Learned Too Late - Soil Rule #2
Never Leave Soil Exposed to the Drying Sun and Wind. Soil Rule #2 learned today.
If there is an exception to every rule, what would be the exception to Soil Rule #2? Imagine a very humous-rich soil, in a moist environment sheltered from drying wind and scalding sun. Perhaps the jungle land of Hawaii or other rain forest paradise. An old friend on the Big Island tells me that everything grows extremely quickly there. Of course, the rich minerals which come straight from the Earth's magma stew pot would make anything grow.
So, except for that impossibly perfect environment, the rest of us may need to protect our soil.
In just a few supposedly Spring time weeks all the life and elasticity was sucked out of the soil in my garden (research the term soil integrity). I've heard the words "soil integrity" and I have an idea what it means. Take a look at this closeup of the clumps I've been working with. These show the dried up husks of what had been healthy soil.
At least I never said that I was a master gardener - or my integrity would be dried up too. You can see the holes which may have been worm holes, passageways which promote the life of the soil, allowing water and air to flow. The holes may have been formed from decayed roots. What so many beings worked hard to create there, I destroyed quickly, with an ill-fated blow of the shovel.
Back to the "fix" ...
As my husband delivered straw, I placed it on the chopped beds, and thought about this correction being implemented from a project gone bad. (See my last post Won't Break Soil Rule #1 Again.) I wondered if any of you readers had ever shoveled damp soil and immediately covered it in mulch - would the problem have healed itself? Would the soil have retained it's moisture and life (and worms)?
At the end of my last row of hoeing sandstone-hard clumps of soil, I noticed that indeed, there was an area there which had been covered by straw. It happened because of an impending freeze (see post from 4/6/09 Freeze Protection in Place). Big bunches of straw had been plopped near where they were needed for me to work with to protect the plants. Some of it landed on the hacked soil.
I moved the straw and behold, the soil was damp, a worm was showing. When touched by the hoe it softly responded with movement. Ah. So its true. Rule #2 was thereby proved valid.
For the lack of a little extra effort the day of the bed-making - three days in the future were shot by having to reclaim the soil, and STILL work when I was too tired, to spread the straw and protect the garden.
May you (and your plants) always be perfectly and purely hydrated.
Won't Break Soil Rule #1 Again!
What IS Soil Rule #1?
Never Ever Work the Soil When It is Wet or Damp or Clumping or Sticking to the Shovel.
How did I learn that this is an important rule? THE HARD WAY, of course.
We had help in the garden and wanted the paths to be re-defined, so we went ahead and shoveled some of the wonderful soil out from the walking path to make a bit of a raised mound for the beds. Alas, I didn't stop when I saw how the soil kept the shape of the shovel scoop.
I thought perhaps the rain which was coming would wash it into smaller pieces, or soften it. But no.
Through weeks of sitting out in rain and wind and sun (since 3/30), it stayed put, like this:
The shovel is standing in the walking path, soon to be dug. On the left is a path which has been lined with weed barrier cloth and wood mulch. This made so much more work for me, as it all has to be hoed and raked and then covered with straw, hopefully to regain some life and moisture and bring back the worms which no doubt fled to the terra firma beneath.
Today I did some more Triage on my work schedule (as in the 4/18 post). Sadly, I had to choose between continuing planting the potatoes (which NEEDS to be done) along with their companion plants, and the hard work of taming the soil in the rows. After several days of sun and wind, I knew the soil would be dry, even though caked hard.
There's a chance of rain tonight and tomorrow and then it would be too late to do this job. The soil work was important as it is almost time to plant the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers (and their companions) in these rows. Intensely physical exertion, and beneficial breaks all day today and I have but one row left to finish. Below, you can see on the left what the finished row looks like. Don't look at the soil on the right.
Now I have direct experience of the validity of this soil rule.
And I promise myself to follow it from now on.
Actually this year I am hoping to have the garden design somewhat set so I can keep straw mulch on it always and not need to dig it again. That is, after all, the definition of a "no till garden". Something to remember in the fall. No matter how tired from the season and the putting up of the harvest - clean, clear and re-mulch! I believe that also will be a rule.
Laziness or tiredness
May seem to rule the moment
Yet the extra effort of "following the rules"
Brings less work and more joy
To the gardener who is Wise.
(quote from "The Way of the Garden"
as yet unwritten by the author of this journal)
Cover Strawberry in Freeze - Let Sleeping Strawberries Lie
Uncovered Strawberry Plant Survival Rate in 28 Degrees
Who shall live and who shall die? It really is no mystery which plants will live through a Spring Freeze. First, I was told by an experienced gardener, warned by other garden bloggers, and my inner sense also planned to assist in the survival, but was caught short by exhaustion which circumvented functioning brain cells. In short, I forgot to cover the strawberry plants the night before the freeze was expected.
In a photographic post on March 15, a strawberry plant is shown growing its way up out of the straw winter covers. Curious, I lifted away some straw from another fully covered plant to see how it was doing. It looked good, a couple of crowns were full of new growth and I gently pulled off the dead leaves and stems, see below. It was warm and sunny for many days so I left it to grow, knowing it was a risk.
One gardening expert says to leave the plants under straw until all possibility of frost is over. This way the extra energy stored in the roots will be used for new leaves and blossoms that have a good chance of fruiting. If they freeze, all is lost. If they frost, but still live, the strawberry will have less root-stored energy to put out new growth. It sounded reasonable to me, yet it is difficult to cover the little one that enjoyed the sun so much.
I knew that the weather report was for a cooler night. I could feel it in the late afternoon as I planted peas in the bed right next to the uncovered strawberries, but I was cold and tired. I think I even left a portable phone out there, came out later to look for it, but my inner blinders did not allow me to notice the strawberry plants I had promised to cover up again. So it spent the night, down to about 28 degrees, shivering, and sadly, one of them died. Of the two plants that I willfully uncovered, one survived.
The strong self-motivated growers, which had fought their way to the sun, still look wonderfully comfortable no matter what temperature. The lesson in this is obvious, something my grandmother used to say, "Leave well enough alone." Or it might be to "Let sleeping strawberries lie."
