What makes you think your soil is diseased? You could use nematodes, manure, compost and mulch. If you have a problem sort of nematode in your soil, there are helpful varieties which can be purchased via the Internet. The helpful nematodes will consume the problem nematodes.

Have you been amending your soil with organic materials, or fertilizing with chemicals? Soil is a living ecosystem which will die without organic amendment. Chemical fertilizers (like Miracle Gro) feed plants, but they don't do anything for soil.

If you dig in manure and compost this fall, lay down 9 layers of newspaper, then top it off with a couple of inches of fine mulch, you should have good soil by next spring. (Don't use the type of mulch which has wood chips in it.) Nature's Way Organic is a fine mulch, which is available at places like Home Depot and Walmart. The manure, compost and mulch will work together to create a healthy ecosystem in your soil, which will have a few months to establish before next spring's planting. You don't really need to rotate your crops, if you are doing soil amendments.

If you have trees which shed leaves in fall, put a layer of leaves beneath the newspapers. If you can chop up the leaves they will break down more quickly. You could run a push lawn mower through a pile of leaves a couple of times, then rake them into your garden. This layering method is called lasagne gardening. The newspaper will prevent weeds from sprouting.

Lorna

The reason that I believe my soil is diseased is because my plants are diseased. Early blight is one of the diseases that my tomatoes get every year, not to mention my tomatoes this year have a large sunken hole all the way around the tomato stem that goes about a quarter way down into the tomato. It looks hard inside like dried mud. The tomatoes are still green and small and this is happening and I can't find out the reason for this. I do amend my soil with horse manure and leaves. It doesn't help much! Thanks for the information, I appreciate it.

We had something like that on our tomatoes last year and a nursery guy who owed us some work called them cat smiles (I think). He said to use calcium carbonate.
We could only find it in a 50 lb bag from an oyster place, but I'm sure you can find some other source of calcium in a smaller amount.
We sprinkled it throughout the beds this year and everything looks fine.
We also built the beds up with compost and new soil, so I'm not sure what did the most good. Nancy

The calcium sounds a bit interesting, because my tomatoes and peppers seem to have a bad case of blossom end rot. I have used gypsum as a calcium source before(years ago) maybe i should use it again. Thanks for the information....Lisa

I have gardened in Ohio for years and was able to rotate my crops. I would recommend compost also. You can make a simple compost bin out of a large plastic trash can and lid (you can find the instructions if you google homemade compost bin). I also used Jerry Bakers homemade feed and wash formulas with great success! I am now in Florida fighting a new gardening adventure. Good Luck!

Thanks to all for the advice. I have the Jerry Bakers books also, but I guess I was skeptical that his homemade concoctions would work. I guess I should try them and see. It never hurts to try! I may be very surprised. Thanks...Lisa

I would suggest you try adding a good amount of cornmeal to your soil. I have had great success fighting off early blight with a two-part program of first treating twice weekly for two weeks with a concoction of apple cider vinegar, water, and cooking oil (many recipes available online which will give you exact amounts), then after that spreading cornmeal around the affected plant and spraying with cornmeal tea daily for two weeks. My tomatoes have made a full recovery! I believe the other thing you have described is a calcium deficiency, so adding gypsum in the fall should help you out on that one. You might also consider having a professional soil test done in your garden, to find out if you have calcium or other deficiencies there.

Look into solarizing your soil. It is probably the cheapest and easiest thing you can do. The down side is that it needs to be done for 4 - 6 weeks during the hottest part of the year. So you would likely lose a season of gardening. Although you could just take up container gardening for that season.