Adding Garden Soil to the New Garden
The composted manure garden soil was delivered in the rain, and then the rain continued for a couple of days. That produced a soggy wet soil pile in the middle of our driveway. Saturday morning, the rain had stopped, and we were ready to lay down some cardboard and maybe some paper to kill whatever grass we were not able to destroy hand tilling it.
The whole plan was a failure. The hand tilling we had done last week was nowhere near the kind of shape we needed it to be. It's funny to feel defeated so early in the process of anything you want to do, but there we were soaking wet topsoil covering our driveway and hand tilled slightly turned up grass in the backyard. We realized the mix we had bought was going to hold too much moisture and it would likely not work well for a garden if it was sitting on top of composting cardboard, this would have been the easy and quick answer to our garden dreams but we knew it had flaws already. We had to get a second opinion even though we knew what we would have to do.
We called Jen's parents, who talked us down and told us to give the topsoil a day to dry out and come at this again on Sunday. Since that meant doing nothing, we were both onboard. The whole garden plan felt like too big of a deal for a Saturday morning. We researched ways to make a garden happen and decided that the soil would be best amended if mixed with our topsoil, that required a rototiller. Thankfully Jen's parents said they would be down on Sunday to drop off their ancient beast of a rototiller.
They arrived close to 10:00, Jim did a couple passes over the hand tilled soil in our back yard, then he showed Jen how to run it after suggesting we throw down about 25lbs of pelleted lime. Then they left us to it.
Jen went to Paris Farmers Union to pick up our order of seeds, fencing, and the pelleted lime while Honora and raked out the grass, then raked the grass again, then again, and then a few more times. She played the Brave soundtrack to help us pass the time as we worked.
Jen returned and tilled the lime into the existing topsoil. we let the soil sit overnight in the driveway and prepared for a day of shoveling Sunday. Sunday involved moving five yards of soil from our driveway to the garden. It was still wet, but less so. It was heavy and a long slog, but we did it. After that, we used the remaining soil to top off our garden containers (we use 6 large barrel tubs for tomatoes) and the herb bed after we raked it along with the entire backyard. That was fun.
Monday Jen tilled the new soil to mix it up with the existing soil, it looks amazing. We need to set some rows and decide how to organize the garden still but we can begin planting this week. It's still pretty cold in Maine in April. It gets below freezing at night and only in the 50s during the day, but spinach and peas can stand it.
The whole plan was a failure. The hand tilling we had done last week was nowhere near the kind of shape we needed it to be. It's funny to feel defeated so early in the process of anything you want to do, but there we were soaking wet topsoil covering our driveway and hand tilled slightly turned up grass in the backyard. We realized the mix we had bought was going to hold too much moisture and it would likely not work well for a garden if it was sitting on top of composting cardboard, this would have been the easy and quick answer to our garden dreams but we knew it had flaws already. We had to get a second opinion even though we knew what we would have to do.
We called Jen's parents, who talked us down and told us to give the topsoil a day to dry out and come at this again on Sunday. Since that meant doing nothing, we were both onboard. The whole garden plan felt like too big of a deal for a Saturday morning. We researched ways to make a garden happen and decided that the soil would be best amended if mixed with our topsoil, that required a rototiller. Thankfully Jen's parents said they would be down on Sunday to drop off their ancient beast of a rototiller.
They arrived close to 10:00, Jim did a couple passes over the hand tilled soil in our back yard, then he showed Jen how to run it after suggesting we throw down about 25lbs of pelleted lime. Then they left us to it.
Jen went to Paris Farmers Union to pick up our order of seeds, fencing, and the pelleted lime while Honora and raked out the grass, then raked the grass again, then again, and then a few more times. She played the Brave soundtrack to help us pass the time as we worked.
Jen returned and tilled the lime into the existing topsoil. we let the soil sit overnight in the driveway and prepared for a day of shoveling Sunday. Sunday involved moving five yards of soil from our driveway to the garden. It was still wet, but less so. It was heavy and a long slog, but we did it. After that, we used the remaining soil to top off our garden containers (we use 6 large barrel tubs for tomatoes) and the herb bed after we raked it along with the entire backyard. That was fun.
Monday Jen tilled the new soil to mix it up with the existing soil, it looks amazing. We need to set some rows and decide how to organize the garden still but we can begin planting this week. It's still pretty cold in Maine in April. It gets below freezing at night and only in the 50s during the day, but spinach and peas can stand it.
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