soil tests show low nitrogen

WE wound down the second year of our garden recently here in Topeka Kansas (north east Kansas), it was just grass before and a patch of very poor soil that may have been brought in years ago to fill an old systern or septic tank, the first year of the garden we mulched with grass clippings for a while then switched to hay to keep the weeds down and to hopefuly help the soil condition, then in the fall we cleaned out the chicken house and it was scattered around and then we covered the entire garden with leaves about 6 inches deep and let the chickens in all winter, the leaves and hay broke down really well, we then plowed it under in the spring.  This year we have added about two yards of composted stuff from over last winter and this summer as well as chicken house hay and the leaves again, my wife has rabbits and we have been adding that waste to the garden all summer when available and will continue doing so when she clans the bunny barn out.  We tested the soil with a little kit from the store and it shows the nitrogen level to be very low.
Our goal is to improve the soil from its poor clayish form to a consistancy that will be workable with a fork and avoid plowing or tilling if possible and have a good health levels of twhat makes a good soil.
Our garden produced ok each year so far but not what would be expected from other gardens I have had in the past.
What steps should we change or add to improve the nitrogen level without getting some commercial bagg of manufactured stuff?
the soil consistancy has greatly improved from it's almost concrete hgard state when we first brok the ground so I feel we are making improvements.
Should we add something different over the winter?

Thanks
Cliff

This may help explain all about nitrogen and what you have doing sounds good. It just takes time. This talks mainly about woodchips though I feel you could substitute the word compost.

Natural Nitrogen comes to plants in large chain molecules.
Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonia salts are the normal, natural forms we can put into soils via composts, manures, urine and teas made from mixtures of these along with greenery.
Compost is a very long term additive, it actually takes five years for it to give up all the soil and plant goodness it contains.
Which makes it very much an ideal additive in gardens.

Now that you know more about nitrogen forms found in nature, it should be easier to go about using woodchips for a mulch.
They really don't cause any problems by "robbing Nitrogen" from your plants, especially if you use compost around or over them.

https://permies.com/t/58634/urban-myth-woodchips-nitrogen

A list of plants that might help:

https://permies.com/t/29548/List-Nitrogen-Fixing-Plants

Dr. Bryant Redhawk's Soil Series:

https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil

I am sure some of the other members will offer some great suggestions.

Hello,
From what i have read so far, you are doing fine and it should gradually improve if you continue this way.
Some would advice against plowing your mulch into the dirt, so as to not disturb worms and fungi in their work ; you can plant and sow in trenches in your mulch without disturbing the soil underneath.
Legume planting, including legume shrubs or trees, also help in fixing nitrogen in the soil ; just leave the roots decaying in the soil when you harvest, and stalks as part of the mulch.
Have a nice evening,

our state soil lab doesn’t even test for nitrogen, since most forms aren’t particularly long-lasting. it’s assumed that you’re going to be adding nitrogen of some sort, so they tailor their suggestions to try to include the other things you’re short of - do you need more phosphorus or potassium, etc…but their suggestions, conventional as they are, always include nitrogen.

most of the organic sources of nitrogen i deal with - composts, chop’n’drop mulches, etc, shed their nitrogen pretty quickly, and it doesn’t hang around very long. so i do a kind of continuous feeding of hay mulch all season so the nitrogen is always dribbling down there. adding biochar can help even it out a bit.

Yeah, I agree that you are on the right track. The more compost and manure that you add, the faster you will build up a healthy soil. Biochar might be helpful, as it should help prevent nutrients from leaching away, and also loosens heavy clay soil. If your climate allows, you can plant cool-season nitrogen fixers like clover and then incorporate them in the spring before planting your crops. Avoiding tillage is a good goal, and in theory it should be possible to mow down a cover crop an leave the residue on the surface to work itself in. Some will re-sprout from the root though, so you might have to experiment with what works best for your garden.

I will also say that I have seen tremendous gains from using urine, especially in the spring and early summer. I just fill a watering can halfway with water, and set it up somewhere out of the way with a little funnel over it. It does not smell great, but what fertilizer does? You need to be really careful not to get it on the leaves of tender young plants.