Box #2
This girls trunk(just right of mid center) is getting good sized about the diameter size of a Suzan B Anthony silver dollar!
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off to a good start. they must be going inside .
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Well hereās the update from my clone project! Went on a family vacation for 7+ days and these were barely breaking the outer limits of the Grodan blocks wasnāt sure the Sis-in -law could of taken care of them so I went ahead and planted them in soil glad I did the roots took off like crazy!
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Doing a little grass pulling around the perennial flowers and the addition of wood chips earlier thIs springseem to be forming a nice mycelium matte underneath hopefully I wonāt have to deal with weeds in this bed in the near future!
I need to get some microscope pics of this soil!
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good looking weed plant you got in their do not pull it. haha
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This lady is starting to throw some major pistil action in the last several days hopefully the reference will give ya an indication of trunk size ! Lol
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Love spiders !! They do a great job for us
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Had an extra clone thatās a male and wanted to see what it would do for growth here I have it in all worm castings in my bin it only gets like 2 hours of direct sun a day !
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Sounds like it just became a resident of stretchVille 
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Question for youā¦ My dog has dug graves in my backyard so, I have had my gardener pour all the grass clippings and leaves in the holes (I have to fill them as they cancelled my homeowners insurance because of them), I have added all the used bag soil that Iāve grown in throughout the spring and summer as well. My question isā¦ How do I turn this back into soil or compost or something to mix this with the surrounding dirt? Do I just water it? Or is there something I need besides water to kick off this process. It would be great if I can make this into some sort of supersoil or something to grow in later. Currently I am growing in smart pots, but would love to grow in the ground next season. And these holes that are now being filled with plant matter are inside a huge previously used veggie garden patch, so it is basically sectioned off from the rest of my yard. Right now it just looks like a huge dirt patch with plant matter stuck in here and there. If you need a pic I can go snap one. But for now, any advice you have would be great.
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Sounds as if Fido has already helped you out on the way to make some great soil in the near future! Doing exactly what you mention by mixing in organic material will turn your soil into great soil. Iād go for a lasagne type approach loose dirt, grass, leaves, straw if ya can get it , newspaper, wood chips, sticks ,food scraps (if ya can keep Fido out of it)water in good repeat the process over and over you can even mound it! Worms,night crawlers, red wigglers (you will have to obtain)will come in and work their magic, fungi will as come in and break down woody material nature and its creatures , Protozoa, Arthropods , microarthpods will all contribute to make soil! So this fall if ya have deciduous trees save all your leaves and make a large pin for them , take your neighbors leaves they probably bag em up and take it to the landfill anyways ā¦ what a waste of potential gold!
Does this help? What kinda of soil are you dealing with anyway? Clay, sand, mix?
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@Meesh post 170 that my comfrey plants are in that bed like 5 years ago was nothing but clay , sticky ass shit when wet huge clumps when dug, hard as a rock when dry! Couldnāt even put a shovel 5-6" into the soil, straw, leaves, compost just placed on top, year after year , there are reds in that soil, fast forward today I can easily take a shovel a foot deep or more with hardly any effort! Now thatās letting nature work for you!
This is a cross section of 6-7 inch profile of that comfrey bed the clay on the bottom crumbles like pie crust!
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Iām not sure, Iām assuming itās pretty clay like. Very compact. Okay then Iāll start watering it and maybe take a rake to it now and then. It was originally a vegetable patch for like 60 years before I lived here, It was my Gramps garden spot. He did everything organic and always had a compost. Been just dirt in there for 11 years now. My Dad and I are gonna do some tilling digging and adding some build a soil come fall. Just figured I could get a head start with the filled in holes now.
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Ru referring to BAS cover crops if so thatās excellent get it planted with that 12 blend mix get the roots established late this fall and turn it over in the spring once thatās done after that Iād do only light to no tilling at all ,rototillers are in fact a big No-no when building soil they ruin structure damage worm tunnels which in turn donāt allow proper water adsorption. Rototillers actually in fact at the bottom create compaction which is not what we want.
i grow outdoors no test or measure by hand full or sprinkle.
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I just had the same discussion with my Dad last night about the rototill. He said no, we have to dig. lol
This year I have been growing outside in pots, but we are going to dig out the outside planters and replace with new soil for growing direct into the ground next year. Itās a huge patch of dirt and such out there. So, I am gonna work on it bit by bit. Eventually, I will have a big garden out there for all sorts of things again. Iām trying to learn as much as I can about organics not really because I am a hippie, but more because I love the idea of using the earth to grow things from the earth. I admit, I read a lot of grow logs on here and enjoy them, but a lot of the indoor grows with lights and chemicals etc, just donāt thrill me like watching any of you organic gardeners grow things. Something about really digging my hands into the dirt thrills me. I want to be like my Gramps and look at a plant and know what item from the earth it needs just by looking. So slowly but surely I will learn. 
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I hear ya @meesh in my case I just think itās more satisfying to make changes to lifeless ādirtā and change it to life giving soil! Initially digging is ok to get the organic matter in there to start the process much quicker but say 2 years from now or less even digging deep is not needed. Itās the whole no-till concept having a good well balanced fungi based soil is the ultimate! A lot of people donāt know how import fungi play in the whole soil building process ! Read the book Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels that book alone changed my ways of gardening a complete 180 Also watch U tube videos regarding Dr. Elaine Ingham there are quite a few very eye opening!
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