Fall: Garden Prep for the Spring

[JohnyMac]

Well it's that time of year to prep your garden for next year. This is what I am doing and would appreciate our veteran gardeners prep list.

> Deep plowing my garden. I know this isn't needed however this is a new garden and  once done I will walk the plowed area looking
    for more rocks to extract.
> Spreading some of my neighbors cow and goat manure.
> I have realized I need raised beds for some of my veggies in my latitude. So I am building three raised beds. 1, 16x4' and 2, 12x4'
    beds. My plan is to put in these box's: Some top soil from a near-by field, leaves (Got lots this time of year) manure, and will put
    compost-able table scraps over the winter in the raised beds.
> Over the winter I will spread wood stove ash over the garden.

Gardeners; What are you doing to prepare YOUR garden this fall for spring?

[brat]

Plowing the garden to let the winter snow/rain break it down is good, especially if the hardpan is more clay and in your case a new first plant garden. Like you said, no real reason to unless it just makes you feel better, you have that free time, wanting more seat time on a tractor or are wanting to harvest rocks. I leave most small rocks as they help keep the soil loose.

I would be hesitant to add a bunch of manure for several reasons. What did your soil test tell you about usable nitrogen presently in the soil ? Soil can contain a lot of nitrogen, but only a portion is useable by the plants roots and they compete with the bacteria. Too much nitrogen is just as bad, if not worse, as too little as too much kills plants. Plus, it is much harder to rid the excess than to add. Use too much and you would have to amend with mulch or sawdust or leaves or woody material to use up the nitrogen while breaking down. Or you could plant/grow high nitrogen eating plants like corn, cabbage or squash to use up the excess. But keep in mind those plants are for that purpose and wouldn't be necessarily for food because they would be less likely to bud/flower/produce normally. That's a lot of wasted time, seed, effort when a complete soil test can be your guide.

Keep in mind, if the manure is not properly/well composted, you run the risk of adding disease, e. coli for one, in your soil, then you're at risk when you eat your veggies. Fresh manure is definitely a no-no.  An e.coli outbreak in Cali a few years back was tied to feral pigs doing their business in the fields. Same for house pets, no garden go-go. Obviously your outhouse pit don't need to be close.

Then there's the animals that produced the shit. Meds and sometimes herbicides that they ingest will be deposited. They take longer to break down. All that depends on the source and feed/hay.

If you wanted to, you can test the shit before broadcasting. Take some, put it in a pot with soil, ratio correct, sew some stuff like beans, peas, radish for example and see if they germinate and  grow or die out.

Go hog wild on the raised beds. I have eight. You'll like 'em.

As far as wood ash, ashes are alkaline and raising the pH too much will affect the bacteria and worms at work in the soil. If your soil already has a pH of 7.5 or greater, no need.

Potash is extremely soluble, so I keep it dry before I use it (this includes before adding it to the compost heap). If you leave your ashes out in the rain, all the potash will wash out and you’ll be left with a useless sludge. If you pile a large amount of ash in one area, you also risk over-liming that area and damaging any nearby plants. I'd keep it dry until spring and use as needed per soil test.  It’s a good idea to test the pH of your soil before adding the ash and three to six months after, to check on its effect.

Just like keeping a pool, test and add only what's needed.
 
As for what I'm doing, planted hairy vetch and winter wheat this year instead of crimson clover. Watching it grow. Drinking beer. Plow it all under in the spring, soil test, amend as necessary, run irration lines, plant seeds, drink more beer, watch it grow, eat the goodies with beer, can what I have too much of, repeat next fall.

That's it. 

[JohnyMac]

Great writing's brat. Here are some of my comments by paragraph.

1) No hard pan here and little clay. My neighbor told me not to plow or if I like tractor time keep the plow blades at about 6".  In all
    honesty I just want to do it to:
    A) Dig up some more rocks - Gotz lots, and
    B) To allow the manure to work into the soil over the winter.
2) Soil tested out at 6.5 ph via Penn State College. They suggested a bit of lime but nothing else. Corn grew this season but most of
     the mature cobs only reached 4-5" in length. Out of 10 cabbage plants I got 3 heads and they were about 1 lb each. I got bush
     beans but only one picking not two which I am use too.
3) Manure is from steer/cows, goats and sheep. There is a pile that I have been permission to take from that is about 12 months old. I
    am hoping that it will mature more over the winter. I was thinking of six front loading buckets (Each bucket = 3x3x6' 54sf) spread
    over 3,000 sf of garden. Is that to much/little?
4) The critters that the manure will come from are not on meds. They are grass fed till November and then hay fed. OCCASIONALLY, they
    get feed from the feed store. The feed is purchased by the 1/2 ton and it is corn and corn byproducts, e,g, corn stalk chopped up.
5) Sorry, I don't have the money to test the manure. 
6) Raised beds: My neighbor built a bunch several years ago and she has increase her yield on the plants she planted in them by
    300%! She also tends to get to harvests twice the plants she plants in them, e.g. cabbage, carrots, brussel sprouts, to name a
    few.
7& As mentioned earlier, soil ph is 6.5. My neighbor wants to add lime this fall to increase ph to 7.0-7.5. I don't remember why. The
    little bit of wood ash that I produce over a winter would fill half a wheel barrow - Maybe 3 cubic feet. Just figured I would broadcast
    in the garden. Your thoughts? I NEVER put cat litter in our garden although MrsMac keeps asking me to do so.
9) I can't afford to send samples to Penn State. Do you have another solution for tests?
10) I love the idea of planting something to then plow under in the spring. I know that some farmers in RI plant rye to help against
     erosion in the winter. I will look for a source for winter wheat. My neighbor planted spring wheat in May and just turned it over. He
     feels that doing this plus adding a little bit of manure is the best fertilizer for the soil. He rotates his fields where he plants wheat in 
     the spring, doesn't harvest it in the summer but adds some raw manure; Then just disks or short plows the whole field in the fall. In
     the spring he short plows, disks and then plants what ever he wants to in the field.

     Then picks out his next field he will do that with. I think I heard him say one night he does this 1 out of 5 years with each field.
     the new year. 

My neighbor told me that in the starting years of his fields & garden he deep plowed to help him identify rocks.  Once he is was satisfied with the field & garden, he only shallow plowed (6" or less) and/or disked. He is not a friend of deep plowing other than the years he allows a field to go fallow seeded with wheat and fertilized with manure. 

Great stuff brat. Thanks for taking the time to offer up your knowledge. 

[brat]

As far as testing.... Do you have a county ag extention or Co-op? You should be able to get the free sample boxes and forms from them and drop off your sample(s) to them for testing. Extension here charges $7 for analysis, Co-op is a dollar more. There's a whole lot more info than just pH. Here's a sample of what you should get for your money.

To improve your soil with bulk amendments, I'd add at least 2-3" layer and cultivate it into the soil. I think it's a mistake to leave amends on the surface, instead of mixing them in. If it’s left on the surface, it’s a Mulch, not an amend. For improving soil, the particles have to be in contact with soil organisms/bacteria.

A little plant science here... Most bulk amendments, like manure, have a carbon to nitrogen ratio. Most manures are like 20-30:1, horse is a little higher. When this is tilled into the soil, the micro organisms/bacteria in your soil will multiply to break down the added carbon in the amendments and in doing that, they deplete N. They "fix" N in their bodies and therefore are competing with plant roots. The plants can't get the N that's fixed until the organisms die out and in this process the N is then free for the plants to use. That's why adding bulk amends don't necessarily create a "boon" right away, especially if added at the wrong time and if the plants are really needing the N to grow, it won't be there for them. So, I'd disc/till the free shit into the soil now, let the little buggers do their thing and you'll be better off come spring. "Feed the soil to feed the plants".

3000 sf is about 50X60. To add 3" of manure you'd need about 750 sq ft or almost 28 cubic yards of your manure.

Not unusual for raised beds. Better soil usually, better drainage and better oxygen. A lot of people from my Master Gardner group do a thing called "lasagna gardening", which is a frilly, yuppie, green translation for sheet composting....pfffft, layering in green and brown material. You could always try that too. There's plenty on the interweb I'd guess, since it's an "in" thing.

[JohnyMac]

All GREAT stuff brat! You rock! 

[WhiskeyJack]

I get the impression that BRAT has done this a time or two. Great info guys ty both of you.

[JohnyMac]

Yupper WhiskeyJack...Yupper. 

[JohnyMac]

Garden plowed and new raised bed box's built.

I am filling the raised beds first with leaves, then a layer of cow manure and another layer of leaves.

My neighbor has given be permission to take some top soil from the area of a field he wants clear of stumps. I pull the stumps I get some top soil. My plan is to put some top soil on the leaves next week then cover again with leaves.

If snow hasn't covered the ground yet I will put some more cow/sheep/goat manure, some leaves and then finish off the box's with some more top soil.

The plan is to dump kitchen scraps on top of the raised beds over the winter.

Thoughts gents? 

PS: The picnic table in the uper left of the picture is my shooting bench