Hello- newbie question about soil

Hello everyone, I'm new to both this site and to gardening in general. I was bitten by the gardening bug recently (on the backside, actually) and it's all I've been thinking about for the past couple of weeks. A big reason is that I finally got fed up with a certain part of my property looking like a wild weed experiment. It wasn't all weeds- there were lots of overgrown "holly" type bushes that helped make this area impassable. My master bathroom has a window that looks out to this area and it was a real displeasure to see whenever the blinds were open. This part of my property is on the side of my house which faces west. I live in a subdivision in League City, TX, and the houses are pretty close to one another- 15' - 20' apart. This space will only get sun around high noon. Anyway, I "corrected" this situation one day and dug it all up.

I attached a pic of the area as it looks now. I have a small birdbath and a Firespike in this area. There's a raised bed about 8" high, but it is mostly the natural clay gumbo soil. As you can see from the photo, I amended the soil around the plant. That's cotton burr compost. My question is, what other soil amendments should I add to this bed? It extends at least another 6' from the pic. Maybe I will add another Firespike, a Persian Shield and some Elephant Ears, but I don't know just yet.

I know, I know...I should have figured this out first but I got excited and in my haste, I ran in shot first and now I'm asking questions. Thanks for your help.

Go to your local Starbucks and ask if they have any used coffee grounds (they give them away for free). Earthworms *love* used coffee grounds, and nothing amends your soil easier or faster than happy earthworms. :-)

Carla

Hi John and Welcome to Dave's Garden!!!

Carla is right on the coffee grounds
You can go to walmart and pick up some of the compost and / or manure they have to help amend the ground. Which is what we did up here with the sand soil we have.

the only other thing that would be super is the compost from http://www.soiltherapy.org/index2.html "Soil Therapy.org"
the closet they have towards you is either Round Rock by Austin or over in Elmendorf by San Antonio they are listed on the STC Bagged Products link on where to buy.

Lowes has Texas green sand and Lava sand. Has made a world of difference in my soil and the plants are like Jack and the Beanstalk.

Thanks for the replies and greetings. As chance would have it, there is a Starbucks close by and I pass by it quite often. The clay soil in this bed "cakes" at the surface but seems kinda moist underneath, but only after I bust it up a little with a garden hoe or something. I will try adding some of the amendments suggested here, mix well, and see if the soil will be easier to work with.

Here's another pic of my Firespike. I got it last weekend for $15 at Houston Garden Center during a 1/2 off sale. The spikes do not appear to be as plentiful as they could be, but then again the plant was on sale for a reason I guess. Anyone have any experience growing one of these? This particular plant was about 2 1/2 - 3' tall when I planted it. I think I read somewhere that they will bloom in September. Hopefully it will thrive and hummers will visit it often but I don't know where my expectations should be.

I personally don't have any experience with them but i did find these two links in the plant files hopefully they can help ya some.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62195/

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1854/

Phyllis

Howdy and welcome. Your gardening spot looks off to a great start. You'll have lots of fun, we're so excited for you!

Go to www.texasmastergardeners.com/events and look for the plant sale at the Clear Lake Pavillion. You'll meet local experts and your head will be swimming at all the info to be had with anything having to do with soil prep, plants, design.

The Armand Bayou Nature Center is a jewel near you where you can get lots of ideas. The native gardens around the old homestead are worth a trip. Their site is: www.abnc.org

Please do keep us posted with how your garden evolves including pictures.

Also saw lots of Plumeria growing in gardens along Clear Lake a couple of weeks ago. These were large shrubs/small trees. The fragrance from two blooms lasted 3 days indoors.

Holy cow! How could I forget about Armand Bayou?!?! I haven't been in years! Thanks for all the info, antiquedrose.

The link to the Texas Master Gardeners did not pull up anything, but I can search around on the web and local newspapers to see what's shakin' at the Clear Lake Pavillion (as far as gardening events go anyway.)

Harris County has 47 different soil types grouped in 8 soil associations, but we're the unlucky folk who drew the "black ball" - we got gumbo. If your gumbo soil is similar to mine in Bellaire, it is basically an old sea bed. Gumbo is composed of clay particles so smooth and flattened they can only be seen through a microscope. They clump together like cement when dry and form a sticky, gooey mess when wet.

The following idea originated with John Ferguson (owner of Nature's Way, a wonderful source of soils/compost/mulch located close to Conroe): Using a strong metal probe (such as rebar), pound in holes about 8 to 12 inches in depth every foot or so in the area where you want to improve the soil; fill these narrow holes (using a funnel or other device) with good-quality compost. Within a year, you'll have greatly improved soil.

What you're doing is re-establishing microscopic underground flora/fauna. If you want to understand more about the Soil Food web, go to http://www.soilfoodweb.com/03_about_us/approach.html which has an explanation of this vital foodweb for plants. There's also an explanation about why different plants require different microflora/fauna.

What our gumbo soil needs is organic material. The above method gets the microbes down into the gumbo. You can also till in compost, but there substantial disagreement these days about the benefits of tilling and consequent disturbing of the microbes. Certainly, if you have other plants (especially trees), you can't safely till. You can always gently work compost into the soil. You can layer with black/white print newspaper (about 5 sheets or so thick), cover with oak tree leaves and over time this will break down to improve the upper layers, but it'll take years to improve the area down to 12 inches. Most of your tree/plant growth in our area occurs with the top 12 to 18 inches of soil.
Leslie