That Crazy Mad Max Vibe

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, and wow what an interesting series of events have occurred in the last two weeks. For those living in their bomb shelters we had a fuel shortage what had most gas stations out of gas, with long lines at the ones that had any at all. Surprisingly gasoline didn’t get rationed (it really should have), and an advisory had to go out to actually tell people not to put gasoline in plastic bags. Yes you read that last part right, the Consumer Product Safety Commission actually had to issue an advisory over this. Ironically the pictures everyone had seen as it turns out were several years old from an incident in Puebla Mexico where a few guys tried to steal extra gas from a gas station. Go figure, but the Hoarding was real, much like with the toilet paper panic in 2020, people lost their minds and started hoarding gasoline by putting it in every container possible. Yours truly saw antique looking plastic kerosene containers, three liter soda bottles and a bevy of not-close-to-legal containers used. It was unreal and to a certain extent it’s still going on as I write this. Of course the fuel shortage is ironically kind of good for the pollinators since fewer lawns get moved and more weeds get to bloom which means more food for the bees and such. Still if I recall right the entire Mad Max series was based on a crippling fuel shortage, and really if I start seeing weirdos about town in weird leather outfits I think we’re in some hilarious trouble. With that said this post is still a bit late, but we’re going to handle two topics. Firstly I’m going to talk about the worst tree you could ever plant and then compost, the best soil amendment you could ever produce. 

So first the photographs below were taken during that odd wind storm we had in April, the subject is a Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana). Some of you out there might groan, but I’m going to cover the history of this strange tree that everyone had a frenzy for and now it’s just an artefact of an earlier time.

So this specimen located in Downtown Fayetteville NC lost about a third of it's crown in a recent storm. We had thunderstorms and wind, but no ice and this ting just split right at the branch crotch angle. It was lucky, around the corner another Bradford literally snapped off just above the root line. Others around town shed bits like ti was going out of style.

The scientific name Pyrus is a derivative of the word Pome which refers to the shape of the fruit in the genus, the second specific epithet calleryana derives from the first person to proliferate this specific species. the second part of the botanical Latin name is derived from Joseph-Marie Callery, who sent specimens of originating stock of these plants to Europe from China in the first half of the 1800’s. These trees out nor arrive in the United states until a bit over a century later; it wasn’t until the 1960’s that a USDA facility in Glendale, Maryland introduced a cultivated form of the tree and they became popular with landscapers afterward because they were cheap, could handle being transported and grew fast. In 1966 though the tree gained extra popularity when Lady Bird Johnson planted one in Downtown Washington D.C.  The New York Times got in on the action when they published the following; "Few trees possess every desired attribute, but the Bradford ornamental pear comes unusually close to the ideal." This was good and well because the trees added more accessibility to those who wanted to beautify their properties. Bradford pears had some key advantages over other trees, they grew fast, in spring their white flowers absolutely covered the plants in color making them look like they’d been snowed on. There was the fall color to consider as they turned a decent shade of red before dropping their leaves in the autumn. Bradford Pear leaves as the organic crowd knows are really good compost (Don’t all good plant stories involve compost?) fuel they break down  fast and the resultant soil is ready sooner rather than later.

If there wasn't a picture you would not have believed me. This Bradford was seriously growing roots into it's own branch crotch probably because there was a pocket of dirt or consistent moisture. Bradford Pears might be the idiots of the tree world.

 

But the story of the Bradford Pear isn’t all cookies and sunshine, this tree had problems, it wasn’t the perfect candidate for use everywhere that everyone thought it was. The first problem came from the flowers, which smelled kind of bad, some have likened their smell to rotting fish, cement gone bad and some even said it smelled like semen. I don’t know about that last one or what exposures it takes to authoritatively judge that, but yes the flowers smell bad.

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2015/04/24/401943000/whats-that-smell-the-beautiful-tree-thats-causing-quite-a-stink

You can see where the branch angle was weak and the wind sheared it right off, though it's news to me that Bradford Pears come with a cup holder.

 

But this isn’t all; with flowers which do help the pollinators in spring but with it comes the problem of fruit. Bradford pears produce tiny inedible fruit that only become edible after they have been hit by a frost or two. Realistically the fruit are about the size of a large pea maybe and the birds get at them making a bigger mess. Where the fruit falls can make a mess and pose a slip hazard, then there’s the issue of the seeds coming up where they are not supposed to and the plant escaping cultivation. Did I mention that Bradford Pears are currently considered invasive? Well as it turns out this garbage-tree is considered invasive in the eastern and Midwest regions of the USA because its fast growth allows it to out-compete native species. It is known that this tree has escaped cultivation in at least 152 counties in 25 states in the United States and the escaped types are all wild interbred types that may have even reverted enough to regain their thorns and fruiting spurs. But wait its worse, as it turns out Bradford Pears are impressively short lived as street trees because their average life span is twenty-five years. This is assuming their other greatest weakness does not come into play and end them sooner. You see without proper pruning to cut out forked branches and crossover branches, the fast growing speed comes at the price of weak branch-crotch angles and weak wood in general. As if this wasn’t bad enough after storms like the one we just had Bradford Pears are the most likely tree to have been wrecked especially in high wind conditions, torrential downpours or any weather with ice involved.  This makes them susceptible to ‘shattering’ which may or may not be a biological evolution to asexually reproduce. If one of those branches lands the right way it ‘might’ survive and take root. I wouldn’t bet money on this happening but it could explain the strange proclivity of these trees to fall apart at the slightest of storm winds. There is supposedly an ‘improved’ form of Bradford Pear called the Cleveland Select Pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Cleveland Select’) which realistically still has the same kinds of problems and is literally a terribly false hope for a crappy street tree.

A close up of the foliage and unripe fruit of a Bradford Pear.

Enough about failed street trees, let’s get down to the nitty gritty, the straight dirt, that’s right compost. Compost is as individual as the gardener’s preferences are. There are composting systems that are incredibly diverse ranging from models that spin on a specialized rack to make turning easy to those that roll on the ground, and then there’s the cone shaped ones that can compost bones, the standing bin types and let’s not forget the ones that are designed to handle dog feces. It’s all a very diverse field of options that all have their benefits and disadvantages. Today I’m going to talk briefly about the unit in the Test Gardens which is a standard bin type composter made of black recycled plastic and has a capacity of 80 gallons or roughly about 12 cubic feet. Well due to a conversation in the Sustainable Neighbors Text chat I thought I’d talk about the process I use with some pictures to show what I mean. The basic rule of composting is that you need four things, moisture, soil, green material, and brown material.  The soil which ideally should already be moist introduces the soil borne organisms that will break down the green and brown stuff to make nutrient rich compost. The soil also forms the core basis of the final compost but still should always be about a third of the mix. The soil part can be up half if you are using some especially fast decomposing green material such as grass clippings, or very fast decomposing items like spoiled fruit or leaves like those from spoiled produce, Bradford pear, or a Mulberry.

 

The first few shovel fulls of compost always tells you what the rest is going to be like. Although there is a bit of an Ant issue, the compost is light, airy, dark in color and clearly full of remaining bits of the process like the eggshells you can see in the lower center of the pile.

 

This is my finished product, due to the use of potting soil instead of regular soil my compost has a lot of perlite in it and weighs a lot less than conventional compost but it's no less useful and nutrient dense.

 

            Greenery as noted before are typically grass clippings from moving the lawn, but can be any green material, such as spoiled produce from your kitchen, soft clippings left over from pruning or even crop plants that are effectively spent for the purposes of food production. The greens tuff is essential because it introduces nitrogen based compounds that can accelerate decomposition of the brown materials and will draw in decomposers to the pile.

 

I had to turn the composter over to get at the remaining chunks of compost so that the materials can be turned and the bin re-seated on it's pad of cardboard and newspaper.

 

The brown stuff is typically materials like fallen leaves that have turned brown and are usually crunchy in texture. Brown materials can include limited amounts of pine straw, wet newspaper, wet cardboard, wet tissue paper, and vegetable scraps that are not high in sugar. The brown materials are the longer-lasting food source for decomposers and will often be the last things to break down in a compost pile. Some of the brown materials may even be recognizable a year later, for instance Pineapple skin and tops can persist in the compost for a year plus.

 

The remaining half of the material in this been has been put back in to form the basis of the next 6 cubic feet of compost. For note under the bin is a layer of cardboard and newspapers that keeps root intrusion to a minimum.

Now that we've covered the compost here's some photographs from the gardens.

Alabama Blue Collards overwintered nicely and are about to go gangbusters.

On the left you have store-bought spinach leaves, on the right are homegrown ones from the test gardens, there is no doubt which is better.

This is the first frog seen in the test gardens this year, and it's always a good sign when our amphibian friends are about since they eat a LOT of bugs that might otherwise be a problem.

Coreopsis pubescens 'Sunshine Superman' This coreopsis effectively escaped cultivation, but isn't really invasive and the cheery flowers are always delightful.

 

Speckled Chestnut Mushrooms, I bought these from another vendor at the FFayettevilel City Market. Your read that right folks we now have a Mushroom vendor!

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

Summer Veggies & Herbs: ($3.00 each)

Sungold Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Chocolate Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Lemon Drop Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Sweet Hundreds Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

San Marzano Improved Paste Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad (Sale $2.00)

Paul Robeson Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Cherokee Purple Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Walla Walla Sweet Onion

 

6" pot Sungold Tomato (Sale $3.00) 

6" pot Chocolate Cherry Tomato (Sale $3.00) 

 

Pepper, Sweet Banana

Pepper, Poblano/Ancho

Pepper, Habanero

Pepper, Golden Bell

Pepper, Ghost ($4.00)

 

Wonderberry (Limited Quantity)

Ground Cherry (Limited Quantity)

Cotton, Erlene's Green (Limited Quantity)

Okra, Jing  (Limited Quantity)

 

Basil, Emerald Tower

Basil, Dolche Fresca

Basil, Rutgers DMR Devotion

Oregano

Mountain Mint

 

 

Ornamental Stuff: 

Zanzibar Castor Beans

Mexican Sunflower 'Fuego Del Sol'

Flowering Tobacco 'Saratoga Lime'

 

Coming Soon: 

Comfrey (Mid summer)

 

We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff!  You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.

 

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

 

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the tenth LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 28^th of May. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

Wake me up when election season ends

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, and sorry for the bad mangling of Green Day’s song ‘Wake me up when September Ends’ but let’s be real the elections have been brutal. Fortunately for all of you this isn’t a political blog, well not in the normal sense so I’m not even going to talk about the elections any more than you’ve just seen. Nope, though I do have to comment that we have officially had more tropical storms and hurricanes than in any prior year; below is a link to a CNN article that lists all of them.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/11/us/2020-atlantic-hurricane-season-fast-facts/index.html

Now, that is pretty insane and we still have about a month and half to go in the year. By my fast count that’s twenty-nine storms in total. I don’t recall us ever running out of names and having to go into the Greek alphabet for names but we’re up to Theta, all the while Eta is still slapping around as we speak. I don’t know about all of you out there but if we get close to Omega, I’m building an Ark. Joke aside the reality is that the storms, the pandemic and other events are a direct result of climate change. It was predicted that as we mess with the global temperature via things like deforestation and pollution, we would have more storms, the seal level would rise and of course more pathogens would go full-on pandemic. We as individual can make small decisions to lessen our impact and in our own way that helps slow down the damage being done by the masses. For every square foot of garden you plant you trap some carbon and extract some C02 from the atmosphere and possibly other harmful pollutants in the air, soil and water. If anything given the horror side-show that 2020 has been planting a plot of garden can act as a means of shoring up your mental health, this year’s veggie patch is bigger and better than it’s ever been. In fact here’s a picture of the finished task;

To start this picture-heavy discussion I have to answer a simple question. Why did I add extra area onto an existing and productive vegetable bed? Well, I didn’t do it because I wanted more veggies, I did it to solve a yearly problem with cold-season crops for sale at the market. Every year I produce more plants for sale than I could ever sell. This is done for two reasons, firstly I do need some for my own growing operations, but also I need some to counter losses that will inevitably happen. Some plants just aren’t vigorous or get eaten by bugs or simply die for reasons unknown. Other plants are so vigorous that they out grow their existing pot and this catches my eye and they end up as a specimen or something I propagate to obtain the seed or cuttings. More often than not some plants don’t sell and I wind up with too many using up resources in a pot too small for them to really reach full potential. So to remedy some of that I added 2’ 3” to the width of my veggie bed to utilize some of those plants that are the most numerous on the growing trays. Either way it’s a win in general, I mean look at it! All you gardeners out there know that feeling you get when you set something like this up and then look at it maybe, right after, and then a week after and then a month or so after and there’s this intense feeling of contentment. You built that and it’s successful because you wanted it to be. Ironically that is why we are here today; I wanted to show you how the above garden was expanded because it demonstrates how I actually start new garden beds.

It all starts with peeling back the lawn.  For those of you who are regular readers of this blog you know my stance on lawns. For those who don’t the TL;DR version is that lawns are mostly worthless. They don’t produce food, they don’t enrich the soil, they attempt to compete with crops, and they require extra maintenance to look their best. So with that said out with the lawn and in with the vegetable bed. My favorite tool for this is a stirrup hoe which as you can see in the picture has a truncated triangular head that allows it to get under the lawn (or weeds) and separate the fine roots from the greenery. It’s pretty much a guillotine for plants when you really think about it; and it’s not too far of a step to think of lawn grass like an un-elected monarchy. Another advantage to using a Stirrup how in comparison to other types is that it cuts relatively straight lines and you really don’t work as hard to get the same effect. Before anyone jumps on me and says ‘Hey I thought this blog didn’t advertise!’ we don’t but tools and materials do come from wherever they come from and you can’t always cover over the brand logos. So in the wheelbarrow I have several bags of Black Kow composted cow manure. I use this because its consistency is uniform and its price for a 32lb bag is about $5.00 which is fairly economical. The product quality is very reliable and there is a bit of clay and sand so it’s weighty enough to not readily erode in the rain. Black Kow also is also 0.5-0.5-0.5 (NPK) in terms of nutrient so it cannot burn unless you concentrate it artificially somehow. For the record; from the actual bag of Black Kow, it also adds 1.0 in chlorine, now that part is interesting. As it turns out plants need Chlorine since it is important in the function of plant stomata opening and closing. Now for those of you who don’t study plant biology, this means that Chlorine is critical to a plants ability to exchange gasses which improves their impact on reducing carbon foot prints.

So the next step is to remove the cut bits of grass and weeds and then do a double check for any survivors and remove them too. Inevitably at this stage I find bits of wild Bermuda grass, and a few stolons of Centipede grass. As much soil as is possible is returned to the area and the edges are trimmed a little more.

To cover an area of 2’ 3” by 10’ at a rate of roughly 2.5 inches deep on average it takes all of three out of four bags of composted manure. The fine ridges along the sides that you see in the composted manure are where I tamped down the sides with a hard rake just to firm up the outer boundaries of the soil so they don’t erode as much if it rains. At the center of the bed expansion the composted manure is 2.5” deep at least but this tapers in the border to add more resistance to erosion.

    Now we move onto the fun part, the planting. Those eagle-eyed readers out there might notice I planted a LOT of green Swiss chard, Marrowstem Kale and some smaller hard to identify plants. This selection of cold-season food plants was not due to my own preferences. As some of you know I sell food plants at the downtown market, and inevitably I produce more than I sell most of the time so surplus has to go somewhere and waste not, want not. I had an overabundance of Swiss Chard this fall, and so to reduce inventory about a quarter of it went into this project, the same is true for the Marrowstem Kale. The Kale though is a bit of an oddity, it was a new introduction and folks didn’t seem to want to take a chance on it, which is a shame. As they say, you can lead a gardener to the kale patch but you can’t make him or her eat it.  Seven 3” potted Marrowstem Kale plants went into this project. The little plants in the top third of the new bed are another item that I trialed this year, Rainbow Lacinato Kale. Those seedlings are the best of the third attempt to sow a full tray of the stuff. The first two trays failed and the third was so slow-developing I realized I would not have saleable plants before the frost. So the best of that tray went into the garden, twelve individual growing cells that hopefully will show me what the Rainbow Kale looks like. Supposedly Rainbow Lacinato Kale is called that because it’s stems and by extension it’s foliage develops a variety of colors ranging from shades of green, to yellow, red, purple pink and supposedly blue, but we’ll see. You can bet that when they develop there will be pictures posted up here for your viewing delight.

    Although it’s a given that the soil I used has a decent amount of nutrients for the crops planted. It is for the best that nothing is left to chance and a slow release mineral-based fertilizer with micro nutrients is applied. This fertilizer should be effective for a few months which is more than long enough for this crop.

 

    The cleanup of assorted shrapnel is one of the last steps but is also an important stage in getting things done. All this dead lawn will be dumped in the hedgerow and either it will contribute to the hedgerow by growing or become soil for other things.

The next step is the application of Long Leaf pine straw by way of pitchfork. Pine straw is an effective mulch because it has so much surface area to resist erosion. Quality pine straw can last up to two years as an effective barrier. Also it is very good at stopping weeds and even encroaching grass has to struggle to go over or under it. When pine straw breaks down it becomes organic matter which helps the soil, but it does not block rain from getting through to the soil so unlike weed block it isn’t going to be a long term problem. While Pine straw does slow down the movement of water it is not enough to cause water-logging or soil loss under normal conditions. It is also inexpensive; the local rate per bale of pine straw is $3.88 to $4.75 roughly speaking. It only took two bales to do the entire perimeter of the veggie patch. For the record two bales shored up 41 feet of garden border at an average depth of 1”.  

The last step of course is watering it all in because by planting these plants I’ve caused a bit of trauma. I tear up the peat pots before I plant to make it easier for my crops to grow beyond their boundaries. I know that the advantage to peat pots is that you don’t have to do that, but when it comes to food crops for use at home, I don’t leave that to chance.

As a final thought for this post before we move on to the advertisement part of this post, I know some of you are wondering why I just used composted cow manure instead of potting soil or something lighter. Well erosion is a thing, but the compost makes for the sub-soil in the first year, I cap it in the second year with spent potting soil which then better mimics an enriched soil profile. In the long-run the soil ends up blending due to the actions of my own maintenance of the bed and the actions of soil-borne organisms. It also the best remedy in the long run for the solid sand soil on my property and a good way to recycle resources.



With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

Fresh Produce:*
Soup Kit: Parsnip: $6.00
Soup Kit: Turnip: $6.00
Seasoning Packet: $2.00
Garlic Bulbs: $1.00

Food Plants: (3” Peat Pots) (ALL ON SALE!!!)
Arugula: $2.00
Cardoon, Artichoke: $2.00
Carrot, Chantennay Red-Core: $2.00
Collards, Carolina: $2.00
Kale, Lace: $2.00
Kale, Marrow Stem: $2.00
Kale, Scotch Blue Curled: $2.00
Kale, Winterbor: $2.00
Kohlrabi, Cossack: $2.00
Swiss Chard, Green: $2.00
Swiss Chard, Red: $2.00
Spinach, Avon: $2.00

Coming Soon:
Ginger


*You can special order a specific vegetable by the pound if you want anything specific that is in the soup kits or any specific herb contained in the seasoning packets. Vegetables are sold by the pound and seasonings are sold by the ounce when sold individually.

We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff!  You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the twenty-first LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 13th of November. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

Trials and Tribulations Of Soil

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market.  Today’s episode is an expansion of the topic we discussed at the Sustainable Neighbors meeting this week (February the 13^th).  Obviously, there are certain things that I didn’t cover due to time and conversational constraints that I can touch upon here at LITFM to color the picture far better than I could at the meeting. So the first thing is the most well-known definition pertaining to soil.

Dirt – Dirt is soil that is out of place.

This is a nice human-centric view of soil that has been misplaced, but realistically dirt and soil are largely identical and the highbrow definition just muddies the waters (pun alert). In reality the soil you find in nature is a mixture of four potential ingredients, Organic matter, Sand, Silt and Clay. The ratio of these ingredients determines the soil’s overall properties and its ability to support life in general.  The mineral components of soil are just as important as the organic matter however as you can see below, Sand, Silt and Clay are all defined by the average diameter of their given particles.

=================================================

| Very Coarse Sand | 2.00 - 1.00mm diameter     |

| Coarse Sand      | 1.00 - 0.50mm diameter     |

| Medium Sand      | 0.50 - 1.25mm diameter     |

| Fine Sand        | 0.25 – 0.10mm diameter     |

| Very Fine Sand   | 0.10 – 0.05mm diameter     |

| Silt             | 0.05 – 0.002mm diameter    |

| Clay             | less than 0.002mm diameter |

=================================================

As I noted in the meeting, the mineral-based aspects of the soil all originally came from solid rock that has been broken down by weather, temperature, chemical factors or, physical factors to eventually become one of the above soil components. You need some of the above mineral ingredients to have a good fertile soil because they each play a role in maintaining the soil structure and aiding in defining the differences in the various horizons or depths of the soil. As hard as this might be to believe, Soil as a whole is a three-dimensional structure with definable levels or ‘Horizons’ that are marked by their increasing similarity to the parent materials in the bedrock below. The area we often work with is the A horizon and sometimes the beginning of the B Horizon, given that there is no absolute standard for the depths of these soil horizons, you can literally dig down into the B-horizons and not even know it.

==============================================================

| A1 Horizon | Topsoil | Zone of Organic Matter Accumulation |

| A2 Horizon | Subsoil | Zone of maximum loss                |

| B1 Horizon | Subsoil | Transition Zone, more like A than B |

| B2 Horizon | Subsoil | Zone of maximum Accumulation        |

| B3 Horizon | Subsoil | Transition Zone, more like B than C |

| C Horizon  | Bedrock | Parent materials that make A&B      |

==============================================================

The above chart is important because everything we do to improve the soil is done to the A1 horizon. A1 is also called Topsoil because it represents (ideally) the very dark first few inches of soil sitting where your crops can get at the nutrients readily. Unfortunately in the soil products industry the topsoil is more loosely defined as the first inches of the soil regardless of how good or bad those inches might be. Everything you do to improve the soil when you garden is ultimately aimed at making the top soil nutrient-dense and able to hold moisture longer for the benefit of whatever you grow. This is because, the A2 horizon is quite the opposite in character, since it is where your nutrients drain away with the movement of water never to be seen again as they follow gravity and go deeper into the soil until they accumulate in the B2 zone. The B2 horizon might just be several feet down and out of reach for normal food crops which is why we focus on replenishing the Topsoil.

In an ideal situation you want a soil mixture that is defined by the word ‘Loam’ which means that all of the soil’s ingredients are in roughly equal proportions.  As those of you who cook know, a finished dish (in this case the loam soil) is an amalgam of its parts and each of those parts plays a critical role in making the soil you desire. The first ingredient to a Loam soil is Organic matter. Organic matter is best defined as any organic material such as leaves, compost, manure, grass clippings and/or mulch that is actively decomposing into what is called Topsoil. As noted before Topsoil is that dark rich layer that your plants put out most of their roots in and it determines how bountiful your harvests are. Good topsoil traps moisture and has countless organisms living in it making more than just the sum of its parts. When it comes to improving your topsoil I will always say compost of some sort is critical, as that is literally concentrated decomposing organic matter which can help enrich your soil. I do not recommend the wholesale use of Peat moss or Coconut Fiber (Coir), because peat moss can dry out and repel water, and coconut fiber is just coarse lumps of a plant material called Lignin. Lignin is defined as the following;

Lignin – A complex organic Polymer deposited in the cell walls of many plants making them rigid and woody.

Lignin is pretty much what Peat Moss and Coco-fiber are made of, but you can also see it when you find decomposed leaves where only the leaf ribs remain. It is part of why leaves for hardwood trees take longer to fully break down. In the environment Lignin is useful because it can be used to prevent erosion by providing a temporary rigid structure within leaf mulch that prevents the loss of soil and slows the movement of wind and or water. But it isn’t the only component we need to consider as Cellulose is very important to building good topsoil.

Cellulose – An insoluble substance that is the main component of plant cell walls and of vegetable fibers such as cotton and wood. It is a polysaccharide consisting of chains of glucose monomers.

Cellulose is commonly thought of as being something found in wood; however it is also very present in Pine Straw. In the case of mulches cellulose is critical because it can delay decomposition and create a protected environment where the actual soil beneath it isn’t going anywhere because the coarse textures of the mulch are reducing the effects of erosion all the while providing something for decomposers to eat. A combination of mulch and compost is the best way to improve your topsoil over time. However you should be wary of most bagged ‘Compost’ products as the quality and what they define as ‘compost’ varies as much as the loose definition of ‘topsoil’ does in the bagged soil products industry.

I found this nice color version of the soil triangle online.

There is a fast way to test your soil to determine what its core components are made of so you can enact a plan to improve your situation. Here is how you perform a saturation test of your soil; get a mason jar, and  put a few inches of soil in the jar then fill it up with water, put the lid on tightly and shake it. Let the jar sit undisturbed for a few days and come back and check it. Since we know that the particles of the soil are different sizes this means that they will settle out of solution at differing speeds. Sand will settle first, followed by silt then clay and organic matter will either be floating or settle last. Using a ruler to measure the layers you can get a rough idea of their proportions. With that information you can use the Soil Triangle below to figure out what type of soil you have and what you have to add to change it to another type if you desire. Pure loam is the objective, but you can work with any of the alternative loam style soils as well. With the varied types of loam soil you will also find that certain nutrient's availability change relative to the overall soil pH. The chart below demonstrates this in full color.

 

I also found this online with a google search, not sure who created it but all credit goes to them.

There is one thing I should mention here, and this is a cautionary detail; there is a old Roman saying that goes something like ‘Nothing To Excess’ and this is true of soils and particularly so of organic matter. Too much organic matter at any given time is a bad thing, because soils that are awash in organic matter can turn abiotic. The term abiotic is pretty serious in relation to soil as it means your soil is not turning into anything by the actions of living organisms, it is changing by physical or chemical means. Worse yet if a soil that is heavy on organic matter is constantly wet it’s often called Sapric or sometimes ‘Muck’ and you will see situations like this in isolated bogs where you can see a film of oils on the surface of standing stagnant water.  This is not to say you cannot work with such soils as such soils when properly managed are idea for growing specialty crops like onions, carrots, celery and potatoes.  However, the problems with agriculture on muck-type soils are numerous; there is the issue of wind-erosion and the constant loss of soil due to oxidation from exposure. Agricultural operations on such soils have to be very soil conservation focused and it is a specific expertise that isn’t common in the United States.

The last detail in the topic at hand is the comparison between natural soils and artificial soils. As noted earlier, a natural soil is anything you’d find in your yard. However, an artificial soil is something like ‘garden soil’, ‘potting soil’, ‘propagation mix’ and other similar artificial soils blended in a way that unlikely to be naturally occurring. These artificial soils often contain components that are not found in nature such as perlite, vermiculite, wetting agents, artificially introduced fungi, encapsulated or slow-release fertilizers and other features that sound great but realistically are just there to drive up the selling price. Below is a short set of definitions regarding common things you will find in artificial soils.

Perlite – A amorphous volcanic glass that has a high water content, it is typically formed by hydrating obsidian, it is used to improve water-holding capacity in soil and it also lightens the weight of the soil by creating airspaces.

Vermiculite – Is an aluminum-iron-magnesium silicate similar to mica, it us used to increase the water-holding capacity of soil while adding mineral based nutrients to the soil.

Osmocote – A brand of slow-release encapsulated fertilizers typical of the kind found in some bagged soil products. Osmocote was developed by Scotts, and is a controlled release fertilizer product that is active at certain temperatures and moisture levels. At 70 degrees osmocote will last roughly four months in the soil before becoming depleted.

Wetting Agent – Wetting Agents are sometimes called Emulsions or Surfactants, wetting agents in artificial soils are used to make the other components in a soil easier to hydrate and keep hydrated as some ingredients like peat moss can become hydrophobic.

Peat Moss – Peat or Sphagnum Moss is a semi-sustainable product comprised of peat which is the decayed remains of plant that decay in an environment with a lot of water and no oxygen creating an altered process of decay. When dry Peat moss can become hydrophobic (repels water), which can be a problem with peat products and the use of peat to enrich garden soils.

Coco Fiber – Coco Fiber or Coir comes from the outer husks of coconuts making it a sustainable agricultural product. Coir is coarser than peat moss, and lasts a bit longer in the soil while also being roughly pH neutral.

Pine Bark Fines – Pine Bark fines are a waste product of the lumber industry. While technically semi-sustainable, the common nursery soil mix in the Carolinas calls for a blend that uses pine bark fines and or peat moss to provide organic matter content to offset the sand content in the mix.

Mycorrhizae – Mycorrhizae (Plural) or Mycorrhiza if your taking about one (pronounced ˌmīkəˈrīzə) is a type of fungi that is being added to soil mixes a lot these days. This beneficial fungus often partners with your plants to help their nutrient uptake in exchange for sugars or other compounds the plant in question produces. Mycorriza is found in nature however, adding it to soil mixes generally is used as a gimmick to increase sale prices.

Well, that was a lot. But you see, artificial soils have a lot of things in them that require human intervention which makes artificial soils noticeably different than the stuff in your yard. Given time artificial soils do break down into a darker more nutrient dense version of natural soil, but in the meanwhile, side by side potting soils and the like look like a muscle car compared to your natural soil looking a bit like an AMC Pacer that’s missing one wheel. It can be tempting to just cheat and go the artificial soil route to skip a few steps in your journey towards growing all your own veggies and defeating your grocery bill. As we all know eventually that muscle car becomes less than appropriate and you have to trade in for something more sensible, and following this metaphor, a few years down the road that potting soil you spent big bucks on then has evolved into the soil equivalent of a station wagon, practical useful and an improvement overall. In the end when it comes to soil, you always have time on your side so I always urge you to go the compost route, build your soil naturally.  

Benjamin Franklin Said it best; “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of a low price is forgotten.” Indeed, this is true because when you buy into the fancy artificial soils, you get some gains the first year, but after that, diminishing returns kicks in. When you build your soil naturally, you get consistent output and long term satisfactory from a job well done.

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

Plants & Stuff Available Now:

All the Stuff:

Soup Kits: $6.00

Seasoning Packets: $2.00

Ginger, 4oz Packet: $2.00

Wormwood Packets: $2.00

Lavender Packets: $2.00

Pepper Packets: $2.00

Garlic, Whole Bulb: $1.00

Coming Soon:

Abutilon ‘Orange Hot Lava’

Cuban Oregano

These days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions then I will be there to answer your questions. Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in ask for us and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

This brings to a close the fourth LITFM post of 2020, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 6^th of March. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.