I have a patch of dirt that was always a veggie garden until about 10 years ago. It’s approximately 20 ft x 20 ft. My dog has dug huge holes back there and I’ve been having my gardener throw all the grass clippings and dried leaves in there. Today I went out and dug up dirt and threw it on top, mixed it up a bit and watered it. I’m trying to turn this dirt patch into super soil again for growing next year. Where should I start? Pics to follow shortly
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Treat it just like a compost pile. It will make up roughly 30% of the best soil you can work with.
Throw anything that will break down in there, even your used soil from your grow. The worms will do the rest.
Keep it wet. Try to keep from throwing food that will attract wild life, but uneaten fruit & vegges turn in nicely.
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There’s a couple factors you’ll have to judge as we don’t have enough information yet to answer your question. Since it used to be a garden you might get lucky and only need to add some nutrition to the plot.
You can send a soil sample to be tested, or you can buy a little $15 testing kit and get a rough estimate of current nutrition.
Check how water absorbs into a little pot of the soil, it might be too heavy in clay, or maybe too sandy.
As far as general ideas, I like to run any available woody material through a chipper and add that to the soil too. And definitely agree with @99PerCent on the compost
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So just keep digging, bit by bit and keep adding leaves and such? Macadamia nut shells are in there by the oodles too from my tree, hope that breaks down. Anything else I should buy to speed up the process or to add more nutrients? My dirt is all clay.
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You’ll have to break up the clay a little, but 20x20 is huge, so any amendment will have to be in bulk. Even only working with the top 6” means 8 cubic yards of soil to amend.
Do you happen to have a large number of shrubs that could be decimated?
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No shrubs, but as you can see I have a jillion trees in the back plus my front yard for leaves and of course the grass. I’ve been throwing all my used potting soil in there as well. What I call the back of the plot (in the pics it’s the holes of leaves and grass with my MJ plants in the background) is where I have started as that’s mostly where my dog dug huge holes, but I want to gradually do the whole damn thing.
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Also, I don’t need a cup, the water takes forever to absorb into the soil and pools on top quite a bit so I know it’s pretty hard clay. I planned to buy a soil tester kit today, but they didn’t have them at home depot. Plan of getting one some time this weekend to start.
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Definitely take advantage of neighbors leaves and grass clippings ,go to recycling centers, and take there bags of leaves also… are you in an area where deciduous tree leaves fall in fall temps? Check horse stables but be sure to find out what they feed them or if antibiotics have been used in the any recent treatments, start a composting bin( 1 cubic yard min)learn to compost and when finished top dress soil and water in regularly, you’d be amazed how much just the top 1"or 2 of soil will change in like 4-6 months!
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I can definitely “borrow” all my neighbors green waste bins that they put out on trash day to gather more greens and leaves. We have some deciduous trees here in So Cal, but not lots. No horse stables as I’m in the city. Would grabbing some chicken manure and throwing it out there help as well? Obviously, I’m starting bit by bit
The holes out there have sort of become my composting bins lol
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Also check out Bokashi composting pretty much anything that’s organics, meat, bones and all sorts of stuff not used in traditional composting can be fermented in a short amount of time and incorporated into the soil profile, you can make your own Bokashi bran very cheaply withEM1 and a 50 lb sack of wheat bran sometimes found at seed farm and ranch co-op’s
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Is that the guilty party in that First pic? Lol on a side note I’d start working the site in 1/3rd’s so it’s Manageable and maybe some simple fencing to keep FIDO from I’m throwing compost every where!
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Indeed that is the culprit! 
I’m almost wondering if I should just let her keep digging and loosen up that soil for me so I can mix it around easier. lol
Once it starts getting nice in there, I’m gonna put some cheap fencing around it.
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Sure would ,any chance you can get straw bales from area farmers? Come fall some stores have them for decorative purposes before Halloween comes around!
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I’ve already seen the decorative sort for Halloween around town. Also Centinela Pet and Feed may sell it too as there are horses up on the hill where the rich folks live. What do I do with straw?
Yup natures rototiller!
I’v also been tossing around the idea of making some of these a raised bed of sort!
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Just topdress with it! It will give worms something to eat provide additional organic matter in give all the other grinders and shredders commonly found in soil a place to hang out!
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I have a kumquat tree back there and I never eat them. Is citrus fruit okay to throw in there?
This reminds me of the holes I just filled although they aren’t raised
I’d think that would be alright trial it in a small area it would be awhile before worms start to work it as they probably stay away of acidic substances until broken down enough
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I think we talked about cover crop as well … get something growing in there that will attract the microbiology… Diakon radish is known as an excellent clay buster!
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