Recent compacted soil by workers building raised bed wall

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VioletV
Baltimore, MD

October 8, 2011
09:56 AM

Post #8840672


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The priority for workers building a wall for a raised bed is, of course, the wall, not the garden soil structure itself unfortunately. While working, they repeatedly tromped all over the garden bed whose soil WAS in good shape. In addition to walking on the garden bed, they threw piles of stones on it as they worked. I will be adding new soil on top of the old but first, I need to restore the old soil to its previous good condition. How do I do this??

Ultimately I suppose I need to mix some of the old and the new together but that will be after I restore the old soil. I regard this situation as a crisis...any suggestions or advice will be much appreciated.

How much depth of new soil are you planning to add?

Do you have a small rototiller? We had to revamp a stone wall and add more soil to the bed a few years ago and we tilled up the old soil and added new composted soil to the top and ran the tiller thru it again to mix it well. I love our little tiller.

Sally and Holly, Thank you both for responding to my request. I am planning to add 9 inches of soil to the raised bed.

You said that there was good soil there already and they just trampled it? was anything put there besides the rocks you mentioned?

I'd remove the rocks and just rake out the trampled down soil, or "fluff" it with a pitchfork so it's not so pressed down, you're going to be adding a lot of new soil anyway, so the orignal soil just need to be a little aerated

VioletV, Jen's right on the mark, just loosen it with a fork, winter will fluff it. Ric

Thank you all. I was surprised to find more responses to my question about compacted soil - guess I could be called "the impatient gardener".