Re: Soil

Great story, Nancy, and good info.  Talk about resourceful!

Diann

-----Original Message-----
From: PRIMROSES [s*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU]On Behalf Of
nancy swell
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2000 2:03 PM
To: shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Subject: [SG] Soil


I was brought up with Gene's $50.00 hole for a $1.00 plant, but had never
gardened in the Richmond area. Apparently, my natural soil is "Fragipan". I
didn't know what that is either, but soon learned. My clay is "short", no
plasticity. The clay that they make porcelain from. Apparently, there is
also enough sand in it to make mortar. I never got dirty, and the soil
didn't make ruts. Would anyone believe a sandy hardpan? At any rate, a hold
filled with water just sat there. An area that I had double trenched did
not respond to the humus I had added. So, I flagged down a passing truck
that was hauling a big load of 3/4 rotted compost. He dumped more than 6"
on top of the bed I was working on, and except for adding manure to it, I
didn't even dig it in, just planted it. One happy day..... the plants loved
it. If we dig a hole in this stuff, it forms a bath tub, so it has to be
either a raised bed, or at least a garden area. One of my projects was
building a sunroom on the end of the house. Depending on solar heat, the
floor used 11 cubic yards of concrete. Needless to say, that was one big
concrete mixer. My neighbors were afraid that it would crack their drive,
so it went up my front lawn. Didn't leave tracks, in fact it did not even
kill the grass! The worst of it was that it went down thru my rockgarden,
and I couldn't tell where it had been. The one thing that I have learned
with this stuff is to use pine bark instead of peat, keeps the soil open
longer. Have used a lot of chips from the tree cutters, and finally have a
decent soil. You have to learn to make the most of what you have available.
..... Nancy

>What this means to me is that having a really loose, organic root run
>makes plants very happy.  So, moral of this longish tale is give your
>plants as open a root environment as you can...they will thank you:-)

Nancy Swell <swell@erols.com>
Richmond VA   Zone 7 --- colder than Raleigh and Norfolk, warmer than
Baltimore and Blacksburg
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