[Sca-cooks] Determining your soil quality

[Jenne Heise]

> How do I determine the soil quality ? And how do I make it good enough to
> eat what grows out of it ?  The gigantic weeds seem to dig the soil though.
> Any good sources to read on-line ?

First, go to your local library and check out a book on organic gardening.
I tend to feel a lot more comfortable with ones from Rodale press. Stay
away from garden books published by pesticide companies (Ortho, for
instance).  Organic Gardening has two sections online that may be helpful:
http://www.organicgardening.com/steps/
http://www.organicgardening.com/steps/new_garden.html
While you're at the library, go to the reference desk if they have one and
look pitiful and explain your plight. With luck, you will run into someone
who knows the gardening collection inside and out and can give you some
pointers. ;)

To find out about testing your soil, look in the phone book under
Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension. Contact your local
Cooperative Extension agent. Throw yourself on their mercy and ask about
procedures for soil testing and referrals to any Master Gardeners in your
area. (You're paying these people to answer your questions. So ask.) If
you are in Canada, there's a comparable program. Soil test kits can be
purchased at garden centers too.

Concrete steps:
Remove the dog poop and send it out in the municipal waste collection.
Rip up all the weeds you recognize. Use them to start a compost pile.
Figure out how much of a compost pile you can get away with (usually, if
all else fails, you can put garden waste in a ventilated trash can and the
neighbors won't call the health bureau. If you can get away with a real
compost pile, save vegetable kitchen waste and add it, get herbivore
manure in small amounts, etc.

Dig up the dirt in your garden to a depth of about a foot. You're trying
to remove big rocks, broken bottles, tin cans, etc. You may need to use
gloves for this step depending on the amount of trash out there. If you
are running into hard clayey stuff quickly, you're in the subsoil... dig
in some boughten or scavenged topsoil or mushroom soil, and mix the
subsoil, topsoil and any boughten ingredients. Once you have a sunny
section with dirt that is not rock-hard, start planting herbs.
Mediterranean herbs such as thyme, sage, basil, etc. are pretty darn
tough-- I used to grow them UNDER A TREE, in mostly clayey soil amended
with grass clippings.

Remember, nature abhors a vacuum. It also abhors open, unplanted dirt.
Plant annuals between your periennials the first year, to cover the empty
spaces. Lettuce, Parsley, Basil, Pansies, etc. grow quickly (though
parsley is a biennial and will come back up the next year). You can mulch
with grass clippings if you can scavenge them from neighbors who don't
treat their lawns.

--
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at mail.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"It's no use trying to be clever-- we are all clever here; just try
to be kind -- a little kind." F.J. Foakes-Jackson