it into the beds as best you can.

Soil should contain about 25% air space by volume. The coir does the same as peat: it holds moisture yet retains it's structure, allowing air in the soil.

When you plant your seeds or seedlings, you may still want to use a bagged triple mix to fill the planting spaces. I would not normally recommend this because the mixes contain peat. But it will help get you through the first planting season. After that, just add a layer of good "fully cooked" compost each autumn. Don't work it into the soil. Just lay it on top of the soil for the winter and let the worms and weather do the rest. Garden soil is not made in one season, so just expect improvement each year.

It is fine to top-off beds with organic materials (shredded leaves, dried grass clippings, etc.), using them as a mulch. But fresh organic materials should not be tilled-in since they can actually draw nitrogen OUT of the soil. That is one reason that compost needs to be fully cooked before mixing it with soil.

Also, certain materials such as manures and mushroom compost can burn your plants when they are fresh. Again, these need to decompose first. (I got a load of mushroom compost that was literally steaming hot. This should tell you something!)

Compost is wonderful stuff when used properly.

And I think maybe my garden isn't as hopeless as I thought it would be. Only one day of no rain (finally, a pretty day!) and I did the "tilth" test like kimmsr described. The clod I made was solid, but it DID break apart, and not just deform to my finger pressure, so that's great news! I might be able to plant my potatoes tomorrow!

And I know I'm new here, but I do have some common sense. Even I can see that what "MasterGardener1" is saying makes no sense at all. I'm not a complete newbie to growing things, just my first raised bed vegetable garden. Also my first garden experience in this zone.

Again, I appreciate any more suggestions that you have for me :)

As grass, leaves, and weeds dry out and break down, they, gradually go from green to brown as they lose their nitrogen. Fresh grass clippings are full of nitrogen though. You don't need a lot with your brown material.

Weeds are considered dynamic accumulators in the permaculture world. Those with tap roots (like dandelion) pull nutrients up from lower soil layers. As long as they don't have seed heads, they make GREAT additions to your compost.

Ummm, no. Anything with ratio less than 30:1 is considered a 'green' feedstock in the composting world.

Lloyd