March 22, 2009 A Lil' Soil Love

Today was too nice of a day not to be outside, and since I still have tons of work to do in the garden that's where I spent it. We took a trip to the Depot to get some vermiculite and peat moss (and flowers for the record).

Found out that they don't sell large bags of vermiculite, so I bought three little ones. I had no clue how much I'd need but it seemed like a good amount. Same for the Peat Moss. I ended up with two 3 cubic feet bags.

I didn't give a whole lot of thought as to HOW I was going to incorporate it into the soil, but I figured how hard could it be: Just sprinkle a little on the top and work it in right? Well Kinda.

Here is the plot before:

Now with a sprinkling of vermiculite:

Now with the peat moss:

For some reason at that point something didn't look right to me. I finished covering the whole plot with one bag of each. So I ran inside to grab my tape measure. It turns out that I only has about 30 feet tilled, and if I wanted to stick to my plan I needed to turn up another 10 feet or so. So I stood there and cursed a little, but then decided at least this time I can photograph what I did. Keep in mind for some reason I thought doing all this by hand was a good idea despite the roto-tiller that my landlord offered me. So here's what I did...


1. After measuring out the area, I used a spade to edge out the area I was digging up. This was the easy part.

2. I then dug lines from left to right creating 2 foot strips of sod. I tried jamming the shovel as far under the grass and prying it loose. Also not too hard.

3. I then flipped each 2 foot sod strip over. Mostly by hand, but I used a shovel for the stubborn ones. Some of those weed roots go deep!

4. I shook as much dirt off as possible and pile up the grass on the side. I'll toss all the grass and weeds I ripped up and throw it on the compost pile, but I'll save that for another day.










While I was at it I decided I'd dig down a little and loosen up some of the soil. I was thinking that this might be a better way to incorporate the vermiculite and peat moss.







I dug down about a foot on and piled up the dirt on one side. This took FOREVER! There were so many rocks on this side of the plot. If you look close you can see the beginnings of the rock pile between the piles of grass.


I had gotten this far I thought I'd try putting in the boarders. My landlord has a big pile of old fence posts that he offered me.

I first put then in the trench I dug, but it seem to take up too much room. Instead I placed them on the edge and piled up the dirt to edge of the posts. I'm not sure if they're secure enough, but it was good enough for now. I then repeated the process on the other side.

Anyone have any better way to do this? I figured I could dig another more shallow trench and drop it in, but I'll worry about that if the post rolls away.

Well after battling the rocks and finishing up the west side of the plot, I went back and worked in the vermiculite and peat moss inot the soil using a rake. I wasn't able to work it in too deep, so I'll have to go out there with a shovel some time soon and dig it by hand. ....Or just get the roto-tiller!

Well despite the rocks and getting a little more carried away today that I was planning, it was a good day in the dirt. Here's the finished product: