Dirt and Soil

Making Happy Roots

This is the start.

What is dirt

Soil Physics

Soil Chemistry

Drainage

Air

Roots need air. Dirt is about 70% stuff and 30% air. When you water, some that air space is taken by water.

Compaction

If you keep walking the same route, over and over, you get a path. You get a line of compacted soil. Plants have a harder time pushing their roots through. Less air for the roots that do go through.

Cars put more pressure on the ground. Happens faster.

If the soil is wet, the soil particles are lubricated by a film of water. Easier to compact. Farmers try to keep equipment off the fields until it reaches a certain amount of dry.

Solutions

As I think up or discover more solutions, I'll put them here. Please: Tell my your ideas.

Pitchers Mound

The card on the tree says it wants rich deep soil. I've got 3 inches of black dirt on solid clay. What do I do?

There are a couple of solutions to this, and you aren't going to like any of them.

• Ignore the card, plant it anyway. Might live, and just grow more slowly. Might die. This is your easiest, cheapest solution. Most garden centres sell trees that will grow in most soils in their regions. We really don't like warranty claims.

• Sell the tree before you planted it and buy one that will work in the soil you have. This is the safest option.

• Bring in a dump truck of top soil. This is hard on the new sod. A load is usually 10 cubic meters. Spread this out in a pitchers mount about 30 feet across. Tamp it smooth. Plant the tree in the middle of the mound. This makes a mound 1.5 feet tall. This is the prettiest option.

Bog gardens.

This may eventually be pulled out of here, and put in it's own Idea.

There are some cool things that only grow in very wet conditions. One example is coyote willow, which you normally find on islands in the river. (It's other common name is sandbar willow) It has a beautiful gracefull leave on a slender stem. I've called it 'Alberta Bamboo' as it's the closest thing we've got.

But: It wants to be in reach of the water table.

So here's your trick: Start by pretending you are making a pond. The difference is that the entire pond, including the edge, is under ground. This creates an underground water table with some drier stuff on top.

I'm working in the dark on this. Experiment.

• Start with a 5 gallon bucket. Cut the top edge off, so it's a foot high. Bury it so that the top edge is 2" under ground. Fill with a mix of peat moss and builder's sand. (Bogs are usually acidic) or if you are creating a rich fen, a mix of peatmoss and loam. This experiment is quick and easy to do.

• Start with the end of a barrel. Drill a ring of 1" holes every 4 inches a few inches from the end. Stuff a 2" chunk of sponge in each hole. Fill the bottom with builder's sand. This is your water table. Put your plants on top of that.

• Start by digging a basin. Line it with pond liner (much like innertube rubber, but one end is right at the surface, and the other end is about 5 inches below. You can keep it from moving around by nailing the top edgeto where you want it. I don't think you care much if you have wrinkles in the bottom. Start with several inches of builders sand, and work up. By having the liner higher at one end, you create a gradient. Plants like want more water do better at the higher end.

Alkaline soil

Some of our subsoils are really alkaline, with a pH of over 9.0. Worse, some of the alkalinity is from calcium carbonate rock, (sandstone, limestone) and so it takes an unreasonable amount of acidification to get it down to normal.

Two tests:

Vinegar test: Put some dirt in a small jar. Pour vinegar on it and shake. There will be some bubbles from spaces in the dirt, but if it keeps bubbling, you have a large surplus of carbonates in the soil. You need to replace the soil, or plant only alkaline tolerant plants.

You passed the first test.

pH test: Get a soil test kit from your local garden centre. Follow directions -- usually fill a bottle with dirt, add water, shake, wait, shake, put a test strip in, and match colour. If you are even partially colour blind this doesn't work.

Most trees do best in a soil with a pH of under 7. Many of them tolerate 7.5 but don't do really well. The most common symptom is chlorosis (yellow leaves), from alkaline induced iron deficiency.

Add 1 pound of pelleted sulfur per square yard. Rake in. Sulfur is eaten by a bacteria and converted into sulfuric acid. It takes about 3 months to get started, and a treatment is good for a few years. Stay on top of it though: Test after 3 months. A pound will usually bring the pH down 1 unit, which is all we need here.

You will need to repeat every few years.

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