danmdevries wrote:When I was living in Chicago I had an attic apartment. There was an access panel in the bathroom to the unfinished attic area. I removed it, turned it into a small door and had a 10ft x 5ft area about 5ft tall I turned into a grow room.The smell was ...intense
Now I have cattle troughs around my deck for a small garden. But it's just some herbs, carrots, peppers, beets, collard greens last year. Haven't decided on this year, probably just carrots and peppers. Wife n boy love carrots. I love peppers. We tried a big garden once. I tilled up a 20x20 section of yard but my topsoil is very thin and it's all hard clay underneath so I'd need to put in some work to make it happen. I didnt, so it didnt. I planted a couple dozen 3ft tall fruit trees 10+ years ago. The ones that haven't died yet are still only 3ft tall. They just don't grow. The peaches grew great until we had a very deep freeze in 2014 and they all died. Had a couple plum trees that gave us fruit one season and died the next winter. I had grapes along the edge of my woods but they all died off. Did corn one year, deer ate it.
I'm not great at growing stuff.
Heavy clay soil is tough, plant roots have a hard time with that.
It can take some years to convert a plot into healthy soil for growing. It's a lack of organic matter and a healthy microbial population in the soil to cycle nutrients that is the problem. The bacteria and fungi attract larger critters including earth worms that contribute to building soil structure.
Incorporating compost, mulching with ground-up fall leaves, adding coffee grounds and spent tea are good practices to move things along. They all have a high carbon content and nutrients.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Soil_food_webUSDA.jpg
One way around it in the meantime is building raised beds and container growing like with your cattle troughs.