Garden Lesson - wk of 7/23

Some of you may be aware that I help organize a garden for the Ronald McDonald Houes in KC, MO.  Part of my duties is writing the weekly newsletter.  Each week, I've been including a "garden lesson" on some topic in organic gardening and I thought I would start posting them here in case its helpful to anyone else.  If you see something I've written that you disagree with, please feel free to call me out on it.  I write based on my own experience and knowledge and I am far from an expert! 

Here are the last few weeks of updates.  From now on I'll post them as I publish the newsletter on Thursdays (usually).

Garden Lesson wk of 7/23:

How do I improve clay soil? We are blessed at Crown Gardens to have the Missouri Organics soil in our raised beds. It is a wonderful mix of compost and topsoil that is just magic for plants. But what if that isn’t what you have? What if you’re growing on solid clay? Take heart – you can still grow healthy plants and lots of food! There are several ways to improve clay soils. This week we will talk about the lasagna method (my personal favorite).

Identify where you want your garden beds to be and where the aisles will be. If your beds will have sides, build the boxes and place them on the ground. In the beds, lay down a thick layer of newspaper or cardboard (remove any tape or staples) to prevent weeds and grass from growing up into the bed. Next, s...

pread 4-6” of grass clippings/old hay/old straw on the paper. Then add 1-2” of compost or manure. Repeat the grass/compost layers 1 more time with a little extra compost/manure on the top layer. Ideally, you would do this in the fall and let the materials sit over the winter. You can plant directly into the soil on top without waiting though. Over the first year, the green material will break down and leave rich bed of topsoil. Each fall, add another layer of green matter (grass clippings or similar) and then add 1” of compost in the spring. Over time, the earthworms will work this rich soil down into the subsoil and you will find the clay to be looser. It takes about 5 years for the natural process to turn the top 6-8 inches of clay into clay-loam. In the meantime, your plants will love the top layers you’ve built up and will produce delicious food for you!