PATRIOT GARDEN MEGAPOST - Please compile gardening tips here for your Patriot Garden
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Rock Hard Dirt / Ground
First, test your soil. You will need to adjust pH first and foremost. If you have sodium issues, amend with gypsum.
I have been fighting this one in my wilderness garden. It happens when the sand/clay mixture dirt we have gets dried out and compacted. The broad fork will break it, but it takes time and lots of effort. Your best bet would be to let nature do the work. This will take a whole season or more, but you can use deep mulch and either plants or animals to do the work for you.
Plants: If you want to go the edible route, you can plant daikons, cowpeas, sunflowers, or brassicas in a thin layer of added topsoil. These plants will break through the hard compacted ground. as the plants grow, mulch around them until the mulch layer is about a foot thick. When they are done growing, cut them off at ground level and let everything rot. This adds carbon into the soil which keeps it from getting compacted.
Animals: You could raise chickens in tractor style coops, keeping deep mulch in the areas and letting the chickens work the area for a season or more until it's ready.
You could just let earthworms do the work. Layer a few inches of composted manure followed by a foot or so of mulch like hay, leaves, or grass clippings. After a season or two the ground beneath will have loosened up.
Broadfork: I have had success with turning rock solid ground into productive garden in less than a month. You will want to get about an inch of composted manure down in the area you wish to plant. you will want to water the area a few times until the ground beneath starts to soak it up a little bit. After a day or two of watering broad fork the area. It should be significantly easier to work. The manure will add carbon into the soil and keep it from re hardening.
Some other tips for dry gardens desert. Plant windbreaks. Plant some kind of native tree or shrub around the property to block wind and stop your topsoil from being eroded.
Try inverted hugelkulture. Basically bury logs underground to slowly rot and hold moisture.
Carbon: add carbon to the soil carbon holds onto moisture and nutrients to be released when needed to the plants. You can add carbon through mulch or compost, but the best way is with cover crops and perennials. Living plant roots constantly die and regrow. The roots that die are left behind to decay in the soil. Always keep life in the garden, and never pull roots out.
If you have land, the absolute best way to build soil is through ruminate livestock small pasture daily rotation. This style of husbandry mimics the large buffalo herds that once roamed the area. small areas were grazed, trampled, and fertilized by the daily habits of the herd. They would move on and wouldn't come back until the area had time to recover. Modern husbandry practices don't allow for this recovery, and don't concentrate the excrimates enough to mimic this process. Joel Salatin has done great work in this area.
wow thanks, you know your stuff.
I have no land, small 6500 sqft lot in the suburbs. But do have a large feral flock of pigeons that Im trying to make side area a forage area for, I planted some forage which they also called crop cover seeds. Starting to see some breaking thru, I admit I didnt work soil hardly at all, just rushed to get seeds in, was impatient so very grateful anything is breaking thru at all.
My soil has been just slightly acidic, almost neutral 6-7 depends on area.
Interesting about leaving roots! I will do that, I usually pull them but have thought why am I doing this, felt instinctively wrong.
In the front yard where we have grass, wen digging we had a lot of earthworms and the soil is better. The back and side are are taking more bc they had rocks. So Ive been using buckets for growing.
I have a built in rock planter tho that I need to be using since Im limited in space--what would you say is a good soil recipe for a raised planter bed.
Will you give me the exact breakdown of what you would do if yo had a raised rock planter, about 25 x 2 ft so ~50sqft in an L shape.
Exactly what you would put, if buying it since I havent been composting but need something now.
Thanks for your advice
I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to you. Your best bet, for such a large quantity is to find a wholesaler who will deliver a truckload to your house. You will need 3 cubic yards if your planters are 2 feet deep, or 4.5 if you go 3 feet deep. This is based on your assumption of a 50 square foot planting area. A cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet, if that helps. A standard pickup bed can hold about 1.5 cubic yards easily, if you have a truck and want to save money on delivery.
You are looking for a locally owned landscape supply store. They will usually have giant piles of mulch and rocks and whatnot that you can see from the road. These stores will sell a "garden mix" of some sort that will be absolutely perfect for what you are trying to do. This will by far be the lowest cost and simplest option. Being in a dry environment, you should be using lots of mulch to help conserve moisture. Make sure you plan that into your design.
That being said. If you are looking on advice on rock planters in a survival SHTF type scenario, I would say forget planters, especially in a hot dry environment. They get hotter and drier than the regular ground. You want to be planting in "ditches" and low spots, if that makes sense.