Tilling a new garden. ANSWER PLEASE.

[martyg7162]

[align=left]Garden size is 10' x 30' And has a slight 15 degree slope. It was covered with wild thorns, The roots run 3" or 4" under the soil through out. My plan is to till close to 6" through out and then lay that black cloth down and mix existing 6" with 6" of clean loam. DOES THIS SOUND ABOUT RIGHT? [/align]

[Newt]

Hi Marty,

It will work if you are going to plant shallow rooted plants such as succulents.* Since you are posting this in the veggie forum, it won't work.* You can't successfully grow veggies with roots of a thorny plant under them and weed cloth over that.* Then you'll have 6" of added loam to plant in?* How can you put weed cloth over the soil and then mix it with the added soil?* Besides, if you till all those roots, you'll have thousands of plants if you mix that soil with what you bring in.* You'll just be chopping them up so they can sprout.* I'd say to remove as much of the roots as you possibly can, add 4" of compost and mix that in.* I don't see why you need more soil as you already have that.* Just enrich it with compost.

Have you had a soil test done?* What type of soil do you have - sandy, clay, loam, etc.* Any idea what the wild thorn were - raspberries or maybe roses?

Maybe this will be helpful.
http://www.backyardgardener.com/veg/index.html
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/cat...tml/ec/ec1228/

Newt

[martyg7162]

[align=left]I"ve started to till and sift out as much of the roots as possable anywhere from 4"x6" (the cloth I can see your point. So no cloth) Once I've tilled/sifted the roots I'll add 4'x 6" of loam into that. I'm looking to plant carrots yel/sweet potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatos corn, watermelons and pumpkins I'd like one row each of the carrots and sweet potatos and two rows of yukon yellows two rows each of the cucumbers and lettuce and 3 each of the tomato's and corn. If there's any room left I'd like to half it for the mellons and pumkins.**I believe they were raspberries. no soil test to date. The dirt is the original loam and about 9 or 10 years old.*The dirt looks and feels good may need some added fresh compost and removal of as much of the root as possable.[/align]
[align=left]Thanks[/align]
[align=left]*Newt[/align]

[Newt]

Marty, you are very welcome.* You might want to make this trellis for your vining plants to save some room in the garden.
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/vegetabletrellis

Here's some info on growing pumpkins.
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/growing.htm

You might also find this helpful on when to harvest.
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/L291-w.htm
http://www.savvygardener.com/Feature...egetables.html
http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/...atermelon.html

I would still suggest you add compost and not loam or topsoil.* You already have soil and by adding more soil you risk bringing in weed seeds.

Newt