My garden helper

Rocky's a digger!

It's important that the gardens be tilled up at the end of the growing season. Our tiller is in the shop, so Rocky is doing his part.

We do a fairly deep tilling in the fall. Although the garden soil is much improved after two years of adding compost and rotted manure, and mulching with straw, it still benefits from tilling up the deeper clay layer. Over winter, the rain and wind will erode the complex structure of the clay clods.

I've talked to a lot of folks who've told me they'd like to grow veggies but can't on account of the Mississippi clay. What poppycock. That excuse does not hold water. Clay does. That's why the roots of the tomato that Rocky was busy digging out went down so far-- to the clay layer. When we till, we're trying to incorporate more of that clay layer into the top 6-8" of soil.

Our Mississippi soil is naturally on the acidic side. Simply growing crops lowers the pH even more. So before we till, I'll throw some lime down. And although I don't use inorganic fertilizer often, I will also throw out some "triple 13" (13-13-13, N-P-K). Some of the nitrogen will leach out over winter, but that's okay.

I'll be glad we did all of this next Spring. Well worth the effort.

Thanks Rocky!