Plant trivia some backstory and more dirt talk.

 

As a side note about some plants. This is a cyclamen, typically they are a fall through winter shade perennial. The heat of summer can make them yellow and wither down then they rest over summer and come back in late fall. If you can see, this one has amazingly set seed capsules. The flower is at the top but the other balls on the ends of stems were former flowers. Seed capsules are typically sterile if they show up at all. Most people can't make them last but this one seems to be thriving on near neglect and I think it's been there since last summer. I will monitor it for any change in condition over the next few months.

I didn't need to water my bed but went out and turned it a little. The soil is really respectable compared to the base soil of the ground. I was able to talk to the apartment manager (Wanda) and told her I was working in the garden and asked if there was a shovel somewhere.  She said she would check it out.

I did find a small rusty trowel behind a tree and it's usable for digging small holes. Not so much for turning the bed. Found tools are good as long as they are still in a condition to be used. Less money I have to use.

A few more details about me and my experience, which I only touched on briefly in my first post. I went to a local community college for three and a half years to learn landscape design and plant ID. I was not able to finish to get my degree in that but earned a 'garden design certificate' from the courses I completed. I worked at a few  places while being a single mom, homeless a few times and finally found my dream job.

I worked for close to twenty years at an independent nursery here in San Diego called Walter Andersen Nursery. It has been family owned and operated since 1928 and has some of the highest quality and best selection of plants in the county maybe the state but I'm just biased. I was proud to work there for so long but my temperament as I got older (and going through breast cancer treatment) was not good retail material. I called it 'menopause mouth' and it cost me dearly in my mouth filter and temper. They finally had to let me go after I made some ill spoken words in various situations. After only four months out I was lucky enough to be hired by Home Depot (no sponsor here just blatant truth). It took only three years and a year long pandemic to get under my skin enough that I said something in front of others and they complained to management. So here I am, 'forcibly retired' but not actually retired and getting retirement money.

What does one do with so much time on their hands and no money to spend? Use my brains to educate other people about what I know best. Plants. Soil. Fertilizers and all the other stuff I was happy to work for 'Big Orange' in order to pass on my knowledge but soon realized that people for the most part weren't there for the plant knowledge though I did garner a few 'regulars' that always looked for me when they came in for plants. I also tried to pass on some of what I knew to my fellow garden people but again, gardening encompasses so much more than plants in a company like that, plant knowledge was the least of their priorities. Oh and it was there that I almost literally ran into the man I want to spend the rest of my life with and for that I am truly grateful.

So again, here I am in a place where I really can tell people like it is and not worry about getting called into the office or offending anyone. Or if you're offended, you can't do anything but not read what I have to say anymore. So there.

Now on to more about soils. As soon as I can upload the pictures I'll show you what I meant about the difference between amended soil and dirt. I decided to start watering the rest of the ground if I wanted to work it and renovate the area. This is going to hurt for sure. Remember when I said my bed drained really well and stayed moist? Yah, well the dirt, or base soil, is rock hard when it's dry as I knew it would be when I tried to chop into it with a hoe. The tool only got in maybe two inches and it was not going to do much else. I dug a small divot about six by six of that depth then went and got the hose to thoroughly wet the area. It immediately created a small pond after two minutes of watering with no sign of it draining. I suspect it will be drained by this evening but will still be rock hard. 

Now there are some things you can do to improve the working of that kind of thing, if you said gypsum you are right..to a point. Gypsum is the same thing that wall board is made out of and is a chalky nuetral to acid ph mineral that when mixed with clay soil attaches to the particles and makes them clump together. Very good for improving drainage, not so much if you just dust it on the surface and water it in. Quite literally like putting flower on a cutting board and throwing water on it. It can take a few years even if you worked it into the soil for it to make a noticeable change. So here comes more science, if you add in organic particles those are sufficiently large to physically drive clay clumps apart and make it even better faster. 

Now about fifteen (or more?) years ago a company discovered they could manufacture a liquid form of gypsum. Gypsum out of the ground is a form of calcium sulfate hence why it is on the acid side and it helps counteract alkalinity in soils as well as acting as an improver. This company figured out how to make a liquid form that works almost instantly when applied with water. Liquid Gypsum was marketed to the nursery industry and it has not gotten enough press as far as I can see. You don't really need it east of the Rockies but the Southwest here and central California it is a godsend! So if I wanted to put the money out and get some I would do that but I am not going to invest in something if no one else is going to want to work their gardens. I have a good bed on my own and that's fine. But that is something anyone may consider to use, oh and you can't find it in any of the 'big box' stores, as far as I know only independent or small scale nurseries carry it or, of course, online.

There you have it, science in the garden! I didn't even give all the details on that and just barely scratched the surface...ahem...pun intended. It has been hot today, might have gotten into the low 90's and right now at 5pm pdt, it is 85 degrees F. So that is another reason why I am in my room with fan and AC going and not outside doing something in the garden.

Check your drainage, composition, consult with local garden experts at a reputable nursery and dig some dirt!