Gardening in impossible soil using ricks

[TBRS1]

The soil where I live is terrible. Northern Michigan looks all lush and green, but in reality, under the grass and trees, is beach sand on top of limestone bedrock.

Sand doesn't hold nutrients, and water flows right through it. The "industrial solution" is to add massive amounts of chemical fertilizer, cow poop to hold water, and then water the neck out of it.

Every year.

This doesn't work for me. I'm far too lazy to work that hard. Instead I build ricks.

The process is simple:

1. Dig a trench and fill it with log chunks (I have a lot of poplar. Poplar is perfect for this because poplar trees break during storms. It also rots very quickly).

2. Build a rick on top - A rick is a temporary structure made of sticks. Ricks are rickedy.

In this picture, I've built a rick on top of a log pile that I buried last year.

3. Fill the rick with bio matter - sticks and leaves (I collect this by raking the yard).

4. On each side of the rick, dig a shallow trench and shovel the soil on top of the junk in the rick. Since liquid water follows gravity, the trenches collect water and channels it to the buried logs that soak it up and act as a reservoir.

6. Plant on top. As the bio matter decays, it provides the nutrients that the sand soil won't. The bio matter also hold an enormous quantity of moisture.

Since moisture attempts to equalize, water, filled with nutrients from all that decay, is constantly drawn to to drier surface where the plants grow.

7. Since the rick rots there will come a time when it falls apart (3-4 years). Push it all into a pile and build a new rick right on top.

In this pick you can see that I've built a rick on top of an older one. It looks like it's built on a tiny messa.

I end up with the best garden soil for hundreds of miles... unless somebody else is also doing this .

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Thank you!

The building of the hugelkulture site is like what you describe through step 3, except you just put down long logs and small sticks and pile them up in a triangle. Sort of like a bar of Toberlone chocolate.

Yours makes more sense, because it keeps the soil in one place. Essentially making a raised bed.

I love Step 4. So clever and obvious, but I've never thought of it.

My soil is also empty of nutrients. Totally empty. I have had it tested and there is nothing in it. It is mostly sand. I've dumped mulch feet thick around my fruit trees and in a few months, it is gone. I've dumped mulch in places to try to make a raised bed without success.

The other problem I have is that I live in a forest and those trees have roots that will follow my mulch anywhere. For my hugelkulture I lined it with a fiber mat and painted it with copper paint. That is a lot of work. But if I don't do it, the tree roots have taken over the soil.

 

[TBRS1]

Thank you!

The building of the hugelkulture site is like what you describe through step 3, except you just put down long logs and small sticks and pile them up in a triangle. Sort of like a bar of Toberlone chocolate.

Yours makes more sense, because it keeps the soil in one place. Essentially making a raised bed.

I love Step 4. So clever and obvious, but I've never thought of it.

My soil is also empty of nutrients. Totally empty. I have had it tested and there is nothing in it. It is mostly sand. I've dumped mulch feet thick around my fruit trees and in a few months, it is gone. I've dumped mulch in places to try to make a raised bed without success.

The other problem I have is that I live in a forest and those trees have roots that will follow my mulch anywhere. For my hugelkulture I lined it with a fiber mat and painted it with copper paint. That is a lot of work. But if I don't do it, the tree roots have taken over the soil.

Yeah - I started with basic log culture (hugelcuture), then added the ricks to hold it all together.

The thing about adding muck and watching it completely disappear in a year is where I realized that it's so labor intensive, costly (if you bring in truckloads of cow poop or other organics), and short term that it wasn't worth it.

I think (but am not sure) that the invasive tree roots are less likely to grow UP into a rick. It's worth a try, IMHO. The local trees (pine, oak, maple, mostly) aren't especially invasive in my location, though.

 

[Outdated]

Sand doesn't hold nutrients, and water flows right through it. The "industrial solution" is to add massive amounts of chemical fertilizer, cow poop to hold water, and then water the neck out of it.

Tropical regions have a similar problem, with over 2 metres of rainfall in a 3 month period every year the soil gets leached, but if you didn't have that sort drainage you'd be in far worse trouble.

I'm used to seeing people do something similar to you but slightly different, it's what they do with old rainwater tanks when they need replacing. The old tank gets cut in to sections horizontally which are then used to make raised garden beds.

We don't put sticks and hard rubbish in them though, that makes digging in them nasty. As well as somewhere to get rid of all your garden waste it's also a good way of dealing with a lot of kitchen waste.

 

[TBRS1]

Tropical regions have a similar problem, with over 2 metres of rainfall in a 3 month period every year the soil gets leached, but if you didn't have that sort drainage you'd be in far worse trouble.

I'm used to seeing people do something similar to you but slightly different, it's what they do with old rainwater tanks when they need replacing. The old tank gets cut in to sections horizontally which are then used to make raised garden beds.

We don't put sticks and hard rubbish in them though, that makes digging in them nasty. As well as somewhere to get rid of all your garden waste it's also a good way of dealing with a lot of kitchen waste.

View attachment 142755

If you go from a very rainy season to a very dry season, the log water reservoir trick will work for you.

Dig below the raided bed, add wood, then put the tank section on top and fill with soil.

Since only about 4 to 8 inches on top need to be cultivated, you don't get down to the wood. The wood hold a lot of water in place, saving it for a dry day.

I get rid of a lot of cut up trees this way .

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

If you go from a very rainy season to a very dry season, the log water reservoir trick will work for you.

Dig below the raided bed, add wood, then put the tank section on top and fill with soil.

Since only about 4 to 8 inches on top need to be cultivated, you don't get down to the wood. The wood hold a lot of water in place, saving it for a dry day.

I get rid of a lot of cut up trees this way .

The Earth Boxes are raised beds in a plastic crate, essentially. I have used those. Expensive, but if I put them up on cinder blocks, the roots can't get into them and ants don't use them for nurseries.

What puzzles me is, the Earth box only has a few inches of useable soil, maybe 12 inches maximum. But when I research root depth (to see what I could plant over the water pipes) most vegetables are at 12 inches.

So when you say "cultivated" to you mean just where you have to dig? Or how deep the roots go? This stuff always puzzles me.

 

[TBRS1]

The Earth Boxes are raised beds in a plastic crate, essentially. I have used those. Expensive, but if I put them up on cinder blocks, the roots can't get into them and ants don't use them for nurseries.

What puzzles me is, the Earth box only has a few inches of useable soil, maybe 12 inches maximum. But when I research root depth (to see what I could plant over the water pipes) most vegetables are at 12 inches.

So when you say "cultivated" to you mean just where you have to dig? Or how deep the roots go? This stuff always puzzles me.

I try to do minimal digging. There are two reasons - the first has to do with weeds.

Weed seeds sprout in about the first 1/4 inch of soil. If I till deeply, I take weed seeds from the surface and constantly bury this year's weed seeds, but replace them with last year's.

But, if I don't dig more than I have to, once I clear weeds this year, there are fewer seeds to sprout. So I work some compost into the upper inch with my fingers, then either poke holes for seeds (or hoe thin lines), or, for started plants (tomatoes, peppers), scoop a small hole just big enough.

The plants will send root much deeper, but I don't have to go there .

The other reason has to do with soil health - creating an ongoing healthy ecological system. Disturbing the soil with deep tilling is - in theory - damaging.

 

[Aspychata]

Well this post makes me happy, because l just spent 90 dollars on flowers, and small ferns, and pots , potting soil, plant food for the front of the tiny home l live in.
Edi: and a watering can

 

[TBRS1]

Well this post makes me happy, because l just spent 90 dollars on flowers, and small ferns, and pots , potting soil, plant food for the front of the tiny home l live in.
Edi: and a watering can

That's gonna be fun!

 

[Aspychata]

Gardening is so satisfying, and l need to get my hands covered with dirt, like a small kid with Play- doh. Lol