Re Soil Testing

January 21, 2009

Even if you have crappy soil, composting can fix it. It won't take out heavy

metals but it

will invigorate everything else there. If you want to get your soil tested for

heavy metals,

ask your local Extension Service how to do that. They will know and know who's

cheaper,

too.

Like Ellen said, even with raised beds your roots will eventually go down into

regular soil,

which is fine. I suggest you just start building on top of your soil, in or our

of a raised

bed, and go from there. Often city dirt is very compacted so you might want to

loosen it

up by double digging (any good gardening book will explain how to do this).

Once you loosen up the soil, you can go many ways. I say go the easy ones. Have

you read

the book Lasagna Gardening? She goes really simply, mostly just loosening soil

and then

letting newspaper, leaves and kitchen refuse become active composters in the

soil. That's

really easy.

Or you can do what we do -- put down bales of hay over where you want to garden

and

let it break down over the rest of winter and spring. Then plant directly into

the by-now

mushier hay, must like planting in soil. How easy is that?

warmly,

Jacqueline

Friendly Haven Rise Farm

Where Spirit and Nature Meet

Check out our farm classes at

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