Moss or Compost,

If you are just starting out, Maple says to wait until the soil is "friable" or it will fall apart after you clench a handful in your palm. If it sticks together in a ball, the soil is too wet. The next step is to get all of winter's leaves and debris out of the vegetable garden. He adds them to the compost pile.
After tilling the soil down to about six to eight inches, Joe will rake the soil and pile it up into mounds two to three inches high. He will stand up in the bed and rake the soil back to the center to get a good hill because this will provide better drainage. Then he is ready to plant.
In the beginning, Maple says there were no earthworms anywhere on the property, but now you cannot dig without unearthing worms. He spent every year tilling two inches of soil conditioner. Soil conditioner is finely milled pine bark, with a small bit of gypsum in it for drainage. Gypsum has the ability to break up hard clay and is also reasonable in cost. One of this area's biggest problems is early blight (brown spots on tomato plant leaves that wind up turning yellow and falling off). Maple says putting mulch down stops this disease from spreading by preventing it from splashing back up onto the plant from the ground.
Maple's prize tomato plants are planted in holes filled with compost from his own pile.
"My compost is the very best 'brown gold' I can give to my tomatoes. All of these good habits I have developed over the years has paid off because at 83, I can still turn over the soil with just a shovel."
If you think you are finished after turning up that soil and adding amendments, then think again. The final touch to the perfect garden soil is mulch.
"Having the right soil is the key to growing anything," said Lee Bristol with Southern Mulch in Boiling Springs. "Our red clay soil won't let any of the water in. It rolls right off."
He agrees that mulch keeps the moisture in, the weeds out and the roots of our plants cool.
Bristol is a fan of organic topsoil that is 75 percent top soil and 25 percent Gardener's Choice. Gardener's Choice starts out as recycled leaves and goes through a decomposition process that ends up as 100 percent organic material.
When it comes to mulch, Bristol favors the triple- ground hardwood mulch because it is smaller pieces that will disintegrate into your soil and improve it every year. In addition to mulch, Bristol says having your bed mounded up or raised up is another key to success. Like Maple, Bristol believes raking the soil into the center of the bed will prevent the roots of the plants from being buried too deep in the clay.
Bristol says adding mulch and soil to your property is a priceless value because of curb appeal. It always takes care of the plants, and it looks good too. With the current housing market like it is, mulch matters.
Bob Powell will teach a twig identification class at Hatcher Garden from 1 to 3 p.m. Feb. 19. The cost is $20 and is limited to 20 participants. Call 574-7724 to sign up.
There will be a shiitake mushroom class at the Clemson Extension Office from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. Call 596-2993 to sign up. The fee is $30 per person.
There will be a Bee Keeping Class lasting five weeks from Feb. 19 through March 19 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Class will be at the Clemson Extension Office. You can call 596-2993 to sign up. The fee is $50.