You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
So we've been living in the new house for a little over a year (two summers now, woot!). I've fought with the soil. I've amended it with straw, horse manure, and other things. I've used kelp meal and calcium pellets.
But when I got here, the soil was... well, it still IS just DIRT.
I have areas now (and did then, though smaller) which have a nice, dark, crumbly texture. These are the clearly-used garden areas. These are where the previous owners grew flowers and a few veggies, apparently. But everywhere else is just clay style dirt - it's dry, it's pale brown, it's dusty when dry and heavy and sticky when wet. It's got rocks in it - big ones, in some places. It's heavy and very difficult to turn when it's dry, because it tends to cake hard. And it's got GRASS growing in it in most areas - I HATE grass. Seriously, I despise the stuff. It's my gardening arch-enemy. It's always hungry, it forms root mazes that destroy other plants, it's invasive, and it's UGLY.
I have cherry trees that I put in on the premises - some of them have died. Four or five are still alive. The apple and nectarine tree seem to be ok. But I need suggestions!
I'm new to the idea of permaculture, but I love it. I want my yards to be a bounty of food. I've been interested in edible landscaping all along, and this just seems a natural extension of that.
Can anyone give me some suggestions on what to do with my mess of a garden, to get it going? Keeping in mind that money is almost nonexistent (I grow from seed, not from plants - the trees were a gift from a friend), I'd like suggestion on specific plants that would work.
I need suggestions for the legumes especially - I can fill in with veggies that my family will eat for groundcovers and for miscellaneous annual materials, but I don't know what I'm doing really.
Oh, and if we can't eat it, I don't want it - unless it specifically supports what we _can_ eat (and even then I've a preference for things we can eat (or eat parts of) that will do the job).
Any suggestions? :)
This thread has 8 replies. This forum is accessible only to subscribing members of Dave's Garden. There are many free features here, and about half of our forums are completely open to all members. Take a tour of our site and learn more about Dave's Garden, and explore the benefits of becoming a subscribing member.
