soil

so one of the first things I look at is soil,
here is what I started with,

the local soil here has very poor water retaining ability,
here is what an onion looks like in just regular dirt here that is tilled up and then planted,

I have been doing a small remote garden here for years, so I knew what to expect, but not that hard to see what the local weeds are doing to tell what your soil is doing,

here is what the same onions are doing that were planted at the same time, but they have had wood ships and straw mixed in to the soil after I tilled it up.

as you can see, they are doing much better,
water retention in the soil is a critical factor,
adding almost any organic matter will work,
I had wood chips so I used them,
I would have liked to use some charcoal as well, but others here insist that it is not legal to play with fire to make it, so I get no charcoal in the soil.
next adding nitrogen sure helps the plants lots,
I could add animal manure as is so popular, but rotting leaves are easier for me to find here and have more nitrogen anyway.

if doing an entire field I added about 4 inches of wood chips or straw (from local weeds) and about 2 inches of rotting leaves (oak here)
and I just tilled the ground first, then spread it all out and tilled it in, not hard at all

when I started running low on wood chips and leaves I was just adding it under each plant only
this works great for things that get planted in a bowl (like squash and cucumbers), it should work for rows as well, but I did not try that.

here is the tilled dirt to start with (tilled 3 months earlier)

and here is the hole I dug for the plant

here it is with the wood chips in it

and now the rotting leaves (found under a tree)

and now covered with dirt

and the planted plant with a bowl around it to hold the water

now if you are planting seeds it will be about the same thing,
only you put seeds in and not the plant, and do not forget to water the plants after you put them in,
this helps for a few reasons, mostly plants like water, and it helps fill in gaps where mold might grow

so that is the first thing,
farm the dirt to make it better, it will pay off well by the end of the year. (I will show you pictures then)

after all that dirt farming it is time for a glass of cold sweet tea.