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litchfield Ohio

I am going to prepare a new 4000sq ft patch in the spring it is currently covered with [mowed] grass and so my question is this, should I leave grass until early spring and then till and amend or should I till this fall and plant a cover crop. thanks for all the help

7/31/2013 6:13:14 PM

Piqua, Ohio

spray with round up wait a week, add compost and manure, till it under, get a soil test and plant with rye.

7/31/2013 9:28:49 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Start now...spray round up and till..throw in a bunch of manure or compost. Then place a good cover crop

7/31/2013 11:06:50 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Oh I forgot get a soil test

8/1/2013 7:32:43 AM

litchfield Ohio

thanks guys..i picked up a big load of manure about 2hrs ago,alot of wood shavings in it.

8/1/2013 6:34:02 PM

Piqua, Ohio

No wood shavings, they can't break down fast enough

8/1/2013 8:53:18 PM

litchfield Ohio

I will look into another manure connect, a lot of alpaca farms around me I will see what they have

8/1/2013 10:07:37 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Alpaca is awesome manure...and the poop in a pile

8/1/2013 10:49:31 PM

Williamsburg,KY

Make sure your manure is well broken down.

8/2/2013 7:16:07 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

You can add Alpaca straight to the garden..It is a cold manure like rabbit,and llama

8/2/2013 7:22:17 AM

Mnt.pleasant ,tennessee

Cold manure? Meaning it does burn stuff up?

8/2/2013 7:28:52 AM

Farming- a bunch of catastrophies that result in a lifestyle

Alpaca poop is AWESOME. Get as much as you can, it does not burn them at all.

8/2/2013 11:14:25 AM

Farming- a bunch of catastrophies that result in a lifestyle

So. We left off with planting the rye.....does it stay all winter??? What comes next? I'm working on the expansion for next year so I have a true 2,000 square feet next year. I'm going to be adding two loads of sand as well....should I do that first then manure and cover crop, or does it matter. I have to add sand to the new side, I'm in a real heavy clay area.

8/2/2013 3:41:58 PM

Piqua, Ohio

sand+clay=harder packing ground. adding humus is the way to go.

8/2/2013 9:15:57 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Lots of organic matter...over several years

8/2/2013 10:34:27 PM

Farming- a bunch of catastrophies that result in a lifestyle

Yup on the organic matter. I am at the 3rd growth/kill on grass and tilling. I just killed off the last grass growth, so that puts a lot of organic into it, now its going to get about a 5" layer of semi-composted horse manure put on it and tilled under, then a cover crop.....probly will add a lot of gysum to it as well, my PH is naturally a 6.8 and I don't want to mess with it too much. Soil test in spring will tell me where I'm at on the new section then.

8/3/2013 5:56:17 AM

Mnt.pleasant ,tennessee

Ooops typo "doesnt burn"

8/3/2013 7:50:19 AM

litchfield Ohio

Tilled in manure and picked up load of humus compost the mushroom compost was highly spoke of by supplier - but I went with the humus ??

8/3/2013 10:57:55 PM