# What can I grow here..?



## MountainKing (Jul 26, 2012)

Hello Green Thumbers...

So here's the short(est) story I can give. We started raised bed gardening a couple years ago on our property and they are AMAZING! We are not very talented at growing things, but my wife has made leaps and bounds in learning (we have seedlings growing in our back windows right now getting ready to be transplanted). Last year our raised bed gardens did awesome. We had so many cucumbers, peppers, and other veggies that I was literally eating them off the vines out there.

Today I just finished building a third raised bed - with plans for a fourth specifically for tomatoes.

My question is - we have a large area outside of the raised bed that I'd like to grow something in, but I don't want to do a raised bed for that area. Last year I tried to put some corn in the area, but it withered and died after getting a couple feet tall. I live in the Charlotte, NC area and our soil here on the west side of town is mostly red clay. That is why we went with raised bed gardens for the other veggie gardens and used a mix of sand and organic compost to fill them.

So for the larger area outside of the raised bed - can I till the earth and make it usable for growing something? I think my mistake with the corn was that I just scraped some trenches and put the seeds in, but didn't churn up the earth. Perhaps I need to till it aggressively and then also add some of the organic compost as well? And what would grow well in that clay type soil without being in a raised bed?

I'm up for any suggestions and will post progress pics!

The last photo is the area I'm looking at..to the left of that raised bed. (And ignore all that dead grass - I had scrapped all that grass up and re-seeded it which is why it looks terrible..it has since grown back in..<g>)

PS - Those raised beds and that treeline are basically slightly south-southeasterly facing. The get sunlight all morning up until around 3 or 4 in the afternoon when they start to get shaded by the trees out of frame to the left..

Regards,
MK


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## Dixie (Sep 20, 2010)

Nice yard, loved your lawn help...precious. If it's like our red Ga. clay you really need to add some organic material, I had my neighbor put all of his leaves on ours in the fall. Then we till it under. No matter what you add, you will need to till the ground before you plant. Clay does not allow the air to get to the roots and inhibits growth.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

I have all NC red clay here also. It took several years of amending the soil before I had something close to growable. Now, it is beautiful soil!

I started out by tilling as deep as I could, about one foot, and picking out all the granite rocks I could. I actually wore out a brand new set of tines on my BCS tiller after the first two weeks of tilling the raw clay soil! Yeah, it took a while tilling inch by inch down in that hard stuff. For my 30’ x 40’ area I ordered 12 yards of leaves and 12 yards of compost then tilled them in. I did this for 3 or 4 years. I now use the lasagna method and the garden grows very well.

Make sure you get dolomitic lime to free up nutrients in the clay. It is pretty fertile stuff but you need to break it up, amend it and lime it regularly. You will be able to grow anything you would regularly in your raised beds. As far as what will grow in just the clay? Look around at the local farmers. They grow all manner of crops but use fertilizers and pesticides, I don’t.


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## PrepN4Good (Dec 23, 2011)

First, those are nice looking beds! :2thumb:

I'm in NC too, nothing but rock-hard red clay here. 

Have you thought about putting in any berry bushes? Dig a hole & use compost or potting soil? (Not that digging holes in clay is much fun, either) 

Oh yeah - one thing that does grow well in clay, is weeds!


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## glorysue (Nov 18, 2012)

I would suggest getting a tiller till all that ip and add in several truck loads of black dirt and some sand, till it again several times to mix,


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## MountainKing (Jul 26, 2012)

Thanks for all the suggestions. It sounds pretty much like what I expected (I need to churn it up and add some sand and organic material). I'll have to buy a tiller - time to start searching Craigslist I guess..

Looking forward to getting something growing in there. Even our winter garden in the raised beds did very good - both my wife and I are thrilled.

MK


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