Harvey county soil has a lot of clay. I grew up in the sand hills a little bit West of here where the soil is SANDY. In sand you can dig by hand all day long. Sand has its good points in that water drains or permeates well after heavy rains so plants don’t sit in excess water very long. The only thing we did to improve sand was add organic matter to actually help hold moisture longer and add nutrients. Working in Harvey County for many years I have learned that this clay soil is vastly different than sand.

Besides the fact that clay soil holds moisture it can also make tilling and growing vegetable plants difficult because it is heavy, tight and so hard to work. I recommend adding lots of organic matter (leaves, compost, manure, peat moss, etc.) to help make this soil easier to work with. Another gardening practice I recommend is using raised beds.

Advantages of raised-bed gardening

Better drainage
Growing plants in raised beds is a logical choice for gardeners with heavy, poorly drained soils. Raised beds permit plant roots to develop in soil held above water-logged or compacted zones. This soil environment is much better for root growth. As beds are built up, compost or other forms of organic matter may be incorporated, further improving soil structure, drainage and nutrient-holding capacity.
Higher yields
Better root growth from improved soils leads to higher yields for food crops and lusher growth of ornamental plantings. Also, intensive planting in raised beds means more plants can be grown in a smaller area than with conventional row-cropping techniques. No space is wasted between rows.
Expanded growing season
Better drainage speeds soil warming and allows earlier spring planting. In wet seasons, soil dries faster, so planting can proceed between rains.
Easy maintenance
Because plants grow above the level of walkways, less stooping is required for weeding, watering and other chores. Intensively planted raised beds provide dense foliage cover, shading out much weed growth.
Using difficult sites
Raised beds make gardening possible on sites where growing plants would otherwise be impossible. Rooftop gardens and raised beds on top of solid rock are examples. Terraced raised beds turn hillsides into productive growing areas while reducing soil erosion potential.
Types of raised beds

Temporary raised beds work well for many backyard vegetable gardeners. As the soil is tilled, it is loosened. If tillage equipment and foot traffic are kept off tilled beds, the loosened soil remains slightly raised above surrounding pathways. Adding compost or other organic matter to the bed raises it even higher.
The main advantage of temporary raised beds is their simplicity. No expense is involved in constructing framework to contain the soil. Temporary beds are less labor intensive to make than permanent beds. However, temporary beds flatten over the course of a growing season and require reconstruction the next year. Also, because a temporary bed has no wall, the soil may erode from the top of the bed into walkways or down hillsides.
Permanent raised beds are more satisfactory for most situations. In the landscape, planting berms may be constructed by hauling in topsoil to create traffic barriers as well as visual interest. When planted and mulched, berms need no edging to keep the soil in place. Walled raised beds may be used in the landscape or for vegetable gardens. Besides controlling erosion better than temporary beds, walled beds permit deep soil amendment.
Although constructing walls for raised beds takes labor and has an initial cost, the finished product should last for many years.

We seem to have broken out of the drought of the past few years and I am thankful for that. The days of high temperatures and little rainfall have taken its toll on trees in many parts of the country. Even drought tolerant trees become stressed after several years without sufficient water, especially in soaring summer temperatures. We are assessing the damage to our trees to check for the dead and dying ones.

You need to find out whether trees near your home or other structures are dead as early as possible. Dead or dying trees can topple in winds or with shifting soils and, when they fall, can cause damage. It is important to learn how to tell if a tree is dying or dead.

Obviously, the first “test” for determining the status of a tree is to inspect it. Walk around it and take a close look. If the tree has healthy branches covered with new leaves or leaf buds, it is in all likelihood, alive.

If the tree has neither leaves nor buds, you may wonder: “is my tree dead or alive.” There are other tests you can do to tell should this be the case.

Bend some of the smaller branches to see if they snap. If they break quickly without arching, the branch is dead. If many branches are dead, the tree may be dying. To make a determination, you can use the simple tree scratch test. Just beneath the dry, outer layer of bark in a tree’s trunk lies the cambium layer of bark. In a living tree, this is green; in a dead tree, it is brown and dry.

Scratching bark to see if the tree is alive involves removing a little bit of the outside layer of bark to get a look at the cambium layer. Use your fingernail or small pocketknife to remove a small strip of exterior bark. Don’t make a large wound in the tree, but just enough to see the layer below.

If you perform the tree scratch test on a tree trunk and see green tissue, the tree is alive. This does not always work so well if you scratch one single branch, since the branch may be dead but the rest of the tree alive.

During times of severe drought and high temperatures, a tree may “sacrifice” branches, allowing them to die in order for the rest of the tree to stay alive. So if you’re choosing to do a scratch test on a branch, choose several in different areas of the tree, or simply stick with scraping the tree trunk itself.