Menu Home Clipart Gallery Gardening Resources Gardening Books Soils & Fertilizers Activated Charcoal Ashes Bentonite Bone Meal Boron Calcium Charcoal Ash Circus Animal Manure Coffee Grounds Compost Copper Cover Crops Dried Blood Fertilizers Iron Iron Chlorosis Lime Sulfur Limestone Magnesium Manganese Manure--Animal Marble Milorganite Molybdenum Mulch Nitrogen pH Phosphate Phosphorus Deficiency Potassium Quartz Quick Lime Salt Injury Soil Sterilizing Sulfur Walnut Toxicity Wood Chips Zinc Sections Garden Notes Garden Design Annuals and Perennials Flowers Fruits Houseplants Glossary of Terms Lawns and Groundcovers Pests Soils and Fertilizers Trees and Shrubs Vegetables

Soil Information for Home Gardens

Shallow Soils in the Garden

Shallow soils may best be deepened by digging only an inch deeper each year than the previous one  until a depth of 8" or 10" has been reached. Each  time an abundance of vegetable matter should also be  mixed with the soil-manure when available being  best. If dug too deeply in any one year, especially at the start, the poor subsoil will be in too great proportion at the surface and the plants will make a poor start or perhaps fail altogether.

Adapted from: : Gardening Short Cuts

See Also: Soil Sterilizing