Making A New Garden: History and Soil

As compelling reading goes, the topic of soil isn't so hot. It's not sexy like big, fluffy floozie flowers, but it is what gives the birds and bees something to sing about. It is, we say, what makes or breaks a garden - without nourishing soil and good structure, all plants wither. With two acres of soil on my hands, it might be a good idea to find out a little more. So I did a bit of homework.

There is a fabulous website -- the Web Soil Survey, a joint effort of the USDA, and many local participants. It is a product of the National Cooperative Soil Survey. You can choose any chunk of land and it will give you more details about the soil than you can imagine. I did just that for our property and discovered it is made up of Cascade silt loam and Cornelius silt loam. I learned, for example, that Cascade silt loam is typically silt loam from 0 - 24 inches down and silty clay loam from 24 - 60 inches down. It is somewhat poorly drained and there is a typical depth of 18 - 30 inches to the water table. This type of soil makes up the northwest corner of the property while the remainder is the Cornelius type. This is nearly the same but is considered "moderately well drained'. Well, there's a relief. I have a mostly moderately, well-drained garden.

Hooray for all this knowledge. That only goes so far for me, though. I need to be hands-on, to dig in it and see for myself. Happily, this past week I've had a chance to do so as I've started planting a few larger shrubs and trees and have seen what this land is made up of.

It all began with the planting of my four Olea europaea 'Arbequina' or olive trees. I knew exactly where I wanted them so in they went. 

The first dig. Not too bad but, yes, basically clay. I dug really large holes for these and added lime and shovelfuls of compost. These olive trees are planted on the southern border of the property which has a gentle slope that continues down into our neighbor's property. It's a good spot for these as there won't be any cold air collecting here and the water drains right on down slope. It's also complete and total sunshine in this area.

The leaves are a gorgeous silver color. I can't wait for these to mature. They grow to between 10 - 20' tall and are hardier than most olive trees.

What a mess! But all four are snug in the ground, and I shall watch their progress with great interest.

Back to the topic of soil. See, it's easy to get sidetracked with such a thrilling topic. So knowing the soil is somewhat clay-ey and not wanting to do more work than necessary, I decided to sheet mulch sections at a time. Even this is incredibly laborious in a rain-soaked situation, but I have faith it will turn into fabulous soil as so many experts have promised. I am working my way from closest to the house outward a little at a time.

Guess what happened to all those moving boxes? Minus every little bit of tape and staple, mind you. Oy. That alone took me a few hours - tape removal.

Next was the organic bulk layer. All I really had on hand were leaves...many many heavy, wet leaves.

You can do this with many differing layers of material. The suggested one from the book Gaia's Garden, which is what I loosely based my quick and dirty method on, suggests layers in this order, bottom to top: existing soil, amendments, thin layer of manure, newspaper or cardboard 1/2 inch thick, manure again, 8 -12 inches of bulk organic matter such as hay or stable bedding, 1 - 2 inches of compost then FINALLY 2 inches of straw, leaves or other seedless mulch. WHEW.

Mine is more like this: some amendments, cardboard (minus tape), sopping wet leaves then sopping wet compost. I *might* add more leaves on top but, oh my, that's some heavy work schlepping saturated compost uphill. The leaves are bad enough. So the ideas is it all breaks down and the grass goes away and I'll have fluffy soil in no time thanks to many soil microbes, worms and such, plus it's a way to get rid of grass with no herbicides or digging. All of that organic material breaks down and adds nutrients. Now, I know I'm not doing it the "right" way but I also know that nature is forgiving and my muscles are sore. Whatever kind of soil ends up under there, I'm planting things in that science project as soon as I figure out what I want where.

Moving on. We are going to have a compost area soon, but until that happens we ordered 2.5 units (18.75 cubic yards) of organic compost and had it delivered. I've never ordered that much before so I was a little underwhelmed when it arrived. I pictured Mount Compost but instead I got speed bump of compost. Well, not that bad but....I was just surprised. I think the vast land beyond dwarfs it.

Aaaaand guess what I've been doing all week? The missing chunk represents a whole week of scooping up sopping compost and schlepping it up the hill past the sheet mulching experiment to another spot:

The berm on the north end of the house. This is a before photo from November.

Here it is as of the end of January. I know it's not that impressive but this represents over 50 loads up the hill, and I am still not finished.

This soil up here seems to be more of the "less likely to drain" Cascade silt loam. I adore the woman who used to own this property but I don't think she ever amended this soil. It is like a suction cup of mud which is unfortunate as there are so many plants in there that would appreciate good drainage. I have my work cut out for me. So the basic idea is this: Start by adding compost, any organic matter to improve soil structure now and let it do its work over the winter. I would also love to add quarter-ten gravel to the mix but that will wait until summer. The soil has to dry out more before I do much with it, this is just a first (hopefully healing) step. Plus, you just know I'm going to dig every one of those plants up and rearrange 23 times so I'll have plenty of opportunity to keep adding compost and gravel as I go. Compost and gravel -- my two best friends.


I have yet to get a soil test because I don't know where to start, that is to say which area to test first. When it comes time to deal with the veggie bed I think I'll get one for that area. For now I'm going with the mantra that you can never have too much compost to improve soil structure. It improves all types of soil -- sandy and clay. I guess we better start building that compost bin out back pretty soon!

With so much land to care for and only so much compost (and muscles and time), my strategy will be to use the remainder for new plantings and for the upcoming vegetable bed. I can't spread it everywhere, there isn't enough. Pictured here is my Cotinus 'Grace' near the gate to wow the neighbors with its fall colors someday. I hope they like it! As a side note, I have planted about 20 trees and shrubs so far and have learned that the soil in the "wooded" areas such as under the hazel thicket is fluffy and loamy. Really nice. It's the open grass areas that seem to be the worst.

This photo is from September, a sunny time for us. I include it now to suggest that you imagine this area covered in forest. That's the history part of this post (well, soil is history, too, in a funny way). We found out that it was a forested area not that long ago, covered in Douglas fir and I'm sure western hemlock and other ubiquitous trees from this area. It was cleared some years ago and has not ever really been cultivated.

At one time, the whole area was owned by a farming family. That home is just down the street. The land has been divided a few times until it is the parcel we see today. Apparently it has been owned by about five different people, five is about as far back as we can go. We are the third owners of the house, and we are honored to be caretakers of both for this stretch of history.

Soil is one of those things that isn't particularly fun to talk about because if you don't have good soil, it's a lot of work to improve it. I know I won't be able to have fluffy black soil everywhere but I will allow nature to do its thing and help me in creating good soil in most places. I think as I work it and continue to add both compost and plant material and let leaves and other organic matter fall where it will (even attracting birds to the land adds to the soil), it will improve in time. That's the hope and nature never fails to deliver.

That's what's happening this week at Chickadee Gardens at Blue Jay Lane - thank you for reading and until next time, happy gardening!