Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Liz <liz@allslash.org>]

At 03:48 PM 1/8/2008, you wrote:

>  However, I won't double-dig because the
> subsoil is only six inches down, and I have to build up instead.

I keep telling the local folk that decades of tractor plowing the 
land I'm gardening now has created a permanent cement-like layer 
about 18" down, and that's one reason I was using raised beds. The 
response I got? "But if you had someone plow it for you, you wouldn't 
have all that work to build raised beds!"

Sigh. I planted cardoon and jerusalem artichokes and some kind of 
Chinese radish that's supposed to go down four or five feet. I'm 
hoping those will at least help break up that subsoil layer.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com