Is this a silly idea - worm corridor

I have a small area near my patio that has been  mulched for many years; we used to have a fence enclosing the patio and mulched area and recently expanded the fenced area to include most of our backyard, which has hard clay soil. Now that its fenced I can garden (HOA rules are very restrictive). I actually have a few inches of  decent soil in the mulched area with worms.  I put in a raised bed in the middle of the backyard and am digging up the bermuda grass to make some beds.

The 'soil' in my backyard is super hard clay and there appears to be no life in it apart from the bermuda grass roots. So I will try to amend the soil. I'm familiar with no dig, lasagna gardening, etc. - I need results this year. But I am still looking to longer-term solutions, also. I had some ecology classes in college and learned about the value of wildlife corridors and I was thinking about my backyard as being a kind of fragmented landscape. Would it help to establish a 'worm corridor' between the mulched area, ground beds and raised bed? I could dig a shallow trench, fill it with stuff worms like (e.g., coffee grounds) then put some cardboard and mulch on top & try to keep it watered.

Or would it be simpler just to put  few shovel fulls of the soil from  the mulched area on the other beds every so often & keep things mulched?

I should add that the mulched area does not get a lot of sun, that's why I'm not growing there, but I may try growing brassicas or greens.

What is your final goal.  Just getting worms to move themselves?  Building a continuous vermiculture bed?  or something else?

One key point in this is that compost worms are different from earth worms.  Compost worms most live in the organic detritus and retreat into the ground at times.  Earth worms surface at times to feed but mostly live in the ground.  So type of worms as the goal would be part of the question?

As for the hard clay the classes and the local folk lore both sort of point at the same answer for the longer term.  The soil classes are saying grow daikon radishes and other tough root crops to break up the soil acting as a soil ripper.  The local farming lore says to use sugar beets to improve clay soils.  But that will take several years.  I would till the minimum you need right now with lots of organic tilled in for the short term answer.  But I know it doesn't work well from experience.   The rest I would try throwing the root crops at in hopes that will fix it over time.

I think you should try it out. Might work and can’t hurt!

I love the idea of using worms but please use earthworms.

You can go to where fishing supplies are sold and get red wiggler or Canadian nightcrawlers.

I feel you have a great idea.  The worm will probably move into the garden area once you get the plants going.

By the way, I hope you are planning some flowers like french marigolds or sweet alyssum to ward off pests and bring in pollinators.

Best wishes for your new garden.

If you want results this year, I would consider raised beds on top of the clay soil. You can put cardboard over the grass, then your good garden soil on top of that, and add some worms from your nice mulched area. If there is good stuff in the raised beds for the worms to eat, they will stay there, reproduce, and populate your raised beds. The hard clay under your raised beds will also gradually be improved as the cardboard breaks down and the soil life begins migrating and mixing into the clay as well.

A worm corridor could work, but for me it would be so much faster and more dependable to just dig up some soil with worms in it (which may also contain worm eggs) and inoculate your new gardens this way.

Raised beds don't have to be super expensive or complicated, unless, of course, your HOA has rules about that. Nice, cedar beds look great, but you can also use logs, rocks, bricks, etc to build the walls. Sometimes these items can be found for free on Craigslist or other local online classifieds.

You can interplant your raised beds with things like Daikon Radish to help penetrate and break up the clay under the raised beds, but still be growing a crop of other foods in the raised beds this year.

Or, this is a fantastic thread about using straw bale gardening to improve clay soils and still have a productive garden the first year https://permies.com/t/108953/improve-clay-soils-growing-year

I agree that just inoculating with some dirt from the mulched area would be faster and easier and since I'm in a rush, that's what I'll do. I intend to grow along the base of the fence and on the outside side side have a strip of mulch so in time there will be a 'worm corridor' going around the perimeter anyway. It's kind of fun to imagine it as a kind of worm superhighway. I also thought about maybe doing worm traps and moving them around.

Right now I have three sections of fence planted with scarlet runner beans, lady cream peas and black eyed peas. I gave them innoculant to try to maximize N fixation. I definitely did not dig out the grass well enough for the scarlet runner beans. I tried my best for the other two sections, but still some grass issues.

I have a 4' x 8' x 7"  raised bed already, cedar boards (very expensive these days).  I first sprayed with Bonide Deadweed (it's organic - see post here: https://permies.com/t/179121/long-Deadweed-Bonide-wait-planting )
Then I put down cardboard and filled with a mix of Soil3 compost, peat and perlite - heavy on the compost). There is now bermuda grass coming up in the bed & not just on the sides but in the center as well. Of course I am pulling it, but it breaks off without the root.  If I could do it over I would dig up the grass first.

I  am now digging up some of the ground for a sweet potato bed; there's also a zucchini on a mound that is a mix of Soil3, coco coir and clay soil.

Then there is a section of ground I intended to improve slowly by planting wildflowers with long taproots, daikon, and legumes. I sprayed with Deadweed and was then going to direct sow the wildflower seeds which I had cold stratified. It looked liked the Deadweed worked, but it only really killed the broadleaf weeds (mostly oxalis), the bermuda grass came back. So the wildflower seeds are still in the refrigerator - hope they are not rotten.

I like alyssum, if I make a second raised bed I'll use concrete blocks since they are much cheaper & plant alyssum in the in the holes of the blocks. Currently I have nasturtiums and calendula and the scarlet runner beans already have flowers on them. I have a borage that might not make it and a comfrey that is also having transplant issues. - will try again on those.

Right now I'm trying to decide if I want to buy more Soil3 compost to use for the sweet potato beds since my raised bed soil tested high for sodium ( https://permies.com/t/179876/Raised-bed-soil-test-results )- the plants look happy, though. So perhaps I should do a re-test.

I don't want to use straw for anything since my daughter has Celiac, wheat allergy and grass allergy (and other food allergies) .  I would like her to be able to garden with me, if she feels well enough (struggling with health issues right now).  I hoped to plant herbs among the wildflowers since its a PITA to get GF certified herbs  - so that's another reason why I don't want grass in my beds. Hopefully I'd be careful enough when harvesting, but I'd rather not have to pick out a bunch of grass stalks.

My understanding with no-dig is that you don't want to be digging perpetually. Doing it once in the beginning to get started is often the only way to get things going well from the start. I would look into using that soil for the top few inches of your raised bed (plus mulch), and possibly setting up a composting bin in the shaded area close to the house. That will make it easier to access so you will still be likely to use it during bad weather. You can then use the compost to top dress the raised beds and stick with the no-dig method from then on.

The corridor isn't a bad idea, especially if you are going to continue to build soil there. It would be a good addition to a system, but it's going to take many generations of worms and bugs to move any discernible amount of nutrients from one spot to the other. Even just 1 buckets' worth, with all of the soil biology along with nutrients, could put you ahead by months or more.

Lh Forsythe wrote: I need results this year.

That's a very heavy requirement. It will be almost infinitely more achievable if the plants you choose are native or naturalized to your area and can survive without daily attention. I recently cracked my leg, and if I didn't have trees, watermelons, sweet potatoes, and other things that survive or come back on their own in my area, then I too would have nothing but Bermuda grass and the few weeds that can survive along side it. In the past I've had to leave for emergencies during the summer, and the sun picked winners and losers in my garden, so I try to stick with the winners and only dabble with others. If I am going to invest time in caring for a plant that won't grow without attention, I go for things that are rare or very expensive to buy locally. It seems more beneficial to me to buy the cheaper stuff from a farmers market than to fight all summer for something that costs a few dollars a pound or less.

wrote:

if I make a second raised bed I'll use concrete blocks since they are much cheaper & plant alyssum in the in the holes of the blocks.

I used some called "Allen Blocks" to make a raised edge between my driveway, a slightly higher front walk, and the house where there's a garden that's about 5 ft by 5 ft. The Allen blocks have a larger hole than typical concrete blocks, and then smaller triangular holes where two block meet. In that one strip of 4 blocks, the first is covered because the hose bib is there, then there's sage, then two varieties of chives, then oregano. I used similar blocks south of the front walk and they have spring and fall crocus, walking onion, Old English Thyme, marjoram, and "Hens and Chicks".  So blocks with holes can be put to good use!

I tried to put some punky wood in the bottom of each hole as I was planting - think hügelkultur on a micro-scale. Now I make small quantities of biochar and I highly recommend that for clay soil. It helps to lighten heavy clay and supports microbes.

Worms have a lot of microbes in their guts which they poop out, so I love it when I find a worm orgy in my compost! I've had some success with my clay soil by digging holes straight down and putting anything compostable in them. (wood chips, leaves, veggie scraps etc) In my rocky-clay soil, I always feel I've done great if I get 12 to 18 inches down the first time. After a season or two, I sometimes go back and try to dig the hole deeper. I dig the decent "soil" out into pots, then dig the clay soil out and remove big rocks, then mix the good an bad together along with biochar, more veggie scraps, more wood-chips or punky wood.

"Clay soil" is relative. I have not found root crops to help as much as some places suggest they can - my clay/rock combo has been compressed by the last ice-sheet. Even trees struggle with it - there are not a lot of tap-root trees in my ecosystem. But that clay soil has great potential once it gets stuff mixed in and give the microbes and worms a chance to transform it. Clay in HOA's has often been compacted by heavy machinery. If it takes a pick-axe to dig it, you'll likely need to help it out with more than just root crops. Poly-cultures will do wonders to make it into "soil", but  I agree with Daniel Schmidt - sometimes you have to disturb things to get the process started.

I wonder what zone your in?  I'm   N. Ca. Zone 9 b. I have clay soil and in the summer it's hard as cement.  I also struggle with comfrey. I have finally managed to get a common comfrey to survive about 8 or 9 months now, and it's not been easy.  I also have Bermuda grass everywhere. It's my nemesis. I wish I could tell you how to defeat it, but I have no idea, it's a constant battle.  I have 3 garden techniques. The hugelkultur works and is amazing. It's a lot of work getting it built.  I don't know if it will work the way it's supposed to here because we don't get much rain, doesn't soak up water, and slows down decomposition. I compensate by using ollas.  I still have to put out Bermuda . Raised beds. I have tried many types. My favorite is the hugel beet style.  I least successful were shallow beds. They dry out way to fast.  Next is my food forest want to be. I started by covering the area with 8 to 10 inches of wood chips. The transformation was amazing and a lot faster than I thought. A couple of months after I put wood chips down the soil was already softer, and full of worms. To plant pulled the wood chips back in a cone shape with the bottom at soil level. Fill with compost and plant. Everything grew very well.  This did keep all the weeds including Bermuda, but must be kept at a minimum of 8", so wood chips have to be applied at least once a year.  
Good luck to you, I hope some of this will help.

8" of wood chips - you must get Chip Drop. I'm not allowed Chip Drop

I'm in central North Carolina, zone7b, plenty of rain. Next week I might not get much done because of rain.

I guess my overall goal is to maximize calorie production w/o resorting to conventional pesticides & fertilizers. Organic fertilizer is okay to get things going initially, I think. Of course I would like the 'system' to be self-sustaining eventually. I have a compost pile started.

I don't see a lot of instructional materials  just focusing on calorie production. IIRC white potatoes and sweet potatoes are tied for most calories per unit area. Sweet potatoes grow well here, don't' require a lot of processing (as opposed to grains) & my daughter can eat them (allergic to white potatoes). I've thought about planting buckwheat and teff. Somewhat surprisingly leeks rank among the high calories per unit area crops.

If I really wanted to make the most of my small backyard I would probably have to have some animals but we are not allowed and I'm not sure I would be up to doing what is necessary, anyway. I've thought about aquaponics.

Yes I get wood chips from my local tree service.
Have you considered amaranth? I just started some seeds.  It's supposed to be a great alternative to grain like corn or rice. I don't know much about it, but what I've read, it sounded like it might work for you.  I'm growing it mostly for fun. Seems like you would need to grow a lot to actually be useful, so it might not be worth the space it needs, then again it might be interesting to grow a little just to see, it's also pretty, so you can fool the HOA.  They would probably think it's  pretty flowers.  What they don't know won't hurt you.

Lh Forsythe wrote:

If I really wanted to make the most of my small backyard I would probably have to have some animals but we are not allowed and I'm not sure I would be up to doing what is necessary, anyway. I've thought about aquaponics.

Would the HOA let you have a pet bunny or two? They make awesome manure for the garden, and you can supplement their diet with stuff you grow.

Many of the native grasses here are very similar in their growth patterns to Bermuda.   The trick to dealing with them my mother finally figured out after more than thirty years of gardening was to treat them like miniature bamboo. We tested on a small area for a few years before we surrounded all our gardens with 12 inch wide aluminum flashing.  

That's 8 inches below ground and 4 inches above.   The buried portion blocks root runners and the raised makes it much easier to trim above ground runners before they can get established. It is very important to place a hard edging of some sort to protect the top portion as it is both sharp and bendable.   We have so many rocks dug out of our it was easy for us to protect both our fingers and our infrastructure investment with these. I doubt I could have afforded to do so much this year if I had to purchase extra border materials.  Time and energy were the biggest investment.   The flashing has to be vertical and is too soft to pound in.  We had to dig trench with a pickaxe and rock bar.

I have had to re-dig so many garden beds so many times to get the grass back out.  It obviously destroys the soil structure each time so finally keeping it out was worth the extra work.

Amaranth is a very attractive plant; my daughter is probably allergic as she is to quinoa and they are in the same family. Daughter is also allergic to sorghum. Millet might work but have not tried it to see if she is allergic and also it's goiterogenic and my husband has low thyroid, daughter's at risk for Hashimoto's. Teff is probably more heat tolerant than buckwheat, both are okay with lower pH soil.  But I think I will go more for sweet potatoes and just grow a little bit of buckwheat and teff to see how they do, and how hard it is to utilize them.

I am concerned about heat.  I think that's another reason I would not want bunnies. HOA probably would not mind 'pet bunnies', though I don't think I could use them directly for calories unless I was actually starving to death. I guess heat stress would be a problem in aquaponics, too, but I would not feel so bad about losing fish or crayfish to heat stress.

Not all my problems are due to the HOA, the Chip Drop thing - for example. I've seen neighbors get it & I think so long as it was out of my driveway within a few days it would be okay. But my husband is concerned I would have a health issue and not be able to move it all (same as with compost deliveries). He's right to be concerned - I could easily have a 3 day migraine followed by some rainy days & then there would be a complaint and maybe a fine. He has a hernia so can't help & also this is my hare-brained idea.

I used to try edible landscaping before we had the fenced in backyard (I've been waiting for the fence for over 20 yrs and it finally happened!). I grew malabar spinach up a shepherd's hook that held a hanging basket of nasturtiums (have one of those again this year), Planted thai basil & eggplant in front of the obligatory ornamental shrubs, grew purple tomatillos in pots on the porch. I gave up after a while, I think it was after my artemisia - an ornamental plant, obviously intentional and not a weed -  got removed by the lawncare service. We put day-lilies around our tree (Pandora's box) - the buds are edible and I really like them (key ingredient in hot and sour soup), but I don't eat them since I don't know what's being sprayed on my front lawn.

Seems like HOAs could be a force for good. Instead of contracting with a lawncare service they could contract with a permaculture management / consulting firm, if such things existed (maybe they do in more progressive areas - I hope so). Common areas and backyards could be turned into a food forest instead of sad looking lawn that gets almost no use.

YouTube suggested this video on 'rhizome barriers' -  using plants as a way of blocking grass, but the flashing solution sounds like it might be ideal for my situation as I don't have much space
https://youtu.be/MQ1SRU4fX0s

Also found some videos on worm biology and it sounds like my 'worm superhighway' idea would not be very useful - though not much is known about worm migration.
Here's a link to a playlist, I have watched the first three so far: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLLXdMDyDZoPW48P7WjYcZ6zbIoUFsdMP

Lh I think you are amazing. So many health issues for you and your family yet you keep planting and working to grow what you can.  Great job.  My husband has a neck injury, and I know how it affects the whole family.
I agree about HOA' s it's like they are suck in the past. Unfortunately most need reform and a bit more flexibility.
You can right about wood chips. The first load I got I didn't wear a mask, and got a nasty upper respiratory infection.  I'm more careful now.  Seems like the only way to make it work would be if someone would help you out getting them into the back for you.  There are other options.  The important thing is covering the soil.  Straw are there types your daughter aren't allergic to?  Cover with cardboard, and put a thin layer of pine. Like what is used for animal bedding.  I get  a compressed bale? Package? Cube? Anyway it's 11 cubic feet. It covers a good amount of space, and cost 10 to 12 dollars in my area.. There's also cedar, it's a smaller package and cost more.  Rice hulls, or rock, probably expensive and super heavy. I'm sure you will figure something out.
I have also thought about getting a rabbit, for fertilizer, not eating, just can't do that. I also worried about the heat. The people I have talked to say they freeze water bottles, and put one in the hutch on hot days, and the rabbits seem to do fine.  It's a bummer you can't have a few chickens. In our city you are allowed to have 5 hens. Can the HOA override city ordinance?   Probably, money talks.
Good luck to you.

Thanks - I think the worst thing is the brain fog (cognitive problems, executive function / attention deficits). But posting online helps - both because of feedback & because I re-read my posts and realize stuff - like I can plant daylilies in my backyard and start eating the buds - yeah!

I bought cypress mulch by accident ( I think there are sustainability issues with it); it was labelled as 'hardwood mulch' which I suppose is accurate. But is smells great and soothes my lungs (probably some good terpenes; maybe not surprising since myrcene which is found in citrus peel, hops & some other popular plants is a terpene that has effects on TRP channels) and is fairly cheap. Using carbdoard liberally, as well as brown grocery bags.

Will try some experiments and if I find anything works well, will post.

Thanks again.

I’d consider how such a trench will also convey water, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how its done. When installing underground water line, I have often backfilled the trench with woody debris and topped with woodchips for a path. If immediate drainage or water conveyance is a goal, weeping tile (perforated pipe) can be used as well. However, a pipe, or gravel,  will clog faster than a purely wood filled trench on according to researchers investigating ancient Roman era “faggot drains” (ie a bundle of sticks, which is how the research one could google describes it, but I am sorry that word can be hurtful in other contexts) in Britain. I have made hundreds of yards of such wood filled and wood chip topped trenches, and they work very well for holding as much water as possible before then draining effectively, even on 10” rain days. Its more of a fungal environment than worms tend to be dominant in, but I certainly see many more worms in the decomposing trenches and their immediate vicinity than in the compacted soils I started with. This is in addition to tons of mycelia and over a dozen mushroom species.

I think you have a good idea.
I have previous posts that touch on this:

https://permies.com/t/99256/Crescent-City-Food-Forest

https://permies.com/t/121863/Cedar-plank-drain-land-reclamation

I garden with health limits, and that blanketly blank "allergic to everything & carry an epi pen". Side note; look up "histamine intolerance". First off, I can't really lift and absolutely cannot handle things like wheelbarrows. I use a simple upright 2 wheel dolly, the kind with a shelf type thingy  between the wheels. A 5 gallon bucket you can tilt to slide the shelf thingy under the bucket. You can lay the bucket over, then sweep/rake/hoe/shovel stuff into it, then simply tip it back up onto the shelf thingy to wheel anywhere. Tip the bucket over off dolly to dump contents. No lifting!   Ahhh, HOAs. . . . In front yard try stealth foods. Dahlias were originally a food crop in Mexico. Each different color flower makes a slightly different flavored bulb (tubor?).  There are some really pretty "Ornamental" kales, which are usually perennial. Passiflora, contain in a big decorative pot, let grow up a trellis or porch column. There are many species for different climates, beautiful flowers, fruit & supports butterflies. Apios americana, Indian potato, get a southern "improved" variety that makes pretty purple/chocolately colored blossoms. It is a legume, is she allergic to beans? The small leafed, climbing vines make edible pod type beans and the small edible tubors (roots?)  are a 2nd-3rd year bonus on an easy to put up root like a string of golf ball & + size. Vines die back in winter but is perennial, does not like to dry out, must be peeled well and cooked well. Malabar Spinache is a heat loving vine, decorative red stems & glossy green leaves. Look up edible Coleus, too pretty for anyone to object to -oh wait, we're talking HOA. Smile sweetly *mutters under breath* they mean well.  

Speaking of brain fog, I went back and reread.  You're right you'd be better off concentrating on the backyard. I agree, raised beds with thick cardboard base layer. Remember, all those vines can trellis to shade the house so you use less of expensive cooling. oh, also I just read that the leaves of sweet potato vines are a commonly eaten green in the far east. I love sweet potato, am going to try the greens this year. Also, bunny will make a lot of poop. Make it easier, have someone build you a hutch on 8inch or bigger wheels, with good shade built in. Move the hutch around occasionally, daily throwing leaves/straw/woodchips on the poop pile under the hutch. You gotta visit bunny every day to feed & water anyway just add tossing dry stuff (including old feed & bedding) under the hutch. Don't skimp on the dry stuff, all manure stinks if you let it go bare. Water the poop pile when you water the plants. No touch soil building, minimizes handling/moving poop around, with poop covered so as not to also be fly farming. Bunnies need a minimum of 16 inches head room, make the hutch only as deep front to back as you are armpit to finger tip, and the floor should be several inches lower than your armpit. This will make it easy to reach everything. Put the feeder & water bottle on the far end, next to the shelter box so bunny can have a poop corner away from his food. Make it at least as long as a standard 2x4, that's 6 foot long or more. Lay a loose plank in the hutch so bunny can get off the wire bottom. Also, you probably already  know, with all allergies it's important for everyone to wipe off face, hair & arms with damp washcloth  whenever you come in the house from outside. No point in giving that revved up immune system an excuse to add pollen to the list. I'm babbling so I'll sign off  

Every HOA board could use a permie on it.

Hi Leigh,
Yup it's that blankety blank histamine intolerance / MCAS  - though I am very fortunate not to have had anaphylactic reactions so I don't have an epi pen. Early on I had an episode of my lips getting blisters on them (and I never figured out what caused it) and swelling, but no airway closure.  Mostly hives, itch, & eczema. GERD off and on, dysautonomia stuff, now neuropathic pain is the main issue. My daughter's reactions are nausea and vomiting. She also has pretty severe fatigue. She's been diagnosed with Celiac and Oral Allergy Syndrome - but it's more than that, I think.  Our cat was actually the first family member to have symptoms - several years before we started having problems he began to throw up everything he ate (same as my daughter - what landed her in hospital). The vet gave him fluid injections and had us keep trying different hypoallergenic cat foods until we found one he could tolerate (only the duck flavor of the Royal Canin Selected Protein). He can also eat a bit of salmon roe and a probiotic powder. There seem to be a lot more people and cats with this issue now, sadly - I hope this means there will be more research.

I have been finding that gardening has been helping me with my symptoms and I have recently started to be able to tolerate many more foods. It might be the combination of natural light exposure and probiotic effect of daily contact with soil based microorganisms that is helping. It's interesting that the most common pastime among centenarians is gardening. I've also been eating a lot of carrots which contain falcarindiol; it can increase the function of a cholesterol transporter; cholesterol where you need it in cells and not where you don't - sounds good to me. And started taking vitex, and upped my fish oil. So it's hard to say what's helping, but I'm thankful I am able to eat more foods now. I re-gained tolerance to carrots by first eating small amounts of them pickled; cooking doesn't make carrots more tolerable since although the allergen denatures with heat it goes back to its original structure once it cools enough to be eaten. But quick pickling in vinegar seemed to do the trick -  got a bit of burning mouth at first, but kept up the exposure. Now I can eat copious amounts raw. I just have to be careful to cut them into thin slices or my TMJ will act up - LOL. Anyone know how to grow bitter carrots? Falcarindiol is one of the chemicals responsible for bitterness in carrots.

I don't think I can convince my daughter to try pickled carrots, unfortunately, as she hates sour things. I have sensory processing weirdness (I may as well disclose since I'm pretty sure you can tell by now - I'm autistic) and I love sour stuff.  My mother had to stop me from drinking vinegar when I was little and I would graze on Oxalis when outside playing - I remember especially liking the seed pods - they're super tart. But of course one should be careful of the oxalic acid content of some of these plants - including sweet potatoes. Boiling helps leech out some of the oxalate, but my daughter and I both tolerate sweet potato better when baked. I should probably try boiling then baking. We both have too much sensitivity to regular potato to bother with it.

I should be more careful about washing up when I come in. I do change clothes. We have a couple of Austin Air room HEPA filters.
~

I would like to approach the HOA with permaculture ideas, but I find I tend to rub people the wrong way. Seems like the surest way I can turn someone against an idea is to be the one to promote it. My husband got our solar panels approved a few years ago, thank goodness - and I think people can probably see the benefit now (we also have a hybrid car).

I loved sour too! Ate lemons like an apple. I didn't get my Asperger's diagnosis until my 50s. The sensory processing difficulties are pretty much impossible to explain to neurotypicals. I truly believe that gardening helps with all of that. Now if I could just dodge the interactions whilst communing with the plants. I do get to explain a little soil building or how some practices actually build stronger weeds but forget to curb my enthusiasm and they leave.  It's cool you have a backyard to play in the dirt. I love the effects of using vines with vertical support.  It feels like I get to use each space double. I don't know the science, but on sweet potatoes I find that microwaving the whole thing , greased & wrapped in a wet paper towel, for a full 5 minutes then slice/frying seems help to reduce the itch etc. Sometimes I have to drop back to just plain rice for a week to sort of reset that whole itch/brain fog/fatigue cycle. Can't grow rice here, darn it.  I'm babbling and no doubt off topic, I'll stop & go to bed before I do that go on&on&on. Plants/soil/whole system observations I can overwhelm anyone. Speaking of: remember to track your sun & shade thru the day. That can really set the plants back and , for example , with hidden shade time that's not obvious.    

It seems we have much in common.  Thanks for all the tips & don't be afraid to go on about things as I can use all the help I can get.

Recent video focusing on caloric yield of various food crops:
https://youtu.be/8wVbcBZ3vVk

I had thought sweet potatoes and white potatoes were tied, but I guess not.
No mention of leeks or onions. I'll have to look those up.