We bought a house in July 2007 and started with aeriation and an organic based fertilizer (September and February 2008). The back yard has morning exposure, and now that two Arizona Ash trees have been removed there is pleanty of sun through mid afternoon. I have compost ready to till in on the perimeter for fall planting of a vegetable garden. My question is regarding planting a legume, hariry vetch, alpha or whatever to build up the soil until time to plant a fall garden? Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated.

Schwartz

Schwatrz, I'm just up the road from you. I dont know if you're in the same soil type as me, but we've got really hard red clay up here. The first couple of years I thought it was going to destroy my Troybilt.

I started mulching with finely ground tree mulch that I get from the City's recycling center. I've also alternated english peas and buckwheat every year as a green manure crop. After 10 years its hard to tell my garden spot ever had red clay in it. The dirt is very brown and spongy.

I used to buy cottonmeal compost from a local gardening center. It got too high at $50 a cubic yard. I discovered that the City's recycling center also sells compost for $15 a pickup bed load. I first used the stuff on my okra, the plants looked like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk.

I know all of this works because when I first started working this place I couldnt find one earthworm. Now I cant find one square inch of the garden that doesnt have a worm in it. It's alot of work, but its also alot of fun......Good luck!