How to improve soil?

[JenniferDuBay]

And you can get some composting going right in your beds: buy pea and bean seeds or any cover crop (go cheap, buy lots) and sow all over your planting area/raised beds. Let grow, but don't let them go to seed or produce pods. Once there, then till these plants under, and do it again. They will rot in the ground, break up the soil, add nutrients and will not hinder any plants planted next season. Easy and gives you a sense of accomplishment and the sight of growing plants that is very pleasing, along with providing what is called "green manure".

Most dried beans you find for a dollar in the grocery store are great for this. Yes, they're hybrids, but since you aren't eating them, it's a cheap way to get a pound of seeds. Just try to avoid the seasoned ones.

 

[MountainGaurdian]

My last farm quite burned out when I bought it, there was "no" topsoil at all just dead clay soil.

I produced several tons of goat manure, chicken manure, rabbit manure and horse manure a year but even at those quantities it doesn't go far to remediate much soil. What I did the first few years is I used my post hole auger and dug six inch diameter holes about 30 inches deep to the water table and I filled those holes with a mix of topsoil, rotting hay and manure mixed with about 20% clay. This allowed me to go farther on less material and a few tons of manure and rotting hay would plant a decent sized garden with each plant in great soil.

As time went on hauled all of the old junk hay I could find in five to ten tons a year and added that to the 10 to 15 tons of waste hay from my livestock each as well as the several tons of manure. After ten years I finally had some pretty good soil for depth of about 6 inches and covering about 2,000 square feet.

The trick to building soil is a lot of organic material, if you can find someone with waste hay and haul in a ton or two or three or ten a year you will be able to get some pretty good soil going within a few years. I have no idea where you are or what it is like there but another great material is forest humus. I had 55 acres of timber on my last farm and I would go gather trailer loads of forest humus (the loose litter below the trees) and the dark soil just beneath the humus and I would use that in the gardens as well. In fact this years garden has great deal of forest humus in it as well.

Another trick I used was to build an animal pen where I wanted to eventually garden, after a few years of raising goats, horses etc in the pen I would then go back and till it up and have some decent soil. Livestock is incredibly handy at helping to remediate soil between waste hay and manure. My current garden is my old hog pen, the soil is mostly clay though I have added a good 18 tons of waste hay and 25 to 30 tons of topsoil and manure to it. I have better soil other places but it is the most securely fenced place on the farm which helps keep the elk, deer out and my goats out.