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  • From: "Amy K. Johnson" <akjedj AT access4cheap.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] cloddy soil, soggy soil, and clay
  • Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:48:45 -0700

It may be sunny now, but it's still too wet to do much here! (South central
Virginia that is) I just wanted to share some thoughts with you all and
maybe get some suggestions.

One thing I have learned in this clay soil of mine (where they did make
bricks on the property in times past- I have the handmade bricks as proof)
is to have many rows prepared to plant in during the fall or winter. It's
always wet here in the early spring but this year is the worst! Usually the
pre-prepared raised rows need a cultivation and then sometimes I add a bit
of commercial organic fertilizer just before planting, but that takes fewer
sunny days to get done. The ground that I didn't pre-prepare is still
sitting there right now waiting to be disced and pulled into rows. If I grow
winter covercrops on a piece of land (and I usually do) I can't get it ready
to plant in until at least late May ( this year even later I suspect). I
have 1/4 acre that was in retch (rye and vetch) this winter that I (Praise
God) was able to get mostly disced under early in May, but it still needs to
dry out before I can finish preparing it for crops. The other 1/4 acre I had
mostly pre-prepared and started planting early in spring is now full (except
for 1 row that's got standing water to either side) and I'm now weeding out
the early lettuce mix, spinach, and snowpeas to have somewhere to plant
later stuff that should go into the other 1/4 acre.

I know this unusually wet spring is making it worse, but I'm beginning to
think that plowing up areas to plant in is like digging a bathtub for the
rest of the soil to drain into. Maybe I should work up larger areas and then
plant grass for the access areas and hope that the tractor traffic doesn't
recompact the soil (or worse- sink) I don't know if I'm describing my
thought clearly here. My main gardens are 5 1/4th acre areas with
unplowed areas between that are mostly in grass (sometimes I lightly disc
and plant more grass, but never plow) I have used a friend's 1 shank
subsoiler (which I can't get very deep as I only have a 27hp tractor with no
draft control- which means that it can "bounce" up if the soil is too hard)
to go throught the planting areas and out into the surrounding areas to act
as drains but it's not enough. My land slopes slightly to the south and is
fairly level, but there are little dips in a few spots that are only
noticable when there's standing water. Any ideas on eliminating these wet
spots? Other than laser land leveling which is waaayyyy beyond my budget?
Maybe stealing some soil from one area and giving it to the lower areas with
my tractor bucket and shovel? I've been working cover crops, manure and
compost as much as I can.

Whoops, gotta go more later i hope-
Amy K. Johnson
Johnson's Produce Patch
Long Island VA







  • [Market-farming] cloddy soil, soggy soil, and clay, Amy K. Johnson, 06/12/2003

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