Side note: If you're interested in gardening, or living, or existing in a happier state on this earth, GO OUTSIDE. Dig a hole. Put a seed in there and see what happens.
Anyway, in learning about types of soils and soil orders and what not, I discovered that I live on a nice big slab of Vertisol. Vertisol is a soil order that is largely defined by the properties of the copious amounts of clay present. These clays shrink when they are in extended dry conditions and swell when there are wet conditions. In the Willamette Valley, we have Xeric moisture regimes, which means we have very very wet winters and extremely dry summers. Since the clay content is SO high on my property, soil drainage becomes a real issue in the home veggie garden. When I started digging up my garden bed last year, I spent boat loads of money on soil amenders and compost to try and improve the drainage there. When I started to till the soil a bit today, I found that the places I tilled in soil amender last year, were not nearly as well drained or healthy as the places I tilled in mostly compost! I also found that there were an abundance of worms (good for creating macro pores aka good for drainage) in the more compost rich sections of the garden. My soils professor, the notorious James Cassidy, says that the answer to almost anything is ADD ORGANIC MATTER. Kudos to you JC, for you are full of magical soil wisdom.
SO all of this is to give you my hypothesis and methods for my garden experiment this year. In order to make the soil more glorious for my plant babies this year, I am planning on adding almost exclusively organic matter, in the form of good quality compost and leaf mulch. The organic matter should help improve drainage and should allow the plants to access a larger portion of the nutrients and water stored up so tightly in that soil. Clay holds on to moisture and nutrients, so although I watered often, I found that my plant babies were dehydrated and sad. The added organic matter should help alleviate that issue. As I continue to add more OM through the years, I'm hoping one day, my plant babies will be able to access the all of the glorious nutrients! The leaf much will remain on top of the soil throughout the growing season to help retain moisture in that top layer. Summers are very dry here so the top 2 inches or so of soil dry out very quickly.
I am also planning on only truly loosening/tilling the sections of ground where I will actually be placing seedlings or seeds after my first addition of organic matter. Since soil is a self-organizing living thing, this will help maintain some of the tunnels (macro pores) developed by roots of past plants, worms, and burrowing animals. This should hopefully create a better draining environment for my plant babies!!
As the season progresses, I'll keep you all (I am absolutely positive you're enamored with all of this riveting information) posted with my results! Below, you'll find a picture of my progress today. Initial till done with a pitch fork, gently, to maintain developed pores and worm life. This is pre added organic matter. Where you see the pitch fork stuck in the ground on the right side of the picture marks the future border of my plot. I'm expanding :)
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