Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Upgrading the Garden Soil.

This is just a reminder to myself: this is what I did to improve the soil in the garden this spring: 

  1. I grew "Winter Rye" all winter. It got up over a foot tall in most of the beds. I chopped it down a week or two before turning the soil.
  2. I added a wheelbarrow full of compost to each bed: horse manure, LOTS of leaves, chicken coop sawdust & straw, grass, produce, coffee grounds, turned every 3 weeks all winter.
    It's pretty stuff!
  3. I added a large bag (40 pounds? of Starbucks coffee grounds. Long term nitrogen, as this particular bed is going to be the home for the salad greens.
  4. Then I dug it in pretty deep. I have a 12" long square shovel, and I used it all. 
This is what it looked like before I started: 


I chopped the rye down, and added compost & coffee grounds:

Same spot after digging it in and a quick rake-out:

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