New year , new place , new garden

[Terry Coombs]

Well , I managed to get part of my new garden space tilled before the worm gear stripped ... so next trip up from Memphis the big tiller is near the top of the list .I went ahead and started a few plants today , a couple of heirloom tomatoes , ten strawberry plants , and some green onion sets . The 'maters went into larger-than-the-pot holes filled with a 50/50 dirt/manure-topsoil mix , the berries are on a pile of the pure stuff but covered with regular soil , and the onions went into a plain ol' hole in the dirt .

[Billy]

I hope your worm is feeling better. How many sq. ft. are you planting? Y'know, you can make a garden without digging. Believe it or not it's called "No Dig" gardening, aka sheet mulch, or lasagna gardening. The older you get, the better it feels.

[Snag]

Shades of Ruth Stout ... I'll be using some of those techniques as we progress , as the topsoil is only 4" thick . I'm going to be adding a lot of organic material , the top soil is like a sandy loam , next layer is kinda clay-ey , then to sandy with lots of gravel . This place was hardwood forest until about 10-15 years ago , nothing has been done to anything but weedeat the grasses to help keep chiggers down . Now there's a small machine shop , the trailer we live in , and a good start on a garden . So far my two best crops appear to be rocks and seed ticks ... :)>

[Billy]

Sounds like you know what you are doing. Reclaimed forest is a prime candidate for turing once in order to rejuvenate it's bacteria. You may want to look at as well.

Good luck.