This is a continuation of Good, Bad, And Ugly forum. I have made the mistake of planting an invasive species of "mile a minute shrub" and had to dig the entire area out and of course all that time of digging and sifting roots caused me to see the potential for another bed. This is a woodland area with 12 to 18" of loam over a clearly layered clay and glacial till. I want to turn this into a woodland garden of Hostas, Astilbe, clematis, and other plants that will need to have soil brought up into the loam and ammendments to hold the moisture into the soil. I have rototilled the sub soil up into the loam as a begining. This is mostly clay and rocks and I have only removed the large rocks. Now I need to build soil and add the necessary amendments. I have determined to use a source of free mushroom compost. Horse Manure and sawdust. I will use 12 to 15 yards of this material over the soil that has been turned. This will be left over the next 9months to attract worms and compost into soil. I will at some later time add Nitrogen, and silage from a dairy in the area (mint and barley). Grass clippings and manure is my source for the nitrogen. After cooking the mixture over the summer and winter The soil will be ready for planting next spring. The mushroom compost will keep the seeds of the area from germinating due to the 8 to 10" of layering. Sawdust will also kill the wanna be roots from emerging. During the next few months I will be collecting large old stumps and dead fall trees to give the area a microclimate of shape and allow an opportunity for the plantings to grow on to these items. This is a picture of the bed. I have 3 very large rocks (moss covered) that I will plan a garden around. All of this will cost me nothing but effort to create a 6000 sq ft new garden bed.
