we had a few days last week that were warm enough where i could get out and finish cleaning up a few gardens (burying garden debris), but that is likely the last of that sort of thing i'll be doing outside for the season.
i wasn't even really planning on doing this but it just worked out. with all the rains and snow we've had (that's melted) the garden i was mostly digging in was muddy, but i really wanted those last two gardens cleaned up.
normally i have a policy of trying to bury what is grown in a garden in the same garden where it was grown. this returns the nutrients and fiber to the soil and gives the worms something to work on through the winter. this time though because i was planning on digging up most of the garden in the spring i was not able to stick to this policy and buried it in another garden instead. the other reason to not bury things in a different garden than where grown is to cut down on spreading weeds/weed seeds around (which isn't a major problem inside the fence, but every little bit helps).
the garden that got all the debris is yet another pretty fertile heavy clay garden here. it has been amended in the past, but not very deeply so each time i get a chance to add to it and to work down a little more it makes progress. i have buckets of ashes to use up too - i put some of those in with the organic material - the next few times i did through that area (i don't disturb a whole garden that often so it may take a few years to get all the way through a garden again) it will get mixed in better.
the biggest improvements are in getting the area raised up a bit and better drainage where some worms can hide out. i was glad to see that there were worms in the garden. it had been amended before with the worms and worm compost and other organic materials so they had enough to eat. it takes about 3-5yrs of amending a solid clay garden here before i see a reasonable number of worms in them. it really helps if when i start out i dig a few deeper holes and bury organic material in them so that worms have a place to be during the hot and cold parts of the season. a shovel and a half seems to work ok for the depth here.
songbird