Danny D. wrote:
songbird wrote:

....

What is your soil like?

mostly clay, some sand, compacted, very fertile
and good for holding moisture and nutrients but not
easy to work once it get dried out or when it is
too wet. i much prefer it over overly sandy soil
though. we get decent crops from our gardens when
others around us with sandier soils have to struggle
or give up entirely.

Lucky you that it's clay, sand, and holds moisture. I'm realizing, slowly,
that organics are the elixer of soils, even though they, themselves, don't
do anything directly.

The organics seem to have an indirect effect, like toothpaste does.

not entirely true...

they are a long term energy source, also a large
surface area, a storage medium for both nutrients and
water, a home for fungi and bacteria and many other
animals of the soil community.


Is it similar to mine?

this is an example from a few years ago of what
our soil amended with sand looks like (the light
soil) and what i use to help the garden fertility
along (worms and worm poo/pee - the dark stuff):

http://www.anthive.com/flowers/100_6775_Wormies.jpg

Wow. I haven't seen that many worms since I lived back east!
I saw a worm just a few months ago, but that was the last one in a while.

i raise them to break down food scraps and to be used
in the gardens like what you see above.

http://www.anthive.com/worms/100_718..._Worm_Farm.jpg

http://www.anthive.com/worms/100_7194_Worms.jpg

by the time i take them out to the gardens in the
spring there's about 150,000 - 200,000 worms. which
i keep 10-20 percent for restarting the cycle.

i need so many buckets because Ma cooks for quite
a few people at times and so i need enough capacity
to absorb the scraps from making a fruit salad for
50 people or whatever she's up to.

while many worm composters only use the red
wriggler composting worms, i use a mix of about
six species (i no longer count or sort them out)
including earthworms. so if i have a bone or
meat scrap i can bury it in the bucket and the
worms will break it down eventually. this is not
commonly done (because rotting meat in an organic
only worm bin will stink - something buried in
the dirt will not stink if you put it down several
inches deep).

i have all these bins here in my room, they only
smell when i'm disturbing them and usually it's
not a horrible smell. sometimes a little swampy
if i get a bucket too wet (worms don't care how
wet as long as it isn't actually swimming in
there). since i'm only four months into the
cycle there's probably only 100,000 worms here
and most are likely to be fairly small, but they
keep on going all the time. very good helpers
and keeping them indoors during the winter frozen
months means they keep on working when everything
else outside is fairly quiet.


Your soil seems pretty loose, and grainy, as I can see, in that picture,
sand grains. Mine is more uniformly NOT sand. However, I don't see
"organics" all that much in either of our soil. Just a stray root here and
there, but, I don't see a lot of organics in yours.

no, that was pretty plain unamended soil mixed with
some extra sand. clay is not loose, when dry it can
be as hard as a brick. if i showed you that same garden
now it's a few shades darker and is currently covered
by squash plants with vines about 30ft long. they're
growing in mounds with piles of leaves and other
organic matter, ashes and clay layered, plenty of
half-decomposed wood chips in there too. i still
have about half the area to do the same thing to to
raise it up and give it some things for the worms to
chew on.


But they must be there 'cuz of all the worms.

the dark stuff in the trench came out of one of my
worm buckets. i put it down in trenches where i'm
planting, it's full of nutrients from 12 months of
worm activity.


songbird