Soils in Our Environment

Soils in Our Environment, by Duane T. Gardiner and Raymond W. Miller, is a great book for learning about soil. This book is for soil nerds only, probably not the typical gardener. But if you are up for it, you can learn a lot about soil from this book. We used it as the text for the Soil Management class taught by Dr. Ed Brennan at Merritt College.

The first half of the book covers soil composition; physical, water, and chemical properties; organisms; soil formation and morphology; and soil taxonomy. That gives you a good background for understanding other topics like nutrition, fertility, erosion, and irrigation. The book describes how to read soil surveys to better understand your specific soil, and provides specialty topics like soilless culture, salt-affected soils, and soil compaction (a favorite topic). The Appendices provide information about the many graphics, references for measuring soil volume and moistness, a refresher on the periodic table (handy, since it had been decades since high school chemistry), and a glossary of term.

The book is well written and nicely illustrated with photos, charts, illustrations, and graphs. Turns out, all that science is pretty interesting, and really useful for finding out more about practical gardening things, like how to deal with clay soil, acidic soil, erosion, and so forth. I recommend this book as a reference.

Soil Compaction Recovery – Step 3

Step 3 of my soil compaction recovery plan may seem like a repeat of step 2. Not really. I think it is important to acknowledge nature’s part in the process. Sure, I prepared the soil and planted the seeds, but while I was traveling in the fall, celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas, watching weird plant movies in January, working several major deadlines at work, and studying trees during the spring semester at Merritt College, nature was quietly doing the real work.

Cover crop in November.

I checked progress over time, in between rain storms and when it was light enough (difficult when I was leaving for and arriving from work in the dark). Each time I was thrilled at the progress, and excited to see a whole different palette of plants grow. I grew up in Southeastern Alaska, so I’m not exactly a city girl. But we didn’t have crops. What can I say - it’s a thrill! I rooted around the soil a bit also. I can’t say that I can report anything major, but the soil remained broken up and porous.

Cover crop in late May.

However, things did get out of hand between March and May, when I was steeped in travels to Southern California and Spokane, deadlines at work, and my Tree ID class. Basically, I did not plough under my crop in February as I should have (or in March, April, or May). I’m afraid Farmer David would be aghast, and lecture me that I’ll be pulling pea and vetch weeds for the next couple of years. But my real goal is improving the soil – that part may still be a success.

Soil Compaction Recovery – Step 2

The next part of my soil recovery plan was to plant a cover crop, similar to what farmers do to protect the soil. I had learned more about cover crops when I visited Oak Hill Farm in Sonoma County last fall. They use an organic cover from Le Ballister’s Seed and Fertilizer in Santa Rosa. They plant the cover crop in the fall, typically in October, and then mow it down and incorporate it into the soil in February.  Farm Manager David Cooper had admonished it is important to mow before the seeds set.

100% Organic Plowdown cover crop mix.

Pea, bean, barley, oat, and vetch seeds.

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I ordered 15 pounds (the minimum shipping order) of the 100% Certified Organic Plowdown Mix. The mix includes Magnus peas, bell beans, barley, oats, and vetch. Many of these are in the legume family, which means they set nitrogen. I seeded densely in my zeal, but I’m sure a seasoned farmer would know better.

Seeded in.

Watered in.

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I tamped down the seeds into the soil as instructed, and then watered in. Within a couple of weeks I was rewarded with bright green new growth, and on my way to repairing the compacted soil.

The cover crop emerged in October, a couple of weeks after planting.

Soil Compaction Recovery – Step 1

About a year ago, I came up with a plan for recovering from soil compaction in a section of my garden. Recall we had removed an overgrown pine tree and then never planted anything to protect the healthy soil. The clay soil had become compacted, unsightly, and unusable. Part of my plan to fight soil compaction was to break up the soil and add organic material.

The soil has been broken up in a 10' x 10' section of the yard.

In September, I started to execute my plan. The patch of dirt is relatively small, so I broke up the soil manually with a shovel. I did wet the soil lightly with a hose, and then waited a day or so. Once the dirt had softened, I turned the soil, breaking the large chunks into smaller ones to increase pore space. If this had been a larger area, I would have borrowed a tool from the tool lending library to help with the process.

Organic chicken manure amendment.

Next, I added some organic matter, in this case chicken manure, and allowed it to set for a couple of weeks. I also created a small path of wood chips to the compost bin, on the border of the area I was restoring, as a buffer against further soil compaction.

A bark path to the compost helps prevent
additional soil compaction.

Raised Bed with a Trellis

Here is a raised bed and trellis configuration that I spotted at a mall in Walnut Creek. The raised beds are large clay containers, and the trellis is mounted directly on the wall, using a cable and rod style system that is very sleek and modern. The picture was taken in January, before the plantings have grown and spread, so it is easy to see the details of its configuration.

The cable and rod style trellis comes in various
styles, and works well with the raised beds.

This would be an easy design for the home garden. Various styles of cable and rod trellis systems are available on the internet.

Mall Trellis

Back in the San Francisco Bay Area, I spotted this mall trellis out in Walnut Creek. It is a sturdy, lattice trellis mounted on an exterior wall. The picture is taken in January, before the plantings have grown and spread. The trellis should easily bear the weight of the plantings when they do.

Ironically, the plantings start on the trellis, then hug the wall.

 This would be an easy design for the home garden – a lattice mounted away from the outer wall.

Another Terrace Garden

While on the Davenport’s Garden Terrace, I spotted another terrace garden in the vicinity. This one may not have the budget or exposure of the Davenport, but I like that they provided this planting area for the building. I wasn’t aware of the planting from the street, so it must be for the use and enjoyment of the building’s employees and visitors.

An elevated planting area in the Spokane urban landscape

Though simple, the tree and planters soften the urban landscape, and provide respite from concrete and steel girders.

Davenport Hotel – The Garden Terrace

I love raised beds almost as much as roof top gardens, when I find them together, I’m ecstatic! While in Spokane, Washington recently, we stayed at the historic and renovated Davenport Hotel. The Davenport is beautiful, with respect for the past and a vision for the future (they have LEED Gold Green Building Certification). One of their features for hotel guests is a garden terrace on the fourth floor, over the entrance, shops, ballroom, and restaurant.

The Garden Terrace

The look is both classic and modern, with raised beds for shrubs pruned in a round shape and deciduous trees (possibly Acer spp.), and urns for columnar trees (possibly a variation of Cupressus sempervirens 'Stricta'), in contrast with the brick building of the hotel. Drip irrigation keeps the plantings watered.

Raised beds and planting urns

The terrace is protected from the wind by the hotel. In late April it was still a little chilly to sit out, but in summer or fall, this would be a great place to relax in solitude or with friends. My husband and I simply enjoyed the fresh air and view of the surroundings from a different vantage point.