Developing a plan

ChanceTheRapids · #1 09/23/14, 09:42 AM

Hi all!

Well, we've now moved into a wonderful little 1-acre property and are trying to make it into our dream property. One thing that needs a lot of work is the soil. We've got VERY sandy soil... while most of the yard has grass, it's pretty sparse and there are a lot of weeds as well.

I am a huge proponent of composting & soil amending, but I don't know where to start here... At our old property I turned a solid-clay garden into nice soil, but that took a LOT of manure/compost. This is MUCH bigger. I don't really see how I can get that much manure and compost onto the soil unless I buy a horse

Any recommendations? I want to add chickens, both for eggs and their manure. That would help with the compost but that takes a lot of manure and a lot of time. Also thought about goats and rabbits, but again, it would probably require a lot of animals to create the amount of manure I need for this soil.

Located in North Texas, zone 8a.

ChanceTheRapids · #2 09/23/14, 10:02 AM

I should also mention that *most* of this "land" (really it's just a lawn) won't be used for anything like grazing or crops. I'm just trying to keep it from eroding by being 90% sand. And there may be an occasional chicken tractor going across it.

dfr1973 · #3 09/23/14, 10:05 AM

It won't happen overnight. I live on 2.5 acres of ashtray sand here, and I am doing mine one 4'x6' garden box at a time. All clippings, deadfall, and leaves go into a pile where we also dump our compost can and when we clean the chicken coops. Another option for the less squeamish: diluted urine.

Just start in one garden bed, and work on it. Q: How do you eat an elephant? A: One bite at a time.

ChanceTheRapids · #4 09/23/14, 10:12 AM

That is one benefit we have - LOTS of leaves from trees around us. I've already gotten a couple of 60 gallon bags full and it's not even October! Guess I can throw the kitchen vegetable scraps in there as well, and hopefully get the chickens.

I originally was going to make a fancy compost bin but now I'm thinking I will just make a ginormous pile and get it going asap.

Homesteader · #5 09/23/14, 10:17 AM

Howdy! Now, if you are wanting to create gardens, like flower and vegetable gardens vs. just keeping your sand from blowing away, then my answer would be a bit different.

I guess I'm not clear, when you say no crops, do you mean no vegetable gardens, or??

I live on pure sand. 2.5 acres of it. We made the huge mistake the first year of having the whole place "leveled" to start our homestead with a more level ground, which disturbed the natural crust that was here that kept the sand from moving (blowing in the wind). It was a huge lesson. The only way we got it under control (no rainfall here in the desert to speak of), was to install rainbirds on posts that came on 2 x per day, covering the entire property until we got that crust back.

Now, as to gardening, we too do not create enough raw material to create much compost. We have goats and chickens, but no cattle or horses. So for planting, we amended each hole for the larger plants like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, etc. For smaller plants like carrots, beets spinach, that type, we would amend a row. We used soil sulphur (to counteract the very high alkaline levels), bagged composted cow manure, and Osmocote time released fertilizer.

Then, every year we purchase a pallet or two of manure (again, the bagged stuff), and DH tills it in all over with the tractor (as opposed to just in rows or spots). It's an ongoing process, and every year we do that, and it's actually pretty nice sandy soil now. We still fertilize but this year we used 16-16-16 and man the gardens have been superb!

Cover crops can be utilized too, even small amounts of buckwheat, or whatever you choose as a cover crop, can keep your sand in place.

ChanceTheRapids · #6 09/23/14, 10:48 AM

Hi Homesteader,

Well, there will be a vegetable garden next year, but that is in the back of the property and was already existing from a previous owner (pretty good soil). This is more for the rest of the property (which is poor sandy soil).

Interesting idea with the cover crop, I did not think of that! I may look into a buckwheat or rye. I would have to till it under in Spring and then re-seed with something else more permanent, but at least it would quit eroding.

Harry Chickpea · #7 09/23/14, 11:12 AM

Contact the area electric company and tree trimmers and offer that they can dump trimmings for free. Just be aware that the fungus and mold growing on the pile can be extremely hazardous to your health. Wear a respirator when working on it.

Around here it is possible to buy chicken litter, which is a decent amendment.

Sandy soil will revert to sandy soil very quickly if the addition of organic matter isn't constant. I was constantly amazed in south Florida how truckloads of trimmings mixed with the sand would evaporate over about three years.

wogglebug · #8 09/23/14, 11:53 AM

Sounds like you may be surrounded by lawns. Make friends with the local lawnmowing services, and offer them a place to dump lawn clippings free of charge. Mention that you'll happily take manure as well, if anyone has it to get rid of. Also mention that directly to the homeowners as well. Do that carefully - don't set-off any homeowners' association that don't approve of compost - maybe just mention it to horse-owning householders.

Establish perennial plants. They'll be soil conservation banks against erosion, but use care placing them - you don't want to have to move them, and in some cases won't be able to do so. Asparagus, rhubarb, day lilies, Jerusalem artichokes and their relative yacon, jicama, oca and crosne (you have ideal easy-to-clean soil for it), fennel, sugar cane, grapevines, kiwifruit, passionfruit, orchards. Bananas. Melons, squash, pumpkins, gourds, chokos (chayote). Berry bushes and vines. Also plant squares of plants (cereals, pseudo-cereals and grains) for poultry and people feed - maize, grain sorghum, maybe millet. Also quinoa, amaranth, and sunflowers. Black-eyed peas (beans), other beans, English peas, maybe chick peas (garbanzos). Don't forget you can get a start on a lot of edible whole-grains by buying seeds in the soup section of the grocery. Just about any vegetable, you can eat their babies and find them delicious (baby beans are green beans, baby peas are a rough form of sugar-snap, baby squash are zucchini, baby pumpkins are edible, baby corn are delicious, so are baby potatoes)
Amaranth can be a decorative flower, and a leaf vegetable, as well.

For multi-purpose decorative plants, check taste of individual parts. KNOW WHAT you're doing first - some are poisonous, some are just... uhhm, medicinal. Petals are often mild but good, flower bases can be bitter. Less often the reverse. Regard bitter or extreme sour as a reason to be cautious - Nature's warning, it tastes unpleasant for a reason. Buckwheat is a pseudo-cereal as well as a decorative flower, nasturtiums are pretty and tasty, as are violets, peonies, violas and pansies. Edible hibiscus, a common vegetable in Polynesia - flowers, young leaves, buds raw, cooked, or made into jam (see Rosella jam). Camellia sinensis (tea plant, for drinking - NOT ti-tree oil). Possibly coffee trees, multiple varieties for pollination, may need cover against frost. Maybe interplanted on squares with orchard trees.

Are you sure an acre is enough for the first year?

Tricky Grama · #9 09/24/14, 07:13 AM

We have a compost pile that I started w/kitchen scraps, leaves, some grass. Slloooow! We live in the 'burbs.

We have 20 ac near Bonham & I did a cover crop of hairy vetch 1 yr to be 'green manure' on just a small plot. Seemed to do good. Other parts of the country use alfalfa but I'm not sure it grows well here.
Good luck!

hawgsquatch · #10 09/24/14, 07:21 AM

What about allowing a local lawn guy or tree service to dump clippings or chips. Till them under and in a few years the soil will be enriched with organic matter.

idigbeets · #11 09/24/14, 09:19 AM

One acre... requires 100-200yards of manure/compost. time to start hauling.. took me around 4 months of work to get that amount onto our 1 acre garden before. I called/stopped by every horse farm near me. Called every landscaper asking if they want to dump yard waste....

||Downhome|| · #12 09/24/14, 09:36 AM

Green manure is your answer.

I suggest Red Clover.

Your soil is going to be poor in nutrients and the clover can fix its own Nitrogen.

idigbeets · #13 09/25/14, 05:35 AM

Clover is an expensive start, I'd throw in some annual rye w/ it if you go the cover crop route. Depends on how fast you want to jumpstart that soil