Start now to make a compost pile. They make a wonderful additive for your soil.. Plant a cover crop then turn it under before you plant in the spring. Add sterile manure to your soil. BUT before you do anything get a soil test done so you know what additives your soil needs....Your County Agricultural Extension office is your best resource!! People will tell you to add ashes - but chemically, ashes change the chemical balance by adding calcium to your soil and sometimes that's not what you want for certain plants.
potting soil, or garden soil, peat moss if it is real sandy helps, sterilized cow manure (it won't smell), cut grass, shredded leaves. Till them in the soil you have, be generous. Use fertilizer, I use a granular extended release for tomatoes and vegetables. Do not use foliar fertilizer on vegetables or you will get great greenery and little crop. The only foliar feeding I do is calcium spray on tomatoes just before the tomatoes start to ripen or if I see blossom end rot on the ripening tomatoes (caused by calcium deficiency).
If you are in the States: Before you plant, take a sample of your crop to the local county Agriculture Dept. Everyone can have their soil tested, or talk to gardening neighbors who know what the ph is in the soil to find out if it is mostly acidic or balanced or base sided. That is a starting point. Then add some sand if it is clay, add some plant material and till it in good. Even old bales of hay helps, grass clippings, leaves, peelings from the kitchen, anything organic is good. Then in the spring till it good again and add what ever it needs. Also you can buy Miracle gro for different plants. Tomatoes and peppers do not like grass clippings, but they do will with ground egg shells and coffee or tea grounds and banana peelings ground up. Read all you can from Organic gardening magazines at the library and concentrate on one crop each year. Like one year I learned to grow tomatoes. I canned them. The next year I planted one or two tomato plants, but learned how to grow green beans. I canned all the green beans we did not eat and we had fresh tomatoes too. The next year I learned how to grow cabbage, and so forth. Learn to do one well, read all about them all winter, and then do your best. You have a life time to learn and you will never stop learning. That is the fun of it. I hope this gets you started. It is how my Grandma got me started. She was quite the gardener, both veggies and flowers.
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Call your county agricultural agent. They are there for this purpose.
rototill the soil,add peat moss ,composted manure, lime,and a ulta light top soil
Start now to make a compost pile. They make a wonderful additive for your soil.. Plant a cover crop then turn it under before you plant in the spring. Add sterile manure to your soil. BUT before you do anything get a soil test done so you know what additives your soil needs....Your County Agricultural Extension office is your best resource!! People will tell you to add ashes - but chemically, ashes change the chemical balance by adding calcium to your soil and sometimes that's not what you want for certain plants.
potting soil, or garden soil, peat moss if it is real sandy helps, sterilized cow manure (it won't smell), cut grass, shredded leaves. Till them in the soil you have, be generous. Use fertilizer, I use a granular extended release for tomatoes and vegetables. Do not use foliar fertilizer on vegetables or you will get great greenery and little crop. The only foliar feeding I do is calcium spray on tomatoes just before the tomatoes start to ripen or if I see blossom end rot on the ripening tomatoes (caused by calcium deficiency).
what are you growing
If you are in the States: Before you plant, take a sample of your crop to the local county Agriculture Dept. Everyone can have their soil tested, or talk to gardening neighbors who know what the ph is in the soil to find out if it is mostly acidic or balanced or base sided. That is a starting point. Then add some sand if it is clay, add some plant material and till it in good. Even old bales of hay helps, grass clippings, leaves, peelings from the kitchen, anything organic is good. Then in the spring till it good again and add what ever it needs. Also you can buy Miracle gro for different plants. Tomatoes and peppers do not like grass clippings, but they do will with ground egg shells and coffee or tea grounds and banana peelings ground up. Read all you can from Organic gardening magazines at the library and concentrate on one crop each year. Like one year I learned to grow tomatoes. I canned them. The next year I planted one or two tomato plants, but learned how to grow green beans. I canned all the green beans we did not eat and we had fresh tomatoes too. The next year I learned how to grow cabbage, and so forth. Learn to do one well, read all about them all winter, and then do your best. You have a life time to learn and you will never stop learning. That is the fun of it. I hope this gets you started. It is how my Grandma got me started. She was quite the gardener, both veggies and flowers.
Decomposed compost, manure either cow, horse or chicken, and also fish liquid works great but stinks terribly.