Need some advice on an idea I had.
The situation:
I own 5 acres, but the only part flat enough to be worth gardening right now is a narrow strip, right at the top of a very tall, steep hill, bordering a neighboring dairy farmer’s cornfield. Anything used in the garden must be hauled up backpacker-style, and it’s a long enough walk from the car that anything that gets forgotten, stays in the car. I’m not strong enough to make that trip twice in the same hour. Some days, I’m not strong enough to make that trip once. The land was abandoned for 15 years before I bought it, so the weeds are thick and well established. Hacking a garden space out of those weeds is an uphill battle in more ways than one. To make it even more interesting, I usually am only able to get out there once every couple of months, although I hope that this year will be different. (I’ve been saying that for the last 4 years.) Oh, and the soil has such a high clay content that you could stick your hand in after a rainstorm, and make pottery out of it.
My idea was, what if I dug a 4’x8’ area about as deep as a kiddie pool, only rectangular, and after making sure that erosion-control measures were in place, asked that nice farmer to fill it with fresh manure from his dairy operation, then after it was full covered it with landscape fabric and let sit until next spring? My theory is that that would provide a nice fertile garden bed, with the fabric keeping the weeds from sprouting. But I get the impression I’m missing the obvious. any suggestions?
I had a discussion a few weeks ago with a former horticulture teacher from a local college that advised if planting in clay to dig out your garden area six or eight in deep, then take an auger and drill as deep as possible and as many as possible holes and fill the holes with small rock for good drainage. Then fill the bed in with good soil. Idea is to get drainage, rather than planting a garden is a clay bowl. I am just a novice myself, repeating what I have been told. YMMV
The obvious, to me, is that you need to mix that manure with compost or straw and some soil so that it will age/cure properly. Just my thought.
Was able to get out to my land today. It looks like the farmer up the hill has his field planted already, so I’m not going to ask him to drive across it. On the other hand, it looks like I won’t have to.
2 years ago I tried to see how much I could simplify the process of hacking out a garden from the weeds. I trampled the weeds down in an area, laid landscaping fabric over top, and waited several weeks before cutting slots in the fabric to plant through. My thinking was that the fabric would have the weeds smothered by then. It didn’t work, I only got one pumpkin that year. Last year I planted in the same place (I hadn’t removed the fabric) and got 5 pumpkins and an amaranth stalk. There was still a thick layer of dead, dry weeds between the fabric and the dirt, and there were live weeds growing up through the holes I’d cut in the fabric.
Today when I went out, there were so many weeds growing through the holes that I decided to try cutting a few new holes as far from the old ones as I could manage. Much to my suprize, I found only a few wisps of dead stalks, and under that was soft, loose dirt, rich with worm castings. It seems my original idea had worked after all, I just hadn’t waited long enough! So, I’ll be laying down lots of landscape fabric this year, as much as I can manage, so that my future garden beds can be ready for me. It would take a few years to get the weeds out if I went by conventional methods anyway, and this way I don’t have to do the work. It’s not a perfect solution, it probably would be laughable in a different situation, but for me this works!