Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Joel, your mountains look like those here in WV....very blue and lovely in the distance. Your garden is so lush!!!
Some pics of our place (British Columbia)
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Joel_BC
Super Self-Sufficient
Usually the ground is dry and warm enough to till and plant early seeds in mid April. Unless it's a very rainy April — in which case the ground might be a bit soggy until around the first of May. We tend to harvest the last of our outdoor-grown stuff by mid November, though killing frost can sometimes occur early in the month. So roughly seven months, in many years.
The greenhouse, with a succession of crops (the last being lettuce) has a more reliable, and somewhat longer, season. If we use electric heat in there, we can sometimes start raising plants in it in late March. And after the last tomato harvests, we plant it to lettuce... which sometimes will give us something to harvest into early December.
Wannabefree
Little Miss Sunshine
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LOVE the pond 
Looks like a very nice little place. You have good looking garden soil too...I'm SO jealous 
I have red clay, but we're working on improving it.
Looks like a very nice little place. You have good looking garden soil too...I'm SO jealous I have red clay, but we're working on improving it.- Thread starter
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Joel_BC
Super Self-Sufficient
No need to be jealous about our soil! If we didn't constantly work with it, it would be quite infertile. Were on a bench at the foot of a mountain ridge. The better natural soil in the valley is bottom land, to the east - down below us toward the river.Wannabefree said:LOVE the pond
The garden area pictured is a sand/silt combination, as far as the mineral-soil aspect goes. Our smaller food garden (about 25x30, something like that), nearer to our house, is almost pure sand in the meneral aspect. But we build with mulch, rotted manure, and cover crops. This last fall, we top-dressed with alfalfa meal.
Wannabefree
Little Miss Sunshine
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Well it looks great! I wish I was as far along as that and my soil looked better, but then, I am impatient sometimesJoel_BC said:No need to be jealous about our soil! If we didn't constantly work with it, it would be quite infertile. Were on a bench at the foot of a mountain ridge. The better natural soil in the valley is bottom land, to the east - down below us toward the river.Wannabefree said:LOVE the pond
The garden area pictured is a sand/silt combination, as far as the mineral-soil aspect goes. Our smaller food garden (about 25x30, something like that), nearer to our house, is almost pure sand in the meneral aspect. But we build with mulch, rotted manure, and cover crops. This last fall, we top-dressed with alfalfa meal.
We have been adding manure, and compost for the last two years. I haven't had time this year for any cover crop. We are slowly building ours though, and hope in a few years it will look as nice as that and have less of the red clay tint to it. It just takes time.
the funny farm6
Super Self-Sufficient
Wow, pritty as a picture! You should be proud.
SSDreamin
Almost Self-Reliant
Love the barn! I want one of those, but think I may have to settle for something much smaller and a whole lot shorter
The pond is beautiful! Willows are my favorite tree. We had a huge one in the side yard when I was growing up - used to swing from the branches. My Dad was not so fond of it, as it clogged the septic lines
The pond is beautiful! Willows are my favorite tree. We had a huge one in the side yard when I was growing up - used to swing from the branches. My Dad was not so fond of it, as it clogged the septic lines
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
You have a beautiful place, Joel. I must admit, though the land and features are simply beautiful and rustic, I keyed in on your soil right away also.... Same reason I drool over perfectly stacked, split and dry fire wood when I drive by someone's house, I guess. My kids make fun of me over it.
Your soil looks sandy and dark...is it silty, bottom land soil?
Same reason I drool over perfectly stacked, split and dry fire wood when I drive by someone's house, I guess. My kids make fun of me over it.Your soil looks sandy and dark...is it silty, bottom land soil?
adoptedbyachicken
Lovin' The Homestead
Hello from Chase BC. 
Love the looks of your place, and the studio, what an dream.
Love the looks of your place, and the studio, what an dream.
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Joel_BC
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It's silty upland soil. Silty & sandy, tending toward "incoherence" - meaning, if you take a handful of it when damp and squeeze it, it falls apart when you open your hand. We canm and do, enrich it, in terms of fertility. On its own, it doesn't have what's considered to be good tilth - the only (slight) improvement in tilth has been due to the organic matter we're constantly adding.Beekissed said:
It's steep around here. We're on the lower slope of a ridge, conifer-covered, and the top of which is around 6000 ft elevation. We're about a quarter mile from actual bottom land, on our neighbors' places eastward... downhill from us.
The soil, per se, isn't really to be envied. Except in the sense that we do live in the country and have land, and are not stuck with a small-lot city situation. So we're blessed in that way!
We've worked to improve a basically poor soil situation.
