Rejuvenating Dead Soil

by Rachel
(St. Albert, Alberta, Canada)

We just moved, and put some annuals in to make the front yard look nice. One half of the flower bed is okay, the flowers are growing and blooming. The other half seems to be dead. Most of the plants have died except for one or two (out of around 20 or so).

I read your advice about NOT adding soil or dirt to the bed. I have bought a few bags of peat and some soil, the latter being used to raise the level of the bed, since we will be putting railroad ties around to make a raised bed. I will be picking up compst when it becomes available to residents in our city. I was also going to add some sand as well, for drainage. Is this a good idea, and how much, if I follow the directions for double digging the soil before winter? This soil is pretty much dust in appearance. The home is around 55 years old, not sure about the beds.

Doug says that you're on the right track. The key sentence in your post was "soil is pretty much dust". No organic matter! You're going to find a major difference next year after you've added organic matter, dug it in and got some compost in there to bring life to the soil. Not only that but if you repeat this yearly (add organic matter to top - not double digging) you're going to find the soil stays alive and indeed become better every year. But "dust" is the key to adding organic matter - the more the merrier. :-)