And first phase is finished

I wasn't going to dig in the last of the dirt given how hard it was then I looked at the bag, looked at the dirt, looked at the bag and said..why stop now? Left side of my back just above my waist is telling me that's a muscle that has not been used. Ever. Thought it was my kidney but after all the work this morning.. nope.

Was going to sprinkle just a bit more fertilizer on it and the bag collapsed, oops. Most of the bag went in but it's all good. This kind of fertilizer isn't going to burn anything or cause problems. I could smell the components of the Amend, let me tell you. Smelled like horse manure but knew it was steer and chicken. Good stuff that will definitely make this bed the richest of them all!

I should have gotten a picture closer to the ground to give an idea of how much there is but oh well. Much digging and then using the cultivator and it's all in. Mostly level, and despite all the digging I did yesterday, I still found a hefty piece of asphalt, some pebbles and a little bit of trash.

Chunk as big as my palm

 

So now it looks like properly amended soil compared to the dirt around it. Oh and it was still quite cool and damp a shovel depth down. I don't need moisture retaining soil which is why I avoided the MG soils. Shame they discontinued the organic soil, it wasn't bad.

Oh a note about hoses again. I bought one of the cheaper ones that right on the label says 'no kink' ummm they mean it has a collar at the connection to prevent it from bending there. Not this.

If this were my home and personal space I would have bought a better one. I did the complex a favor buying this one. Not like it's going to be used a lot. I heard from the asst. manager that the new  hose they bought for another area was cut. What the heck people!? It had to be one of the residents here which is even crazier.

We now break for this message on hoses. Friends, there are no truly kink free hoses and if they are they're the kind with the cloth outer layer which I was tempted to buy but again I realized it wasn't my personal property so get the cheap one. I had the opportunity to test a lot of hoses at HD and there was a favorite as long as the other associates didn't leave it out or hide it or whatever. 

 

It's called the Fitt Force Pro hose. Flat when not being used, very lightweight and absolutely kink free even when flat. This was my absolute favorite to use due to the conditions we had. It needed to reach a great distance, be lightweight and not get tangled. Tangle would happen when it was flat but if taken care of it was fantastic. Bonus on the coupling is if you get a hole in it (rare since it's very tough) you cut the hose at that point and you can unscrew the coupling, pull it off and reattach at the cut point. You can't repair this hose other than that due to it expanding and contracting. It is expensive but totally worth the price as a buy it once product.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watered it in thoroughly and you can see it still is mostly clay. The brown puddles cannot be avoided. I used two different streams for it, the standard spray and the 'aqua cultivator' multi spray. I didn't use the jet because it was already loosened and it would throw water and soil everywhere.

Note my change in words now? It isn't just 'dirt' anymore as I have worked, fertilized and amended it so in my dictionary it is now considered 'soil'. Not very level, many pockets and divots but that's okay for now. 

I'm trying to devise a game plan for planting there. Oh and god bless the gardeners with larger plots in various places around the world who have to do this same process on a much larger bed. That's why rototillers were invented. Even the little 'mantis' type would have been too big for this tiny bed..

I want to say this is amended about half and half but it isn't. I am going to hazard that it's at least cultivated and amended 12 inches deep. When you do the math it's 24x48x12 inch bed. so... 2x4=8 and a foot deep it's 8 cu ft of soil. I tilled in 2 cu ft so so it's more like a ratio of 1:4 but still far better than just plain dirt. Anything is better than nothing I always say. It looks great!

I will have to exercise a great amount of patience and do a nutrient test before planting. I have pictures of the previous tests and where they came from for comparison. All the readings said it was poor soil and yet.. things grew. Going to reseed the beds tomorrow and take some samples for testing.

Hoping my finger isn't as sore as it was yesterday, stupid arthritis.