Garden Compost without a Pile

Do you plan to purchase a new shrub or tree? The summer or fall prior to planting, dig the hole. Dig it bigger than you think it needs to be. Layer it with composting materials and soil, building a small compost pit. Mulch lightly. In spring, the hard work of digging is behind you, for the friable soil that now fills the hole will come out ever so easily and be rich and ready to feed your new tree or shrub.

Make compost for fruit trees right under the trees. Leave a space three feet from the trunk, then layer materials for composting from there out to one foot beyond the drip line, about two feet high. The “doughnut” will feed the tree as it decomposes and do double duty as a mulch.

Sheet composting eliminates carting. Spread leaves, manure, grass clippings, weeds, spent plants, and kitchen wastes directly on the soil and till them in. In cold climates, this is a wonderful fall project which disposes of all the leaves that bury lawns. Run a rotary mower over the leaves first, and they’ll decompose more quickly after they are turned under.

Try strip composting. Heap organic matter and manure on top of vegetable rows from which early crops have been harvested. The next season simply leave the composted material where it is, and at intervals scoop out a small hole for a shovelful of soil. Plant squash or cucumbers, or other heavy feeders, such as cabbage.

Or use the two-hole method. Make one hole between rows in your vegetable garden. Put the dirt aside. Dump the contents of your kitchen-waste container into the first hole. Cover it with dirt obtained by digging a second hole adjacent to the first. Now you have a hole ready for the next time you accumulate a container of parings. To cover it, dig a third hole, and the system continues.

Lighten Clay Soil

There’s no easy way to convert heavy clay to rich loam. There are ways that are hard work that don’t work, and ways that are hard work that do work. In Georgia — and they know what heavy clay is in Georgia — Paul Colditz of the University of Georgia College of Agriculture says there’s just one way to do it, “Add organic matter in large amounts.”

A thin layer won’t do it, he warns. It won’t make a bit of difference. “Spread organic matter at least two inches thick over the soil and work it in to a depth of four to six inches. If peat moss is used, add limestone at a rate of five pounds per 100 square feet. If raw sawdust is added, extra nitrogen should be applied to feed the bacteria that break down this organic material. Broadcast one pound of nitrogen per ten square feet.”

Other organic materials, such as compost or rotted leaves, can also be used. It takes a lot, as the accompanying table shows.

If you want to improve the texture of your soil quickly, buy peat moss or coarse vermiculite in large commercial bales (four cubic feet). Find a nursery or wholesaler to buy from.

Some gardeners with clay soil add gypsum at the rate of 20 pounds per 1000 square feet. It breaks up the soil more effectively than sand and keeps it from packing.

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