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Thoughts on no-till gardening with heavy clay? I've always been told you should dig up the top layer
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Nah fuck that it sounds like a lot of work.
Truth is, if you do sheet composting on top of that heavy clay worms and soil microbes will do the heavy lifting here for you. And ‘for ages’ could be anything, so let me clarify; this could take years. My soil was badly compacted and roughly as dense as concrete when we got our place. It took about three years of constant mulching and more mulching and also mulching some more for worms and microbes and stuff to work the soil nice and soft.
Digging up the whole thing is going to ruin all the habitat for those nice critters who will do your work for you. Digging it up every year is going to mean that they never get a good go at it, and will basically stall you out with shit clay soil forever.
Hint; work just a BIT of sand into that clay with some compost. The sand will help it drain better. But do this only once.
Raised beds may be a good idea at first, while the wormies are doing their job.
Nah fuck that it sounds like a lot of work.
Truth is, if you do sheet composting on top of that heavy clay worms and soil microbes will do the heavy lifting here for you. And ‘for ages’ could be anything, so let me clarify; this could take years. My soil was badly compacted and roughly as dense as concrete when we got our place. It took about three years of constant mulching and more mulching and also mulching some more for worms and microbes and stuff to work the soil nice and soft.
Digging up the whole thing is going to ruin all the habitat for those nice critters who will do your work for you. Digging it up every year is going to mean that they never get a good go at it, and will basically stall you out with shit clay soil forever.
Hint; work just a BIT of sand into that clay with some compost. The sand will help it drain better. But do this only once.
Raised beds may be a good idea at first, while the wormies are doing their job.