digging

[low_delta]

Got done digging up the chip pile. That's where I'm going to put the new garden. It's going to be bigger than that, though, so I sprayed RoundUp on the grass on one side (I really don't feel like digging up sod). I had to dig it up to get the chips and weeds out. Got a lot of taproots out, but most of the chips were pretty well decomposed. Also recovered some jack-in-the-pulpit bulbs and a bunch of lily of the valley. And some bleeding heart, columbine and hosta. It looks like a big pile of dirt now. I need a load of topsoil delivered now. If the garden is ten feet in diameter, and I need soil to one foot deep, that's... only three yards of dirt? Doesn't seem right. But I can go with that. I need a lot more soil to fill in some low spots in the yard. If I get too much, I can spread it around more. And if I get too little I can order more.

Comments

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good ratio of organics to clay. But the top inch or two of mulch doesn't break down. You might want to try turning the mulch into the soil first, and letting it break down that way.

Our pile was part chips and part dirt. The parts that were more chip and less dirt still broke downin two years, but not all the way. They were like dark brown moldable chips. The parts that were more dirt broke down better. They were like flaky dirt.