Of Loam, seeds and greenhouses

Now that we are moved in I've started to break up that straight clay we have here at the corner of 58th Street and 17th Avenue. An interesting observation is that only 5 blocks to the north (closer to the American River) the soil is a bit different. There I had a LOT more river rocks to deal with but a slightly better draining soil with more sand content. Of course, still mostly clay but not as bad as what I have here. Solutions? Found a CL ad from someone digging out a basement in Midtown. Lots of very clean sandy loam. More than I could use at the moment but will go back to get more as I dig up the about 500 ft/sq that will be our garden. Made two trips and have more than enough for the current beds. Hit up Home Depot and found some composted chicken manure for a good price.

I ended up with a 33/33/33 mix of Loam, Clay and Compost in the beds I dug about 2 feet deep. Sara suggests saving some of the clay for making an outdoor oven. Since I've only used a small portion of the available space that is totally possible. This stuff dries up as hard as a brick when left exposed.

I also had to clear out the gutters before the rain last night and today and found that most of the leaf matter in there was already composted so I mixed that into the previous mix. It now has a noticeable dark, healthy color to it.

Which brings me to getting stuff into the ground. I've started a few trays of cucumbers, tomatillos, lettuce, melons and even watermelon (Lex's favorite so I figure I'll start an early batch and see what happens). In order to support these early sprouts I gotta have a greenhouse. I used a very vermicompost (yay to my wroms!) rich blend to start off with to give them an early boost. As with most of my stuff I rely on gleaming from my REAL farmer friends the practices they employ to run productive, vibrant farms. Soil Born Farms has tomato seedlings that are apparently growing fast.

We've had lots of sun so I can imagine those trays basking in a warm, humid greenhouse while they take root. I've got the spot picked out against a South facing wall of the house and will be 4'x7'. I'll use PVC to build the frame and then have stand alone shelves for trays.


It's just the beginning so doing a lot of reading and listening to those wiser then myself. My first attempt at growing a garden last season did pretty good so expecting to be even better this year!