2 May 2020 - Start of the process
Starting to dig in. The soil there is atrocious - below about 2 cm where there is a bit of a top soil formed by grass there is little but dust, rocks and tree roots.
Here are some of the rocks. Some where so hard to get out, they had to be crashed with a sledgehammer.
Hillside that is still to be covered. I decided to go down to a point about 2 m up from where the yellow bucket is.
Back to other projects for now.
4 May 2020 - Moving right along
First pass completed. The patch is going to be turned over a few more times. I decided not to pull out all of the roots and all of the weeds. Partly because I am lazy, partly because if I did there would be practically no soil left. So instead I chose to use rock dust, compost and worms and gradually build up soil in place.
The choice of crop - beans - hopefully will make it easier.
Possibly the large - or the heaviest - rock pulled. Yours truly couldn't even lift it and had to just push it down the hill, to add to the pile of rock to eventually be crushed into rock dust.
16 May 2020 - Waiting for the crop
Rock dust added, worms added, compost added, seeds planted, patch flooded. Now the results remain to be seen.
You have done a great job, I hope it will be a great harvest :)
Thanks.
We'll see - if this doesn't work, then during the Fall I will just completely turn it over and produce the soil properly.
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I feel your pain, I worked for weeks to turn a tiny patch into something arable. In the end I had to sieve the soil because raised beds are not an option in my climate. It's worth it in the end, though
How does sieving the soil help?
I think in general you want to consolidate soil with something clay-like, like worm castings, for example - in order to make it fertile and get it to retain water. As it stands, the water percolates downwards just way to easily there.
I sieved my soil to remove countless small stones, builders' rubble and large rocks. Digging in lots of organic matter is the best way to improve the soil
I am way too lazy for that:)
Personally, I don't think small rocks are that much of a big deal. So far, my approach seemed to have worked - with the difference being that last times I practiced this sort of approach I had the luxury of leaving it fallow over Winter and allowing it to compost in place
You are lucky, I was unable to grow anything successfully before I sieved it and dug in lots of organic matter. In fact it will take a few seasons before my soil is even half-way decent. Legumes are about the only thing I can grow successfully in the meantime