From: pintiha@jhmi.edu   
      
   On Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at 9:22:00 AM UTC-4, songbird wrote:   
   > Pavel314 wrote:   
   > > My wife got some seeds for a Japanese carrot which is supposed to grow two   
   feet long "in the proper soil". So I spent the morning making the soil proper   
   in one of the garden rows. The area is about three feet across and six feet   
   long.    
   > >   
   > > I dug it out to a depth of two feet, hitting red clay about a foot down.   
   The red clay will go in some low spots in the back pasture. I then put some   
   perlite and sand in the bottom of the pit and dug it into the base clay a bit.   
   Next came about a foot    
   of compost, followed by another sprinkling of perlite and sand. Finally, the   
   topsoil which was removed was replaced and raked smooth. A bit of compost on   
   top of that gave her a good bed for the seeds. Seems like a proper carrot bed   
   to me.   
   > >   
   > > Very strenuous work for an old man but good exercise. I'll report back in   
   a few months on the length of the carrots. I hope they appreciate all my   
   efforts.   
   >    
   > the few times i've had carrots here they've done ok, but   
   > i also planned on the soil being poor down deep so bought   
   > the short and sweet kind.  they did ok, but Mom is now    
   > hooked on baby carrots so she just didn't like the ones i   
   > grew.   
   >    
   >   as far as soil prep, the compost would need to be fairly   
   > well graded to remove the bigger pieces otherwise you risk   
   > splitting or other odd shapes.  mound it slightly to get a   
   > little more elevation and after the carrots have been   
   > growing make sure to keep the tops slightly covered to   
   > avoid them going green.   
   >    
   >   my body really likes it when i dig as long as i don't do   
   > something stupid and twist my leg or back.  so far this    
   > season i've finally managed to clear a large weedy garden   
   > by digging holes and burying what i scrape (using a flat   
   > shovel).     
      
   A few years ago, I dug what I call "compost holes" around two filbert trees   
   that needed help. I used a posthole digger to put four or five holes about   
   three feet deep around the drip line of each tree, then filled the holes with   
   manure and weed clippings,   
    topping them off with the grass which had been growing there. It seems to   
   have worked; the trees produced a good crop of nuts that year, all of which   
   were eaten by the squirrels.    
      
   Which reminds me of a project back in junior high school. There was a lot in   
   our neighborhood where we played baseball but there were several large   
   boulders scattered around the outfield which deflected grounders and   
   interfered with our fielding efforts.    
   One day, I went out with a shovel and dug a big hole by each boulder. I then   
   rolled the boulder into the hole and covered it with dirt. They've probably   
   built something there in the last fifty years. I bet the excavators were   
   puzzled when they found    
   those boulders buried out there.    
      
      
      
      
      
   if there is grass roots/stolons in there that   
   > i'm worried about growing back up i cover it with newspaper   
   > or cardboard before burying with about a foot or more of   
   > dirt.  all of that buried organic material is prime worm   
   > food and also having all those air gaps in there makes it   
   > a great place to collect extra rain when it happens.  it   
   > just so happened that yesterday we had a pretty severe   
   > downpour and those buried holes probably soaked up    
   > several hundred gallons of water that would have otherwise   
   > run off that garden.   
   >    
   >   going to have to weed it again this week, but with a    
   > quick scrape of a strap/stirrup hoe i can do the whole    
   > thing in a few hours now.   
   >    
   >    
   >   songbird   
      
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