Re: garden planning
- Subject: Re: garden planning
- From: &* G* <p*@gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:27:21 -0700
On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 1:16 PM, Michael Vella<vellamw@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Just curious: Are you by chance gardening in Los Osos CA? Sounds familiar,
> and
> my experience here has been similar to comments recently made on the
> listserv.
> Las Pilitas is a good source, too. Of info and natives. Your description of
> your
> situation sounds like Los Osos but I guess there's lot s of sandy places and
> towns built on dunes!
I'm actually 7 miles north of Monterey. They used to call the area
just "Sand Hills" on old maps. When it was first settled they were
mostly growing potatoes here (obviously a good crop for sand!). The
sand at the beach was also shipped to San Francisco for rebuilding
after the 1906 earthquake.
> I blame a lot on the sand I have to work with, even though I have worked in
> lots of organic matter. It amazes me that in these border I can slow water
> with a delicate sprinkler, over mulch etc. and then the next day go dig to
> plant something and find that sand underneath as dry as a bone. I honestly
> don't
> know where the water goes, but I guess the silicone in the sand makes that
> water travel in unexpected ways.
Personally, I find working in organic matter a waste of time. I simply
dig a hole, drop the plant in and build a well so I can direct water
for a while (eventually, I let it erode down). I actually grew
pumpkins in the unamended sand one year. I've had very good luck with
most of my plants, and most of the time when they die, it's because I
didn't keep up on watering them to keep them alive for at least a
year. I prefer to lay down mulch (which explains why I've had more
success with plants in the front garden than in the back where there
is no mulch.
One of the problems with sand I've found is that if there's a lot of
fine dust in it, it acts like a water repellant, until water is
"forced" on it (such as sitting in a well around the plant). It's
interesting though, most people complain about adobe or heavy clay
soils rather than sand. On the upside, I can't think of anything that
has gotten root rot in winter even if it's something that should
normally hate winter rain.
I'm very much into keeping things watered to get them to survive
rather than to get them to grow. Deep waterings to encourage deep
roots. Once they get their roots deep enough they can find enough
moisture in the lower levels of the sand. With plants like my
Fremontodendrons and Ceanothus, I stopped watering them once they were
clearly established.
Something I noticed when I once dug a very deep hole (exploratory, it
was close to 5 feet deep), was that there seemed to be hard, dark
layers on top of lighter golden colored layers that were very soft. I
have no explanation to account for this, and the layers weren't
consistently separated (swirls, strange block patterns).
Barry Garcia
7 miles north of Monterey, California
