Question
I live in Sunset House zone 5, midway between Seattle and Everett (Washington state, USA).  I have two plots of land, pretty nearly identical.  Both have lots of weeds and grass clumps, both have good-sized rocks; one has roots and the other has small rocks (red lava rocks).  The one with lava rocks is in the sun most of the day, when it's sunny in Seattle that is; the other is in sun a little less.

What I want to do is prepare the soil now for planting next spring, so that whatever I do has all winter to work.  But I am so confused!  One source says to remove rocks and all vegetation; one says turn over or rototill the vegetation, cutting up the roots; a third says just cover everything with compost or newspapers.  Yikes!

I understand that it's a good idea to get a soil analysis to determine what to add.  Still, I'm confused about the basic approach, rototill, remove sod, so forth.

I'm also don't know what flowers I want, although I know Rhodies and Azaleas take a slightly different fertilizer than all the rest.  What I want is a perennial that takes very little caring and doesn't need a lot of water.

Thoughts?  Thanks very much in advace.

Answer
Marion Owen, one of my all time favorite garden gurus, lectures in her own charming way on the dark side of roto-tilling in her little speech posted as "Why Roto-Tilling is a No-No" (www.plantea.com/no-tilling.htm).

Marion's position may sound simple, but she is standing on solid scientific ground.  And I post her link here because you are so far away, and your soil is so foreign to mine at the other side of the country, that I can only venture guesses instead of giving you really clear advice.  A distanct relative and I once discussed the relative's Seattle greenhouse - a dirt poor relative with a greenhouse?  Wow!

Don't be impressed, he answered.  We have to grow everything in greenhouses.  There is too much rain to grow anything outside. It all dies.

A friend of mine moved from NJ to Methow, Washington State, and sends photographs he takes - daily - of his garden and the countryside.  The landscape is completely different from anything I have ever put a shovel to.

This is one of those cases where you could say A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing.  I know enough to stay away from things I don't know.  Like, I have never, ever dealt with lava rocks in my garden.  Ever.  I would not know one if it dropped out of the sky and fell on me.

But I do feel confident about Roto-Tilling theories.  And I can give you enough direction, I think, that you will be walking toward your final destination.

Note that Marion Owen mentions Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.  That is an excellent book and I highly recommend you get yourself a copy.  Used is fine.

In a perfect world, Ms Owen would not altogether banish tilling.  No! To her, deep tilling is not the same as hand hoeing or digging soil up with a pitchforkor tilling in amendments to build the soil for a new garden: "Deep tilling means repeatedly cutting up soil with a roto-tiller."

When it comes down to it, most people in this business are not really very educated. They have hands-in-the-dirt experience, they may have read hundreds of illustrated books on the subject, and they may be GREAT GARDENERS. That does not however qualify them to speak with the authority of a degreed microbiologist or a botanist.  The double-whammy gardening you want to attempt probably can be done many different ways.  I am going to risk sounding like I am passing the buck here.  But I sincerely think that recognized experts on the West Coast who have studied soil structure and microbes are in my opinion the people you should be talking to.

That said, I think you will get solid instructions with email or phone conversations with people affiliated with Soilfoodweb.  

In Washington State, Jim Hepper in Bellevue ((425) 885-9874; [email protected]) and Leon Hussey in Redmond ((425) 558-0990/(866) 558-0990; [email protected]) are affiliated with Soil Foodweb, a nonprofit group of scientists dedicated to organic agriculture.  

But I urge you to send a preliminary email to confirm this and describe (even a cut and paste might be enoug) your situation to Dr. Elaine Ingham ([email protected]).  I would happily do this myself, but you have such a unique (to me) problem that I think it would better if you approached her yourself.  See if she agrees that contacting Jim Hepper and/or Leon Hussey would be helpful.

When you reach the point you are ready to take samples, I highly recommend the Soilfood Web's Oregon testing facility (www.soilfoodweb.com/01_services/01_oregon/index.html)for your soil analysis.

Thank you very much for your question.  Please keep me posted about new developments if you can.  I am very interested to hear what these soil superpeople would do with this problem.