The Method -- Part II

Garden Plants in Waiting

The Method that I employ to prepare a backyard of clay soil for extensive gardening efforts involves a number of steps. This method, which I developed over a number of years, is pulled from personal gardening experience and an understanding of what works in the garden and what doesn't. This method was also pulled from the experience of watching others and the style that they employed.

I also strongly believe that the method that commercial farmers use is a big recipe for success. Commercial tomato farmers concentrate on one crop and one crop only for the most part: the variety of tomato known as the "processing tomato." Today's processing tomatoes resemble pear-shaped tomato fruit, also known as "roma."

It wasn't always this way. In fact, many heirloom tomatoes grown today once did double duty as processing tomatoes from a different era. Campbell's 1327 comes to mind as an example. This was the variety that was once widely grown for Campbell's famous Tomato Condensed Soups. There are others.

Garden Area

Clearing the garden area of weeds with a lawn mower, weed eater and a normal shovel to dig out the pesky Mallow is the first step in the process. The second step is a "first chop" with the Mantis Rototiller. These steps, which I outlined in a previous blog posting, end with the result of four to six inches of loose soil. It's a good start. But I want more. The third step that I employ will wear a gardener out. It can take hours to achieve the end result. It's a step, however, that helps to achieve the results that I want.

Four to six inches of loose clay soil isn't enough. I want a deeper cut. The only way for me to accomplish this cut is to employ an old fashioned shovel and get to work. The shovel is used to dig up every square inch of garden area. This "cut" into the garden soil brings up big chunks of soft clay soil. Those chunks are turned over. By the time I'm done with this step, the garden soil looks like row after row of large, brown marshmallows. It also results in 12-16 inches of loose garden soil over the entire garden area. Every bit of it, from one side to the other, is lifted up and turned over.

Employing this method also tells me just how healthy my clay soil really is. Garden soil should be alive with living organisms. This includes worms, both large and small. Turning the soil over and breaking up clay chunks with the shovel also allows worms to escape and dig deeper into the soil that I have just dug them out of. Which is exactly what I want them to do. Those big earthworms and many smaller wrigglers are exactly what I want in my garden soil. I don't want to commit the crime of chopping them up with the Mantis.

Chunky Clay "Marshmallows"

I will not lie to you. This step is not easy on the body nor is it quick garden work. It normally takes me three to four hours of pushing, pulling and grunting to accomplish the task. If that shovel does not easily slide into the soil below, I use the power of my feet and legs until it gets to a depth I'm happy with. This is a routine that is employed every time that shovel is placed into the ground. The goal is the deepest cut I can get, without snapping the shovel into pieces when I turn that big, gray dirt clod over. The goal also is not snapping my back into tiny pieces either. I'm not always successful.

This is a gardening method that I learned from a friend who I put to work in my garden one year when my pesky back gave out. He grew up on a small farm in Merdead (Merced) County. I had never witnessed anyone do this before. I never forgot it either. It had never crossed my mind to do something like this. This step is not easy. I must stress this. I run into all sorts of tree roots, rocks and other obstructions with each shovel full of clay that I bring up and turn over. Yet, I do understand that it is work that must be done.

If the clay soil will not give into the efforts of me jumping up and down on a shovel, I will employ a little strategy. That garden area might need a little more water. Again, the goal is a soft, pliable clay that a shovel will slice into, not a mud pit. If 30-minutes with a garden sprinkler and a bit of a wait will accomplish this task, that is the solution that I will employ. Time isn't the issue here. Getting that soil just right is. If this process takes a day, or I have to let the soil sit overnight after watering it, I will. If I need to stop and clip away pesky roots that are the size of small tree branches OR dig out large rocks, I will do that too.

Brain Vibration Tool

Once the garden area resembles one row after another of large, brown marshmallows, it's once again time to fire up the Mantis. This is the fourth step. The Mantis is put to work chopping those big, brown clay chunks into much smaller chunks. The goal is a fine soil, but I normally do not accomplish this goal until the final step of The Method. Fortunately, the fourth step is usually a bit easier than the first chop with the rototiller.

The work still leaves me with a vibrating brain by the time the chopping work is done. Fortunately, it doesn't vibrate for nearly as long. Employing a garden rake to level out the chop and achieve a semi-level garden area also cuts down on the vibration. The fourth step in the process leaves me with anywhere from one to two feet of loose garden soil. I do my level best not to step on it. This is the step that also cuts down upon, but does not eliminate, pesky garden weeds.

The goal I had of one to two feet of loose garden soil has been achieved. But, the work isn't done yet. The next step, which is step five in The Method, is amending the soil. The amendment process is just as important. If I can accomplish this goal now, it means I won't need to fertilize the garden once all summer. It will have all the nutrient matter it needs to keep producing an assortment of vegetables all summer long.

Garden Amendment Gold

It means nightly salads of heirloom tomatoes, slices of mouthwatering cucumbers and fragrant, fresh basil and oregano. The end result also means an entire summer's worth of zucchini and crookneck squash, sliced lengthwise, brushed with olive oil, coated in salt and pepper and cooked on an outdoor grill. The end result is also processed tomato sauces and salsas, both flavored and heated by heaps of garden bell and hot peppers. One small garden can produce a winter of summer delights.

I employ two products in the amendment process: These include bags of steer manure compost and bags of pellet fertilzer from my local big box stores (Home Depot and Lowe's). Both are spread out over the soil as equally as possible before the Mantis is employed one final time.

Adding amendments to the soil however, can be a bit tricky. It is highly possible to add too much of a good thing. The amendments I add will bring three important nutrients to my garden area: Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. By adding just enough, and not one tablespoon more, you will be rewarded with an enormously productive garden. Adding too much will result in a garden that grows well, but doesn't produce nearly as much as the previous year's garden did.

Amending the Soil

I've come to learn that covering every section of the garden with at least one inch of steer manure compost does the trick. I attempted to double up on that amount one year. Bad idea. Although I always experiment in my garden, this is one experiment that went awry. The goal is to feed your garden plants. Not burn or shock them into non-production.

I do know that there are other gardeners who employ chicken manure in the garden. I'm not one of them. Never had much luck with it. Composted chicken manure is far hotter than its steer manure cousin. If you employ too much of it, which I've done, the result usually isn't something to write home about. So, I stick with the tried and true method.

After stomping on my amended garden soil to spread out anywhere from 25-30 bags of steer manure compost, I also spread out about a bag and a half of pellet fertilizer. I've used many different brands to accomplish this task. I'm not going to recommend one brand over another, but I've had the most luck with the Vigoro brand of Tomato and Vegetable food. I purchase the 3.5 lb. sacks. I spread out about a bag and a half. The remaining half bag will be used to fertilize fruit trees and bushes over the summer months.

The Goal

The final step? Step six is putting the Mantis back to work for a third and final time. The steer manure compost and pellet fertilizer is worked deeply into the soil. This final chop also takes care of the clay dirt clods that didn't quite get broken up with the second chop outlined earlier. The end result, after raking the garden area as level as I can, is a smooth and amended garden soil. The final product will be a pleasing color of rich, dark, and amended clay that crumbles when touched. It is a soil creation that is perfect for what I want because it will keep my garden plants in production all summer long. Which is the goal.

Does this mean I'm ready to start planting? HEAVENS NO! The planting process is also "involved." Not quite as involved as the gardening preparation that I've just outlined, but there is yet another "method" to this gardening madness. That outline will come next. I've got some planting to do!

Toodles!