Rockin' it (garden)

[elainegrey]

I dug post holes yesterday! The clay was just the right consistency... cheddar cheese, perhaps? The first was a hole for a repurposed 4x4 from the old porch railings, on which i would (and did) mount my rain gauge. That hole went through lovely loamy clay mixed with bits of driveway gravel down to the clay. When we had the driveway put in, the scrapings (of loam!) were piled in the center island: my decision to grow tomatoes in the island and generally convert it to vegetable garden seems like a good plan. I'm not sure how deep i did this hole, but as the post is short, i suspect it is sufficient.

The next two post holes were to hold 4x4s for propping up the king mattress springs into a trellis. I didn't want to set in concrete, partly because i want to be able to take this down someday. The western up hill one i got to about 20" and the eastern down hill hole was about 24".

It was odd how soon i hit the yellow clay and saprolite layer (around 17") in one of the holes -- uphill -- and never hit it in the other, 10 ft away. Saprolite appears to be the technical term for the bedrock that is weathering away. This yellow clay layer i hit has an almost rocklike quality, and i would chip away at it and then break off a chunk. Terms which might apply are goethite and limonite, but i don't think it really gets a name. It is yellow ochre-y in color. I think i'll save the chunks and not loose them in all the clods. Anyhow, i am curious what the rock is, but i suspect it is of no interest to anyone else: thus saprolite.

The other hole never hit the yellow rock/clay layer, just some quartz and green stones. I assume the green stones are slate, as i live in the slate belt, but they aren't what i think of as slate. Quartz i can recognize. One might be pretty clear. It is a nice flat crystal, broken on the edge from the digger.

I like thinking about how no one has seen the rocks i dig up -- once i am into the clay, it's been undisturbed by mammals since the volcanic flows formed (well, i'm sure there are localized areas, like in stream banks, where critters dig dens). I do find little pencil diameter holes in the soil where insects or snakes or worms must be tunneling.  The tunnels are awfully deep, since we have such active miner/digger bees i assume that's what they are, but -- wow. That's amazing work.

Comments

[annie_r]

How many years has it been in this house? You have transformed/brought to new life so much of it. Someday it will be safe to see it again (I think the last time I was there was when the goat squad was, unless I am forgetting a less squee-ful visit.)

I am unfamiliar with the local geology, but I think the river area you are in is somewhat different from mine. Yet another thing I would like to know more about (digging any holes by hand is an exercise in frustration at hitting rocks, knarled old tree roots, and red clay (have not seen yellow clay, curious about the iron-ochre mineral content.) But this area had been farmed or cleared (when did that end, and how old are the current trees?) Apologies for multi-paren digressions.

A post-hole digger, was that hard to use? Is it the hand-powered kind? 20" is a deep hole.

re clay consistency, pots get trimmed when they are at what is usually called the 'leather hard' or 'cheese hard' stage, so I instinctively know what that feels like :)

I see a lot of those narrow holes dug by critters, and do not inspect. I did not know about digger bees, I have probably seen their work and assumed it was some other critter. I'll look more carefully in the spring.

[elainegrey]

It has been calendar long since you were here, but it doesn't feel that long with all the going ons. We moved here in 2016, during the election. The goats were the beginning of the transformation -- so much clearing. We had the septic field cleared off and then went to work behind the house to clear for the "orchard" -- really the pet run -- and then just when i was thinking about having a celebration and inviting people over, mom had her stroke. And then after we got used to Mom & Dad's situation, pandemic. But yes, i think the clearing and creation of the orchard, the driveway, and the new steps make a big visible difference. There's been little changes inside - ceiling fans and light fixture changes -- but mainly just wear and tear.

The Soil surveys are at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/surveylist/soils/survey/state/?stateId=NC I was using Chatham County's 2006 pdf; Orance County has a 1977 PDF. I will admit that the GIS map interface is far more clunky. Anyhow, how much can the soil have change since 1977? (When i was growing up in Chapel Hill!) The NC bedrock map is at https://deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/energy-mineral-land-resources/north-carolina-geological-survey/interactive-geologic-maps I am lucky in that someone who lived near by me did some research about their land and wrote a book about it, so i have a guess. One of my online digressions has been going and finding old maps and aerial imagery, WPA photographs to get a sense of what this place has been like in the past.

(Posting this partial response now)