Gardening by Mistake

I’m planning to do a couple of things this growing season which should greatly improve the situation of my compacted garden beds.  Before I started on my efforts, I figured I’d better do something that I could compare in the coming months, to see if my efforts are successful. Now, some of my beds are packed hard. When I tried to push my garden fork in about 2 inches last summer, the fork bounced off the soil! So much for aerating that way. Not all my beds are as bad as that spot, but I decided I’d better have my husband do the fork pushing so we could at least get it into the ground.

So out we went tonight, fork and notebook in hand. I had him stick the fork into each bed in 3 places, recording where those places where and how deeply the fork went into the soil. He used both arms and leaned into (but didn’t stand on) the fork as he did this. The least amount the fork went in was 0.5 inches (ouch! Those poor, poor plants trying to grow there!) and the most was 6 inches.

I made a spiffy spreadsheet recording all of this and calculated the average depth of the fork in each bed. I was very surprised at the finding of the best bed. It was what I often call my “Mediterranean” bed. It’s hot and dry and at the top of the slope of our yard, so moisture doesn’t stick around there. This bed is in full, baking sun and it last got mulched with wood chips more years ago than I want to admit. (I keep meaning to get around to it…)  This is also the one bed that didn’t get all the amendments when it was established that the others got. Hmm. The most benignly neglected bed is the least compacted bed? Doesn’t make sense. The only thing I can figure is that I’m not in that bed as much, perhaps, but I don’t think that’s the case.

At any rate, at the end of the growing season I’ll drag my husband back to the garden and repeat this. I don’t know that I expect much of a change at that point. But I’m planning on checking again next year, and I bet I see some difference then.

Well, garden neglect hit a whole new level this past 2 weeks. We’ve had so much rain that I couldn’t weed much of the time. And then the rest of the time, truthfully, I just didn’t want to deal with chiggers and ragweed. Mostly the ragweed. The chiggers I can at least use bug spray to deter.

I sucked it up today, though. I still have some plants to get planted. We’re supposed to have several inches of more rain in the next 2 days, possibly starting tonight. I figured I’d better get those plants in while I could. (It’s been dry for a whole 2 days now). Unfortunately, much of my pot ghetto went to the big compost heap in the sky while they waited for me to plant them. It makes me sick. I did still have 7 I planted today and another 6 or so that need to dry a bit before I plant them. (They are dianthus and their pots are saturated from the rain, which they don’t appreciate. I figured planting them right before several inches of rain wasn’t smart. So I’ll let them dry out in the interim).

The ragweed is still a problem. I’ll be feeling it the rest of the day now. I did get some weeding done,a mere drop in an ocean. And I moved a couple of buckets of soil that needed to be put up against the house to direct water away from the basement instead of it pooling as it has been. It looks like it will make a difference.

While out in the garden, I noticed several things. First: my Buxton Blue geranium has bloomed for the first time– finally. I don’t blame the plant. It started the growing season with only two of the sorriest looking leaves around. It took major damage from a late freeze. Anyway, it’s recovered nicely and is blooming. Yay! Three pieces of plants which broke off during weeding earlier in the summer have all taken root and are growing quite well. Another yay! These were small pieces originally and they’ve increased their size several times over their starting size. The mums and sedum are doing well and apparently settling in from their rude move a few weeks ago. In fact, the mums have new buds on them. Do mums keep blooming until frost? The sedum and blooming and looking lovely and the shade garden is looking nice. The garden is FULL of happy butterflies, bees, and other insects. I noticed, too, that a half dozen borage seedlings have sprouted. I guess they are the eager ones. They aren’t going to get too far before a killing freeze.

The soil is what has surprised me the most, though. In three of the 4 beds, my husband generously ammended them with literally tons (20, I think) of builders sand, manure and other stuff. He lugged all the bags up and tilled them in. (This was years ago). Those beds were given some help. The native soil is nothing but pure clay. The fourth bed got nothing. I was in a hurry to get some stuff planted in it, so I just started planting. Poor plants! Today I was really pleased to see that what I have in that bed is no longer pure clay. It’s not as friable as I hope to get it some day, but it’s much, much improved. I have done only one thing in that bed that could be considered remotely helpful: I mulched. The other thing that was helpful was something I didn’t do: I quit using chemical fertilizers and fungicides a couple of years ago. The incredible change to the soil is due, I believe, to the hardworking worms in it. And there are a LOT of worms. It’s amazing the difference they’ve made.

In another bed (one of those that got the original treatment), I was even more surprised. This bed is on a bit of slope and every time we get a heavy rain, it washes all of my mulch away. (I keep meaning to put some sort of berm at the top of it but haven’t). So I quit mulching. This poor bed has sat in baking sun, unprotected. This summer I didn’t even water there except by hand for the plants that were new to the garden. As I was weeding today, the soil was as friable and perfect as could be. How on earth did that happen? I’d sure like to get results like that in the rest of the beds! I was also very pleased to see that the teeny tiny baby salvia I transplanted there have taken and are doing very well. Those won’t get washed away, either. They are tough plants.

So, I didn’t get enough done out there today but between allergies and the fact that I had a workout at Curves this morning, I’m beat! The kids will be home soon and they’ve got a play date with several friends up at the park. I plan to become one with a park bench while they play! If I’m lucky and the rain holds off a few hours longer than they think, I might be able to get some more weeding in tomorrow morning. And I need to get the apples of the apple tree. I’ve never made a pie before, but I think I’d like to use those apples to make some pies. With the next couple of days being rainy, that might be a nice activity.