Lesson 1: Soils

 As I mentioned previously when you water something exceedingly dry it tends to repel the water (hydrophobic). Depending on the composition of the soil, (ratio of organic, inorganic and other materials) it can either accept the water readily and take several waterings or maybe need additional chemical and organic help and a lot more work. Luckily I fell into the former category. Persistent thorough watering and working the soil got the moisture all the way through.

Now, soil texture/composition.  Two terms that in essence mean the same thing but are different. Texture is how the soil looks and feels, is it gritty, dry, composty, rocky, sandy...what have you. Composition is what materials are giving it that texture. General materials in most soils, and I am speaking of in ground soils not potting soils (and thus another lesson borne from that) are sand, clay, rock and organic components.

Native raw soil has various compositions depending on where you live, whether it has been left fallow or cultivated and properly amended. There is a vast difference between areas and even between neighborhoods of soil composition and texture. I don't know how many times I have had customers say, 'my front yard looks great but my back yard has horrible soil' or some such complaint. There is a saying I learned at the nursery, 'five feet is as good as a mile'. Which means, you can have great soil in your front yard on one side, and crappy soil on the other side. This all goes back to not only what was done to the lot before you got to that house as to the geology of the area and rainfall and a WHOLE lot of other factors but back on point.

Let's work with what I have shall we? The basic soil for my area is red clay and sandy rock. The red clay in a soil usually means it has a little higher iron, good for greening up things and some growth. Now, given that the lemon bush and the mint are green and healthy for the most part, that speaks volumes about the condition of the raw soil. Which also means I do not want to add too much else in the way of high nitrogen organic material to my soil.The mint is doing what it does in full sun, if it was growing in more shade the leaves would be bigger and fuller. 

When you have low organic material in your soil it is generally low nitrogen and possibly low phosphorous as well. I will be getting a soil test kit soon to check the components just for education sake otherwise I wouldn't bother. Something else that I hear a lot is from transplanted Eastern/NorWestern people. 'I could grow anything in my other yard, the soil was fantastic!' Here's why: Rain and Trees. Do I have to get a map and a biology book? 

San Diego is a coastal semi arid alkali subtropical scrub wasteland (okay maybe not a wasteland). We get low rainfall, never had much in the way of large vegetation to break down and feed the soil. What we have is rocks, a lot of clay which varies from what I have to what is called 'caleche' or adobe clay that is pretty much not going to grow anything but bricks. So what we have to do is amend heavily with compost some manures, and other organic material. A lot of people don't have the room to do their own composting so bagged stuff it is and it is just fine....to a point. There are variations and I will get to that another time.

Compost in bags: look at the ingredients. Sometimes 'composted forest fines' or 'composted forest by product' as well as other things. Not all composted things are the same but again we will have to stretch that into another lesson. 

Definition of compost: Compost is decomposed organic material. So that can be manure (cow/steer/chicken/rabbit/horse) mixed with other products like straw, grass or whatever. Typically our San Diego soil is seriously lacking in that stuff so unless you're growing above ground in containers, your soil may well need it. Again, depends on where you live, you may be lucky.

So figure out what your soil is like, what's it got. Is it accepting water readily? Does the water puddle and then disappear or stick around for hours or days? Dig it through, see what it's got, if you can't get a shovel in there when it's damp, you've got work ahead of you.

So composition is what is in the soil, texture is what it looks and feels like. Sandy clay, not so good for foresty type plants, citrus actually love well drained soil. It's all a balance and I will talk about that next time. I tended to ramble here so if I missed a point that needed clarifying, just shoot a message!