I was left wondering how anything that wet gets to be dry enough to even
look like plantable soil.
“Cover it with plastic sheeting. The sun will warm the earth and evaporate
the moisture,” suggested Scott. And so I draped the whole thing and dumped
stray timbers on it to hold the plastic down. The sun disappeared—it does that
for months on end in the Pacific Northwest—and it rained hard, which it also
does, and then it blew a gale. The plastic blew off, and the rain saturated the
ground. I eventually found and replaced the plastic and nailed it down with
wooden stakes.
It rained for days; a weak sun got the soil temperature just over 60ºF. At least
the runoff was redirected through the French drain.
I learned later on in the year that the drying out of such sogg y soil is hastened
by removing the plastic in the early afternoon to let the steam roll off and then
replacing it just before sunset.
3. Soil Improvement
We ordered 2 yards of steer manure and six bags of Coco-Coir; sprinkled it liber
ally over the clay; rented a small, almost feminine rototiller; and proceeded to
mix it all up into what looked like a wild rice pilaf that had been left on the stove
way too long! We bounced the clumped clay up and down using a six-pronged
composting fork, removing stones and bits of green netting, gradually reducing
the clumps to a rough granular texture. Finally, we nailed the plastic sheeting
back in place with long wooden pegs and prayed for the sun.
In a real sense, this was an emergency action designed to move from sod to
kitchen-garden-ready in one fell swoop. There would be more to come, as dis
cussed under “Feeding” on page 35.
MY NEED-TO-KNOW LIST • 23