The Latest Dirt

Knowing that I find soil endlessly fascinating, my son Chris recorded a documentary about soils of the Amazon. Some archeologists got to looking from the air at some mysterious green islands in the middle of pretty barren savannah in Bolivia. Coming down to earth, they explored those fertile patches. They discovered terra preta, or black soil. It was a mix of the surrounding poor soil, charcoal bits, broken pottery and organic material.

The video showed a reinactment of what life must have been like before the entire civilization vanished. The women, pretty much naked in some scenes to hold the interest of guy viewers, were doing all the gardening work. I imagine lugging tons of soil to higher levels was probably the work of strong men. Or maybe the women were true Amazons.

After making one tier in the garden from found aluminum soffits, I was blessed with some actual landscaping terrace stones for the top tier. My daughter Izzy had dug them up at her place, where they had been used for borders.

The hard part was getting them level for the first layer. Using the bubble level, I kept at it. The second and third layers were easy. It was not whimsical like the other level, but quite lovely, almost professionally landscaped.

That level of the garden was dreadful clay. I decided to make my own terra preta. Inexplicably, I was out of pottery shards. Having no desire to be that authentic, I substituted cow and horse manure for the human waste. I added crushed eggshells, pelleted limestone and buckets of silt from above the river, mixing it from time to time with Tillie. I incorporated kitchen scraps in the top few inches.

Thinking I was really onto something, I put it to bed for the winter. In the spring, I planned to plant it with snow peas and lettuces.

What Went Wrong?

The blessed stuff would not dry out. It seemed I had made terra goo.

The lower end of the garden dried out first, so the snow peas went in there. They are doing nicely.

Since the stones are a drystone wall, they should have allowed the excess water to pass through. Maybe I need to dig a trench above it to divert the runoff from the slope above it.

The terra preta mix was used in other parts of the garden, so it's probably a good idea.

Compared to the massive scope of the raised earthenworks of the lost civilizations, this little garden is nothing. However I am beginning to have my doubts about how much soil I can dig with a shovel and carry in a bucket.

This motivated me to continue with the Remote Garden. After mowing it recently, I scalped the grasses with a weed-whacker yesterday. I have a few weeks to get the soil ready for the excessive amounts of tomato and pepper plants that are growing bigger every day.

The best part is no earth-moving. Well, I do intend to loosen the plot with a turning fork, but not actually turning it.