[canary]

Hi I have been preparing my vegetable garden for planting my vegies, I have tilled the soil ,added black earth soil,and compost.still the soil seems to harden. Any suggestions on what I should do to help keep the soil softer? Thanks to all

[MCKR]

I'm an amateur with this and I have the same problem. I just found on the net lots of info about Four Square Gardening. There's a good "recipe" for mixing soil that stays friable. Mix 4/5 different composts to form your "compost." Mix that with equal amounts of coarse vermiculite and peat. It's called "Mel's Mix." I've just created my "batch." Hope it works!

[freedhardwoods]

Although you have added compost, I am fairly sure you haven't added enough to loosen your soil. Adding other topsoil won't help much either unless you add a very large amount. I had an area of subsoil (from the basement of our house) that I wanted to make into a garden. Weeds wouldn't even grow very well before I "fixed" it.

I added new, uncomposted sawdust 8"-10" deep over the entire area and tilled it in using several passes with my Troybilt tiller. I also added urea nitrogen at an enormous rate of about 1500 lbs/acre to assist with the decomposition of the sawdust. That area is one of the better gardens that I have now.

I only used sawdust because I have access to as many tons of it as I want. Any type of organic matter will work.