I made new garden soil!

Yesterday I got busy and planted in a garden bed that I had neglected for over a year.  I was absolutely blown away by what I saw!  Black, rich soil!  But first let me explain to you the background.

This was one of my 8' x 16' woodchip beds that had in this case been haphazardly inoculated with Wine Caps.  And This bed had been completely filled with wood chips.  I had tried inoculating with just a little bit of spawn that I had left over and I did nothing to really promote growth of actual mushrooms for well over 2 (3?) years.  Last year I did have two straw bales that I ended up not using so I just laid them on the surface to see if they would get inoculated by Wine Caps.  On top of that, the bed sat completely fallow and in fact had become infused with stinkhorn mushrooms--I was pretty sure my Wine Cap decompose-wood-back-into-soil plan had failed.

Yesterday I went out with my daughter to make the bed viable for veggies again and I was blown away with what I saw just below the surface.  Lots of weeds had grown in the wood chips and as I pulled out the weeds, I did not pull out any wood chips, but rather dark, rich, black, loamy soil!  There was an occasional mostly decomposed chip here and there and lots of mycelium running in and among the roots.  My daughter and I did our best to save as much of the soil as we pulled the weeds and in the end I did have to use a scuffle hoe to get rid of the numerous, smaller weeds, but the ground was in beautiful condition.  There was one exception.  I did have a piece of weathered cardboard laying on the surface and it lifted easily, revealing a perfect rectangle of mostly un-decomposed wood chips beneath,  It seems that the wood chips decompose best when in contact with both fungi and plants.

The straw bales were interesting also.  I gently lifted 2 year old straw bales that barely held together but the bottom 2 inches remained on the garden bed surface--as beautiful, loamy garden soil!

This is exactly what I was looking for when I first planted Wine Caps and in this case I got it by accident and neglect.  The new, loamy soil absolutely seethed with worms.  Clearly they were partially responsible for creating this new topsoil.

This experience did teach me a lesson about the use of cardboard--while it may help to initially jump start the first burst of mycelium by moderating moisture, it blocks new roots which are vital to the soil-forming process.  I may use cardboard in the future, but I will not leave it on permanently.

Eric

That's an awesome feeling to dig into soil like that!

I noticed the same thing with cardboard and wood chips. Cardboard underneath the chips disintegrated rather quickly, as long as there wasn't a long dry spell. Cardboard on top of wood chips remained intact and the chips stayed dry and solid, even through massive downpours of rain. I had assumed rain would at least seep under the cardboard, and the covered wood chips would draw moisture from the soil (it was a thin layer of less than 2" of chips), but nope. When I lifted the cardboard, it was obvious the wood had been well protected.

Nikki, that sounds exactly like my expectations and experience.  I, too thought the cardboard would be permeable and I live in a very humid climate with plenty of rain.  Amazingly, not only were the chips still chips but they were also dry despite plenty of recent rain.

As I said earlier, I might still use cardboard as a temporary smothering agent to suppress weeds but it will no longer be a permanent part of the garden.  

Also amazing to me is how thoroughly Wine Caps and other mushrooms had decomposed wood chips but left cardboard mostly untouched.

Eric

That is awesome! Discovering great soil, especially when you had a part in making it, is such a joy.

I wish I had access to wood chips, but there don't seem to be any professional tree-trimmers out where I live, and we are too far from the city for the city ones to want to bring their chips all the way out here.

The people in the small towns near us still rake up great quantities of leaves in the fall, though, bag them, and put them out on the curb. So those, along with my goats and chickens, are going to make me some great soil over time. I let some leaves from last fall sit on top of the soil in some future garden areas and I can already see the difference in some areas, not so much in others. Probably had to do with little microclimates in some areas letting the bottom layers of leaves break down more in certain areas. This is our first year on this property, so it'll be so fun to see the changes over time.

Lila Stevens wrote:That is awesome! Discovering great soil, especially when you had a part in making it, is such a joy.

I wish I had access to wood chips, but there don't seem to be any professional tree-trimmers out where I live, and we are too far from the city for the city ones to want to bring their chips all the way out here.

The people in the small towns near us still rake up great quantities of leaves in the fall, though, bag them, and put them out on the curb. So those, along with my goats and chickens, are going to make me some great soil over time. I let some leaves from last fall sit on top of the soil in some future garden areas and I can already see the difference in some areas, not so much in others. Probably had to do with little microclimates in some areas letting the bottom layers of leaves break down more in certain areas. This is our first year on this property, so it'll be so fun to see the changes over time.

If you don't have wood chips available, but do have wood "waste" like branches from trimming, blow downs, trees that needs to be removed, anything of that sort, you may be able to save up until you have a large pile.  You can rent wood chippers for half a day or however long you need.  If you have all the materials stock piled into one place, you can make a pretty good pile of wood chips in half a day.

Trace Oswald wrote:

Lila Stevens wrote:That is awesome! Discovering great soil, especially when you had a part in making it, is such a joy.

I wish I had access to wood chips, but there don't seem to be any professional tree-trimmers out where I live, and we are too far from the city for the city ones to want to bring their chips all the way out here.

The people in the small towns near us still rake up great quantities of leaves in the fall, though, bag them, and put them out on the curb. So those, along with my goats and chickens, are going to make me some great soil over time. I let some leaves from last fall sit on top of the soil in some future garden areas and I can already see the difference in some areas, not so much in others. Probably had to do with little microclimates in some areas letting the bottom layers of leaves break down more in certain areas. This is our first year on this property, so it'll be so fun to see the changes over time.

If you don't have wood chips available, but do have wood "waste" like branches from trimming, blow downs, trees that needs to be removed, anything of that sort, you may be able to save up until you have a large pile.  You can rent wood chippers for half a day or however long you need.  If you have all the materials stock piled into one place, you can make a pretty good pile of wood chips in half a day.

Thanks! I do have some wood waste, and used to have a small chipper at my old home, but I honestly it is not work I enjoy. I'm going to build a hugel bed from it instead; I like the idea of getting it buried, since we are in Texas, and I don't want to make extra hiding places for venomous snakes (I have little kids, so venomous snakes are not something I can live in harmony with).

Coincidentally, I just ran into some tree-trimmers working the roadsides this afternoon! I gave them my phone number and address, so maybe I will get a load or two afterall! I asked if they have a lot of people approach them requesting their chips, and the guy laughed and said yes, they did. So who knows if I will get a drop or not. That makes me kinda happy that other people are valuing the compost, though.