sandy soils and root vegetables
There is now a huge mound of soil above A1, near the hoop house. Brent Haddad dropped it off today. It is darker, richer than ours - and slightly sandy. It would be perfect for growing carrots, beets, and other root crops in, for they could easily push the soils around and grow large in it. So I'm wondering if I ought to make a root crop bed...
But the thing with that is, then only one niche gets filled. Sure, carrots and beets both grow greens, but we need something a bit bigger ...How about broccoli? I've seen, from that one bed that shares broccoli, leeks, and raddishes, that broccoli can get HUGE. So it would be appropriate to have it share a bed with the other two. We might have to enrich the broccoli areas with a little compost first.
Spinach also grows well in sandy soils, and it provides a canopy with its big leaves. Maybe spinach would work as an intercropping with the other two. I wonder when we would plant each species successively? This is important, because to extract the root vegetables, it would be important to wait until the broccoli and spinach have reached full maturity and are ready to be taken out (then steamed or used in sauerkraut or something like that). Otherwise, the process might upset their root system.
Or, if we were careful, we could plant them far enough apart that we could take out the root vegetables without upsetting the other two. But then, what about soil compaction? Well, we could plant the areas where the root veggies were vacated with something else, successively...
Another thing about the soil is ...it would make a great addition to all other beds. I am beginning to think that no amount of double-digging is going to make a difference on the rock and clay content of the soil (at least, not for several years). It might be better to build up the soils in a different way - build on the soils, instead. If we could build up a layer on the beds before sheetmulching, then we could pump Haddad's soil super-full with nutrients and keep adding healthy soils on top from there. Haddad's could serve as a sort of intermediate layer, a transition from our soils to the "good stuff". But we'd first need to make sure that we have enough "good stuff" to put on top...
But the thing with that is, then only one niche gets filled. Sure, carrots and beets both grow greens, but we need something a bit bigger ...How about broccoli? I've seen, from that one bed that shares broccoli, leeks, and raddishes, that broccoli can get HUGE. So it would be appropriate to have it share a bed with the other two. We might have to enrich the broccoli areas with a little compost first.
Spinach also grows well in sandy soils, and it provides a canopy with its big leaves. Maybe spinach would work as an intercropping with the other two. I wonder when we would plant each species successively? This is important, because to extract the root vegetables, it would be important to wait until the broccoli and spinach have reached full maturity and are ready to be taken out (then steamed or used in sauerkraut or something like that). Otherwise, the process might upset their root system.
Or, if we were careful, we could plant them far enough apart that we could take out the root vegetables without upsetting the other two. But then, what about soil compaction? Well, we could plant the areas where the root veggies were vacated with something else, successively...
Another thing about the soil is ...it would make a great addition to all other beds. I am beginning to think that no amount of double-digging is going to make a difference on the rock and clay content of the soil (at least, not for several years). It might be better to build up the soils in a different way - build on the soils, instead. If we could build up a layer on the beds before sheetmulching, then we could pump Haddad's soil super-full with nutrients and keep adding healthy soils on top from there. Haddad's could serve as a sort of intermediate layer, a transition from our soils to the "good stuff". But we'd first need to make sure that we have enough "good stuff" to put on top...
posted by Yvea at 12:00 PM
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