This is kinda cool!

[conuly]

Planting your lettuce in sloping gutters on a fence? Genius.

Now, I want to put some manure down next year because, frankly, parts of my soil are worn out. We have this awful weed that comes in and it's stealing all the nutrients right out of our ground. About how much per square foot does one normally use? I figured I'd put some down in the fall, plant some clover as a cover, and turn it all over again in the spring with some compost. But I don't want to order any more than I need - where would it be stored? And I'm having trouble finding specific, useful information.

Comments

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Specific information don't exist because its all SO variable. Depends on natural soil acidity and moisture, climate effects, etc etc etc. So for an inner city plot I'd suggest rather than going for strait up shite, using a natural animal by product derived product (such as blood and bone or dynamic lifter) a bag of which I find keeps easily in a small trash can.
If you can find someone prepared to sell you a small amount, try digging in some nitrogen rich straw (we call it lucern mulch in Australia , effed if i can find an equivalent name for it by googling and wikipedia is useless.)
Clover is a pain to get rid of afterwards so we tended to bank, multch, and then bed over with wood chips. You can then shovel the chips off, pant and shovel back ong. Good for frost protection, proof agaisnt cat scratchings, etc etc

[conuly]

Well, my plan is to use clover as a "green manure". Some people seem to use alfalfa for that purpose, but it seems like such a waste when one can eat alfalfa. (Then again, you can eat clover too, can't you?)

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Nod. the problem with clover is that getting the bulbs up is night impossible. so if you put clover in a patch, you will ALWAYS have clover in that patch. Good if you have goats or cows (we had both) not so good if you want to put in veggies (whcih we also did. oh growing up farming)

[conuly]

Well, I was planning on an annual variety of clover, not a perennial, and I figured turning the soil and burying it would probably be sufficient in that case...? Our clover on the side is mostly all gone by now anyway, and I want it back.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

it all goes perennial weed here. Oh the wonders of geographical variation.

[conuly]

: )

There ARE perennial clovers, but I wasn't planning on one of those in my backyard. On the side, where I'm covering it with wildflowers, that'd be nice.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Nods. Despite theoretically being an "annual" version I cant get the damned stuff out of my back yard at the moment. It's actually kicking the ass of all the other weeds including a nasty burdock variety.

[conuly]

Clover. Kicking the ass of... burdock???????

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

yeah. I got freaking nothing. My old man;s a botanist, got him to look at the backyard. He had freaking nothing.
After te first 8 or so years i came to the conclusion that het best way to garden in the city is to tend whatever survives, not go for a certain outcome.