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Today I made dirt
Mar. 25th, 2006 06:36 pmThis 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.
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.
