Today I made dirt

[lindaj]

This morning I got up entirely too early and went to K's house to shovel large quantities of horse manure. We filled 6 32-gallon garbage cans (which will later be re-purposed as rain barrels) with some really well-aged stuff, petted the horses, shoveled a significantly smaller quantity of fresh manure into big bags, and loaded it all into K's Very Large Truck to bring it back to Santa Fe.

Next, a trip to Payne's, where I acquired some bags of organic compost (sadly, we just don't have enough of our own compost yet...hopefully the fresh manure will speed this up and remedy the situation), some decent topsoil, and some composted mulch and cotton burrs. And, of course, some plants, because I'm physically incapable of walking into a store like that and exiting without something green in my hands. I think it's genetic.

Then, to Home Depot to acquire a Very Large Wheelbarrow and the stones I'll use to build the sides of the raised beds, which was its own little fiasco, but this is supposed to be a happy post about dirt.

I returned home and started digging. I realized that I was quickly running out of large containers in which to mix my multitudinous amendments, so I took some time aside to assemble the Very Large Wheelbarrow. Into this wheelbarrow I placed:

8 gallons dirt from the yard (clay)
8 gallons well-aged horse manure (most clumps removed or broken up)
4 gallons commercial organic compost
2 gallons commercial topsoil
1.5 handfuls Soil Moist water retention polymer
some water from the rainbarrel

After very much mixing, I have something that looks, feels, and smells like the nicest garden soil I've seen in a very long time...very, very different from the original dirt that I dug out. It's dark and crumbly, seems like it would hold water decently, and has that wonderful fresh-earth, forest-after-a-rainstorm smell it ought to have. When I squeeze it in my hand it forms a little clump, but when I poke at the clump, it falls apart. Perfect. Sadly, the sun went down, so beginning to install the edging stones and refilling the hole with dirt will need to wait until tomorrow.

If I'm smart, I'll check the pH of the resulting mix, and amend accordingly. It's probably alkaline, given the area and the ingredients.

So, as the subject says, today I made some very nice dirt. Making enough to build the beds I want will be a long, arduous, muscle-building task, but it should let me have the vegetable garden I want. With some luck, I'll get enough done this weekend and next to get the cool-weather things planted, and then I'll have until the end of May to get beds ready for the warm-weather things like tomatoes.

Comments

[iridium.livejournal.com]

hurrah for dirt and planting and growing!
*smile* gardens make life better. i'm glad you've got yours.

[crepuscular.livejournal.com]

remember that song dirt made my lunch?

[drwex]

Dang and there you are way out there and here I am over here with nobody to give my nice fireplace ash to. Congrats on your project, though.

About Horse Manure...

[firespirit1.livejournal.com]

Horse manure will help your garden, but it will increase your weeds. Unlike cows, who have a multitude of stomachs that kill or destroy the seeds in their food, horses shit them out. You're going to need to be very vigilant about weeding for the first couple of years. If you aren't, you'll have a weed problem forever.

[sunspiral.livejournal.com]

That makes me want to go play in the garden.

[leenah.livejournal.com]

i love hearing about what's going on in NM, how you're changing things to make them yours. that part of the country is amazing, and so different from the east coast.

i'm glad you're posting. :)

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Only because you have a habit of singing it at appropriate opporunities. :-)

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Well, I wouldn't be able to use it, anyway. The soil here is alkaline, and wood ash raises pH in addition to providing other goodies. I'm not even sure I'll be able to use my *own* wood ash, unfortunately.

Re: About Horse Manure...

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Well...I've never met a garden that didn't need weeding, so I expect it.

The cow manure out here isn't like the cow manure we're accustomed to out East -- most of what you see is steer manure, which is apparently high in salts and high in pH, and not quite as attractive as the cow manure we find back at home.

Given that the horse manure in question has been sitting in a thin layer for 2-3 years, baking in the desert sun, I think it's at least possible that many of the seeds that were there either germinated during the intervening monsoon seasons (yeah, we have a "monsoon season"), or were sterilized by the heat. Time will tell.

I know that the dirt I dug from the yard has weed seeds in it, because things (mostly grass) sprout when it rains.

Besides, sprouting weeds will either provide additional greens for the compost, which I very much need, or will be pulled up and laid on the surface as additional mulch. It won't be a horrible thing. It will also be a good lesson for a certain city boy who needs to learn to identify weeds vs. intentional plantings, and learn how to deal with them. :-)

In the mean time, I have massive amounts of much-needed organic matter, for free, and this is a very good thing. It's turning our clay soil into something lovely.

Of course, the real proof, one way or another, will be later in the Summer, when my garden produces or doesn't produce massive quantities of fabulous vegetables.

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

DO IT! DO IT!

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Yes, "different" is a word for it.

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

And oh yeah...miss you!

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Wanna come play? :-)

[sea-dark-wine.livejournal.com]

That's so cool! Here I was thinking that if I ever moved to the Southwest, I'd just have to start growing cactuses, chilis and such. Good luck with the veggies! And Hi! -- I joined LJ last fall, but you were on hiatus then.