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Halifax, Nova Scotia

I'm in the process of digging up my backyard to make it more suitable for pumpkins. For the most part, my backyard is a swamp bog, with a section of it filled with a clay type soil with lots of rocks and boulders. Currently I am digging the clay type fill out and using it to fill in the boggy area to give myself a 40 by 20 garden. I have plans of extending this at some point as I have 2.5 acres to play with but I have two questions for now. My intention is to have some decent soil/compost/manure trucked in to fill the garden, ideally (and reasonably as I'm doing this all by hand) how deep do I want the garden to be? Would it be good enough if I had 10" of good soil over the entire garden, but dug a couple of feet deep under the area I plan to plant the seeds? Any suggestions as to the best and cheapest type of soil/compost/manure fill I want to purchase? I have a baby on the way, and spending thousands of dollars on dirt isn't really in the cards, although I have started saving for one of those little tractors with the functioning bucket on the front. You can't get the kids interested in pumpkins too early, can you?

10/20/2004 2:07:16 PM

[email protected]

If the area has a high water table then I wouldn't be digging down. I would be building up.

You might first speak with a local soil engineer or drainage specialist so as to be sure the area will drain properly. If so, then just amending the soil you have would be adequate.

Depsite what we've heard & seen of other Cucurbits, it seems that AG roots don't run much more than 12-14" deep.

10/20/2004 2:29:29 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

I hope you have plans for a drainage tile of some sort. Removing what you have a placing dirt sounds like a good option, BUT You have to figure out a way to keep this dirt here, other wise the 1st torential rain will wash your dirt away. Improve your drainage and add as much organic material as possible.

10/20/2004 2:32:29 PM

wilmington,ma.

My back yard is 5 to 6 ft. lower than the front.The back yard has a swamp on two sides.In the spring it was fooded.
In the past 5 years I'v put in about 25 yards of dirt and compost. It's built up 10 to 18 in it's not an over night thing.All done by hand. GOOD LUCK !

10/20/2004 5:13:50 PM

Halifax, Nova Scotia

The water table is lower than I'm digging, and I'm maintaining and building a 6 inch wide wall of rocks and soil around the area I'll be filling, so I'm not too worried about the fill being washed away. I was mostly concerned that I'd be too shallow to get decent root growth but I should be fine. Now if only it would stay light out past 7:00 so I could get this frickin hole dug and filled before the snow flies! Thanks for the help guys.

10/20/2004 6:17:15 PM

mcminnville oregon

i believe deeper is better! justify adding a water/or/drain line???? rent a trencher $120 is expensive for a tiller rental but a trencher definetly goes deeper than any tiller. work the piss out of it!! free manure is the best manure! whenever i have these pumpkin attacks, i dig a hole as deep as i can?? then ill return for another dig,,,, then its ready to fill back up with loose soil never to be walked on:) all this for a single seed

10/22/2004 12:56:43 AM

ENGLAND

DAVE
I did a simmilar method toy you in the patch i had back in 1996. I marked out a 14ft circles, on the already double tilled patch, for each plant. Took topsoil out of the circle to a depth of 12 inches and placed to the one side of circle. Took another 12 inches of subsoil out of the circle and placed that also to one side of the circle. That left me with a 14ft diameter X 2ft deep pit. I then looseded the next 12 inches with a fork and dug in a 6 inch layer of 12 month old cow manure. Started backfilling with the subsoil first adding 6inches of manure to the pit then building up in 6 inch layers until the pit had become a mound. The result was a 14ft diameter planting site/hill that was looseded up to a depth of around 5ft. The hill settled to around 1ft from normal ground level before planting out. GEEEEZ IT WAS HAD GRAFT

10/22/2004 9:31:16 AM