s tran

i have leaves, wood shavings, horse manure & straw composting right now. i dug out 1' of the top soil to replace it with a mix of those. my plan was to till that combination into the bottom so it'd be a combination of leaves, woodshavings, horse manure, straw, clay and sand.

what do you guys think of using the fine sand for soil amendment? i found some for free and considering picking it up.. is this a viable option to help break up the clay soil and add drainage?

Dave Burton wrote:Would sowing a fast-growing cover crop or something like pumpkins which like to shade out everything be an option?

not against crabgrass.. that stuff is horrific. it choked out my nectarine tree. had it for 3 years and it barely grew. the crab grass suffocated the rootball. it had nowhere to grow.

hi danielle,

are you planting trees this spring?

so my goal for this year was to remove the front lawn and replace it w/ a edible yarden. so far i've removed all the grass from the yard and excavated about 12" of top layer of soil. over the past 2 months i've been collecting fallen leaves from my neighborhood yards, getting wood shavings from wood workers, horse manure & picked up 13 bales of straw for free. i made what i think is a monumental mistake. i placed the leaves & straw directly on top of the excavated dirt. well, i noticed in one of my barrels with the collected leaves there was crabgrass pieces and it was forming new roots. not only that.. the straw had wheat seeds that are sprouting.. that stuff is impossible to get rid of when it takes root in the soil. should i remove everything i've collected and put it into a composting pile hoping the heat will kill the roots? there is just too much to sift through to find every little root.. i'm very beat down from finding these roots...

hello dave

hey any pawpaw growers here? i have a single tree and understand now they need two to produce fruit. does anybody have wood i could graft onto mines?

hello ther from northern california. looking to turn my available space into a garden of eden. i've lurked for a while but finally decided to create an account.