Exhibits, Shows and Displays

What can I plant to enrich soil where I am starting a garden?

I have tilled up a area where a old building stood for many years.The soil is loose and easily cultivated but dead.I am tilling in the residue from an old abounded horse barn which has stood vacant ten years. Now what shall I plant to get this area in shape to plant vegetables next year?

Public Comments

1. start to build up a compot bin jus throw all your rubbish in there things like tea bags banana skins bread fruit whatever put that in your soil - it will rot but will also enrich your soil :)
2. I don't know why you think the soil is dead??? If the soil is where a horse barn used to be there is probably a LOT of nutrition in that soil from the horses manure. Why wait a year--I would plant now! If you still want to plan something good for your soil, peas are a good crop to help put nitrogen and humus into the soil.
3. Legumes--peas and beans--will fix nitrogen in the soil. Go ahead and plant them now if you like. You can also put in a cover crop such as alfalfa to till under later, giving you nutrients and improving the soil's tilth. Start saving all your kitchen scraps (except for meat and fats), grass clippings, leaves, and any more manure you can find and work that in. Get your soil tested. If it needs to be amended, you have time to work on that. Happy gardening!
4. daylily has you started in the right direction. I would also recommend planting some buckwheat; it fixes phosphorous in the soil. Planted thickly enough it will choke out most of the weeds from the manure, etc. from the old horse barn. Just till it under when the blossoms start falling off and before the plants set seeds. You can also plant a winter cover crop of winter rye or winter wheat and till them under a couple of weeks before you plant your veggies next year. Also, don't neglect to plant some cover crop along with your veggies. Once the veggies are up and growing well you can sow the garden with more peas, beans, etc. and have a green manure crop that feeds you and the garden. Later in the year, just prior to you final harvest, plant a heavy cover of clover; it will fix nitrogen as well. By planting it in the fall and tilling it in you loose the benefit of attracting bees, but you greatly eliminate the chance that it will return as a problem weed the following year. One more thing; any manure you add (horse, cow, chicken), except rabbit, needs to be either composted or dehydrated to kill the weed seeds in it. If you skip this step you will have a wonderful weed patch with a few veggies growing amongst them. Good luck and enjoy!