Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Liz" <liz@allslash.org>]

I do something pretty similar, same general situation. I garden on a slope, 
and my soil is dense clay. Though it has been heavily amended with lots of 
things, it turned out to be a lot easier to layer those things on top than 
to try digging them in. Now the soil is soft and loose to a good depth, but 
if I'd had to dig or till that deep to begin with, it would have been a lot 
harder than it was. I built beds with sides of 4x4's, and then set more on 
top as the soil level grew. Most of my beds are roughly 4 x 16, but in the 
more uneven areas, some are only 4 x 8, or even 4 x 6. Should have made them 
narrower than four feet, but I was trying to use the lumber most 
efficiently. All the ones I build in the future will be 36" across at most. 
My original ones weren't even screwed together. I drilled a hole in each end 
and rammed a length of rebar down into it to anchor the 4x4 in the ground. I 
left the rebar sticking up a few inches so I could put another layer on top 
when I was ready.

It doesn't look like anything out of a Martha Stewart magazine, but it 
works.

Liz

> Fairly extreme terracing, hmm? It's always about adapting best methods to 
> wherever we hang our hat. To begin with we have shallow topsoil so it 
> needs raised beds to get soil depth. Also we're on a slight slope, not bad 
> but enough to rule out flat gardening. So I've made a LOT of framed beds 
> with salvage 2" lumber, wider boards on the downside. Sides sit in a 
> shallow trough with dirt fill around to help keep water inside the bed. 
> And since the ground is uneven I make 8' sections 3' wide and join the 
> next 8' section a little higher or lower so beds can be as long or short 
> as needed on uneven ground. All screwed together cheap, no fancy brackets 
> or kits. Somewhere else it all might be different, huh?