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Amazing how time flys! Hope you all been well. Here we go again with another year of Gardening. Hope you all enjoy my threads and we can still learn together.
So we have had an incredibly cold winter and start to Spring here near the CT coast. Even though the last snows we had was mid February the snow was on the ground in mid March and piles are still around now in parking lots..
Temps finally in the 40s/50s consecutively so I started tilling the soil (2 weeks late).
So this year I decided to sift through the soil and take out the pebbles. Now I know why when the soil was dry it looked like cement and sand!! It's almost half pebbles! Look at that pure soil under the table.
That's amazing Cambium! Just glancing at the soil pics, you'd never know there was that much rock in there! hopefully, taking out too much rock, won't cause you to lose your airspaces and increase compaction. Hey? Trade ya a little a that clay for some sand!
That's amazing Cambium! Just glancing at the soil pics, you'd never know there was that much rock in there! hopefully, taking out too much rock, won't cause you to lose your airspaces and increase compaction. Hey? Trade ya a little a that clay for some sand!
Hmmm, great point about compaction. I'll have to check it out..
What are you doing for your sandy soil? Adding anything each year? I heard Peat Moss, Compost, and other stuff can be tilled in to help it.
Stole a peek at your 2012 photos. You had onions. I thought onions had to be planted in raised beds? Yours didn't look like they were. Is it a myth that they have to be in raised beds, or is it better, but not always necessary?
Stole a peek at your 2012 photos. You had onions. I thought onions had to be planted in raised beds? Yours didn't look like they were. Is it a myth that they have to be in raised beds, or is it better, but not always necessary?
Think of farms. They have onions growing in an open field in the ground. I just wish our growing season was longer or hotter to get them really to blow up. I guess I'll take what I can get.
Hmmm, great point about compaction. I'll have to check it out..
What are you doing for your sandy soil? Adding anything each year? I heard Peat Moss, Compost, and other stuff can be tilled in to help it.
I add a bit of clay, and a whole lot of compost, here. When most people think of sand, they're thinking playground/river/coarse sand. Our sand is fine, off of the beach, and acts as a barrier to water. It's hard to get it to percolate down through it, without adding the clay and compost, (and perlite), to keep channels open to the roots.
Because of the amount of rain we get here, and the fact that I am only about 4 blocks from the Pacific Ocean (OPEN ocean)...lol, we also have a lot of "nearly imperceptible" vibration, due to constant wave action. You HAVE to constantly add those things here, as they simply disappear! It sounds crazy, but man, it's as true as can be.
Because of the near constant breeze we have here, you can not leave the soil bare. You MUST mulch everything, fairly heavily. Plants dry out very quickly, in spite of our cool temps. Seriously, 80 deg temps are not common. We spend most of the summer in the 60s, yet everything dries out like crazy.
I add a bit of clay, and a whole lot of compost, here. When most people think of sand, they're thinking playground/river/coarse sand. Our sand is fine, off of the beach, and acts as a barrier to water. It's hard to get it to percolate down through it, without adding the clay and compost, (and perlite), to keep channels open to the roots.
Because of the amount of rain we get here, and the fact that I am only about 4 blocks from the Pacific Ocean (OPEN ocean)...lol, we also have a lot of "nearly imperceptible" vibration, due to constant wave action. You HAVE to constantly add those things here, as they simply disappear! It sounds crazy, but man, it's as true as can be.
Because of the near constant breeze we have here, you can not leave the soil bare. You MUST mulch everything, fairly heavily. Plants dry out very quickly, in spite of our cool temps. Seriously, 80 deg temps are not common. We spend most of the summer in the 60s, yet everything dries out like crazy.
Great info. Thanks. While we get humid days here near the Atlantic we get long stretches of dry and a breeze too so I get that dry soil syndrome too. We get 85-100 degree days many times & I'm out there watering everyday.
I originally thought I had sandy soil because of how it looked when dry, like dry cement with tons of pebbles. But now I realize I can clump it into a ball when wet. It's clay.
I been learning about all soil types and how to improve. I read that adding sandy soil to clay is not good because it slows the water drainage which is opposite what I want.. Compost is best thing to add which reminds me to turn my compost pile..
I uncovered (so to speak) the fig tree. We'll see what happens after the cold winter we had. Leaves were nice and moist in there.
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