Saturday, March 28, 2009

Soil Testing

Early March.... two solid weeks of glorious spring weather.
.
So I set out to take advantage of the molehills and start seeding them with my grass/wildflower "For clay soils and wetlands" mix. Also over the areas where the turf and a lot of the topsoil has been trampled out of existence.
.
And I resolved that this week I would start my survey of the land.... depth of topsoil (if any!!) type (clay, loam etc) and pH.
.
Sodd's Law immediately strikes. The weather turns very windy and with a bitter Northern bite to it.
.
Result, my seeds were carried off by the wind, and as I pulled out my carefully assembled and lovingly laminated map of the farm, complete with penned in notes, half a dozen raindrops splodged down onto it and wiped out half my annotations.
.
So those jobs will have to wait until the weather clears up.
.
On the positive side, E-Bay has now produced a strimmer and a shredder, so I can work on the build up of my compost heaps. I've already got a great stack of tree prunings to work on, plus all the areas where weeds have run riot. not that I want rid of the nettles.... but I do want them under control..... along with the thistles, which are truly out of hand.
.
I saw a video on You-Tube a few days ago, showing how a hot shower was run off a compost heap over some months. It's got me wondering if I can get myself a free heated greenhouse run from compost-power. Watch this space.....
.
My comfrey arrived yesterday. Fifty bit of chopped off root. The weather won't allow me to plant them, so I've just popeed them into a bit of soil in a seed tray to get them going.

No comments:

Post a Comment