Quote:
Originally Posted by Lycopersica
I've been growing dwarf tomatoes in containers for a couple years. Now that I finally have a yard, I've been working all spring to build my first outdoor tomato garden (with indeterminate plants) but now I'm running out of time. I built a 3' by 20' raised bed, pulled up all the grass, and spent all Memorial Day weekend double digging half of it. I'm not sure what to do about the other half. The seedlings are looking sad and cramped in their containers so I really want to plant them out this weekend. On the other hand, I doubt I can finish double digging the whole thing (plus it's supposed to be pouring rain tomorrow).
Should I knuckle down, dig as much as I can, and then plant them or is there a quicker way to amend the soil? It's cruddy, clay-ish lawn soil that's slightly acidic and very low on nutrients. I've been using compost (mostly grass clippings from last summer), rock phosphate, and a small amount of egg shell grounds to raise the ph (or at least keep it from going lower if the partially composted grass clippings have become acidic). Would it be okay to just work those into the top of the soil instead?
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Once you have double dug and amended a soil to give it a jump start, as a general rule it is best to use no till and/or minimal till from then on, just top dressing amendments and letting the soil biology, mostly worms, do the tilling for you. Otherwise you could end up in a long term 2 steps forward, 1 1/2 steps backward yearly routine. To do this though you will need to use cover crops and mulches and trust to Mother Nature to build your soil for you. Some people have a hard time trusting natural process to fix their soils. They prefer a hands on approach. It's a whole lot more work, but you can do it and get good results double digging every year too.
Personally it is too much work for me, so I take the Lazy Man's approach and let the worms do the work. But either way can work for sure.
