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  • From: neshura <neshura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] dealing with hard ground
  • Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 13:08:00 -0400

Hello all!

I rent a suburban property in hot-and-humid Alexandria, VA. There are
four beautiful maples in the back yard and a cypress in the front, and
the property is largely covered in lovely dappled shade for most of
the summer. It is ideal for gardening except for one factor -- the
tilth, or rather lack thereof. The soil is completely impenetrable by
normal human effort.

I have tried denting the soil with:

* a shovel
* a spade with a sharpened edge
* hand tools
* a garden "claw"

and finally, an earth auger hooked up to a power drill.

The net effect of all of these methods, across several test spots in
the yard, was merely the generation of a few small puffs of
light-colored dust with absolutely no penetration into the soil. The
established grass grows fine, the established daylilies struggle
along, and the virginia creeper and morning glory do just fine around
the edges of the property. There's plenty of water; the house has an
active sump pump and we have to carefully redirect gutter water away
from the foundation because the water table is so close to the surface
here.

I don't want to rototill, not least because it would risk damaging the
tree roots. I had some thought of using cover crops or daikon to try
to break up the soil, but the thriving urban wildlife (birds and
squirrels) are quick to jump on broadcast seeds. Hand planting
individual seeds by hammering a nail into the soil to make holes, over
about 8,000 square feet, is doable but daunting.

Does anyone have any suggestions for elegantly and inexpensively
improving the soil? It is a permaculture challenge right now.

Thanks,
Amanda Gilbert




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