Asked on Mar 17, 2017
Help! Our ground is hard like cement, how can we dig in it to plant?
by
Karen-home
+6
We have had not rain for a long time so ground is like cement. What can I do to start digging so I can start turning over the ground to plant grass? How to roto-til an area that is hard packed
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Water the area thoroughly then let it dry out just enough so you can till it without it being too damp. If it is still too wet when you till it, it will just make thinks worse.
don't till. let water do the work....mark out the place for planting with hose or string , layer cardboard, newspaper, old rugs, carpet ect...wet the area well. the moisture held under the layers will soften the soil, also kill any weeds growing there,
Sounds like a plan! Once the ground is soften, then I can till.
That was my next thought. We had a 2 inch rain and the next day it was all dried out. Soil very clay like.
I will water real good, lay down some carpet or something like that and keep watering to see if I can get the ground soft enough to go down a couple inches. Very clay like soil.
On ce you have completed the above mix in sand and compost. In the fall put all your leaves on the garden area wet down good and cover with plastic for the winter. Next spring till these in. If you have as much clay as it sounds u are not going to be very successful until u amend that ground, two inches of lose soil isn't going to allow roots to develop.
I spent a day with a shiny new pickaxe to plant some trees beside my driveway a few years ago. They are doing great!
My Grandmother used to dump the dishwater out around the area she needed to weed...it also seemed to reduce the rapid growth of more weeds as well .