dumping all the surface water directly onto our sunny
gardening site.
Our first task was to redirect the surface water by digging out an 8-inch-deep trench to intercept the runoff.
We buried a 4-inch perforated drainage pipe and then
covered it in ½-inch gravel. All this is what I was told is
called a French drain. Exactly why it’s French I’ve been un-
able to discover. Everyone with an English background
usually questions why things are dubbed “French”!
Our lawn/soil turned out to be pH 5.77, quite possibly because of the leaching effect of rain over the
concrete driveway. (For more on pH, see “Feeding” on page 35.) At this stage I
wanted a sustainable garden in which I’d do my best naturally, but I also didn’t
want to fail by immediately pursuing an organic-only project and risking my al
ready fragile expectations of success.
I began with the thought that I might have to use some chemical intervention to avoid yet another failure in my hitherto history of gardening misdeeds.
As it turned out, going organic was less of a problem and more of a benefi t.
Healthy soil begets healthy plants.
I have now read enough about soil to be better informed and yet still relatively clueless. I know enough to be awestruck at the complexity of nature and
convinced that I need to do much more to leave it alone!
I have neither the space nor the expertise (yet) to give you specifi c guidance
on how to adjust your own share of the 7 inches of topsoil that wrap our world
in the raw material of life itself, because without it all life would fail. What I can
do is share my enthusiasm to know more and then do more to preserve the soil . . .
the way it was designed to function.
Th e word natural has, like all good, simple words, been abused until almostunrecognizable. The natural world is, to my mind, that which is left entirely on
its own.
We have an island close to our home called Camano. The First Nation peoples of the Northwest used to call it the Island of the Berries. They would come
MY NEED-TO-KNOW LIST • 19