The chief mixed some crushed vulcano stones in her sectret gardenmix. It just exploded 
It seems to me you hit the jack pot Wood all around you and a beautiful landplot.
9 Likes
are you talking about gardening or something else maybe of the more erotic nature? 
3 Likes
It is the rich newly available free minerals.
Same-Same within two years after Mt Saint Helens ash falls out to 5-7 years.
Soils fertility across the southern Pacific is said to be from the Java area volcanic ash falls drifting mostly eastwards. Tapering off east to west. Effect diminishing by the time to the Pitcairn Islands
S.U.
5 Likes
This is a hillside just above me that neighbor built a internal retaining wall, the cover is the native clay
This has yet to have a good rain on it and since it is dry and just worked is clumpy and chunky
After just smashing in the fingers it crumbles to dust, and leaves what feels like a wax coating on the fingers, instant loss of grip on anything from hand moisture
9 Likes
pop your address into this, and it will give you a MUCH better idea of what soil you have. I would do it for you, but my 9yoâs fishing pole is ready (mine isnât), and you arenât ready for visitors. 
3 Likes
My observations on composting organics:
- if we mow the grass with a garden mower or mulcher, the soil is not enriched, because most of the grass dies (oxidizes) and disappears into the air
- if the grass is cut and dried and composted like this, preferably without the presence of oxygen, we get a lot of black compost, dry leaves or wood chips from wood without tannin also produce good manure with a lot of carbon
- photosynthesis is a process that takes carbon (CO2) from the atmosphere and binds it with hydrogen and oxygen, and when cooking charcoal we try to extract pure carbon from the wood mass, similarly we try to retain as much carbon as possible when composting, well, thatâs the only way. to prevent carbon oxidation (it is good to cover the compost pile with foil)
9 Likes
I hope that is not a landslide waiting to happen!
5 Likes
Thatâs why I was curious about the availability of deciduous woodlands. When I first built my garden I dug out the crappy dirt under where I made the low raised beds to a depth of two feet. I worked my ass off separating the soil from the thin sod layer of a nasty grass that spreads runners beneath the soil. If you till it and chop up the runners they spread even worse. So using any part of that top soil was a bad move on my part. Took years of broadfork work to get those beds somewhat free of that grass but still if I let a bed sit fallow for a year it will have runners to dig out. I thought I got smart and started pulling the humus out of the woods surrounding my garden area. Deep and rich and at least a foot and a half deep. When I moved it into the beds it saw itâs first taste of direct sun and exploded in an array of mostly dormant plant life. Still, it was rich and full of nutrition. At first I covered it with cardboard and planted through holes in that but that took a lot of cardboard and it was messy. I tried the rosin paper we covered floors with to protect them when I was a builder. Not durable enough to last a season. Now I use the cheapest black weed cloth. Not the most ecological solution but it works great. I tear it out every year and replace it. It pretty much evaporates when it goes into a fire. Iâm sure it would burn better than a dead cat in a gasifier. It warms up the soil weeks earlier than would normally happen as a bonus. The moral of this story is that getting almost perfect soil for raised beds is easy by getting it out of a wood lot. But it has to be blocked from sunlight. It actually takes a few years blocked off before most of the natural seed in it is no longer viable. I have opened up a bed thinking it must be done sprouting and had it covered in dutchmanâs breeches within a couple weeks. A pretty plant so not so bad.
5 Likes
Excellent hard sweated learned wisdoms youâve layed out TomH.
Our new 32 inch high raised beds planter will only be halfway up filled with forests found scrounged. The top half I will âcheat-quickâ and Get a truck load of bulk certified weed seeds free organics delivered by nearby 4CornersOrganics. It only seems expensive in comparison . . . to the time saved us.
Ha! Visiting my older Sister yesterday she thinks she needs to have an extension solid wooden pantry added to her new kitchen. $5,000. !! Stained to match her new âonlyâ $3,000 dining room table with the four $300. each chairs.
She is burning through quickly the selling the farm, money. As her only Brother and remaining family peer male; I told her to knock off the itch scratching money spending. She told me as the elder Sister to shut up.
Wife and I are much slower candle-lighters with our sold trees money. Done and gone, will truly be; done&gone. Have to have sustainable replenishing edibles to show for it.
For this year the Wife has de-weeded, de-sods-grassed three of the smaller 6 inch high old raised beds plots. Yep. Now she is fighting grasses re-growths. Wild rabbits and slugs.
S.U.
7 Likes
Every time I go out on a stock up run I get a bale of peat moss and as many bags of cheap potting soil as the wifes Rogue will carry. Iâve got it stacked up like cord wood. Itâs like 3 bucks a bag for the typical .75 cu ft bag but I donât want any outdoor soil in the greenhouse or the 27 gallon totes I grow stuff in. As I expand I will want some in stock and I donât want to wind up scratching my ass and wondering why I didnât get more stuff when it was available.
8 Likes
I thought the same thing. If it is neglected and been that way. I would be tempted to plant like elderberries or aspen or some other shrubs or tree that are free* and easy to clone in there. They get too much rain for it not to be a potential issue.
*aspen and elderberries and a number of other plants, you can just put sticks in the ground and they will grow. But usually it is best to take the cuttings in the dormant period and plant them in the spring so get water when they donât have a root system.
5 Likes
It doesnât really oxidize. it gets eaten by bacteria, worms or other orgasms. A good compost pile is rich in bacteria as well. There are some losses either CO2 or methane depending on whether it is aerobic or anaerobic.
I think what you are observing is just a matter of scale. I think it is 100" of organic matter to make 1" of soil. Or something similarly insane.
IF you collect all the grass clippings up, and put them in a pile, you get a small pile of organic matter. If you take that pile and spread it out over the area you collected it from, it would be a thin layer⌠then mix that into the ground say 3" inches. It wonât appear like anything was added.
The manure of compost, leaves and wood chips are really just feeding the microorganisms. like fungus breaks down wood and will feed to to the plant. or the worms eat the leaves and bacteria and the worm poo is available to the plant as fertilizer.
I honestly donât know whether aerobic or anaerobic saves the most carbon. But anaerobic microorganisms tend to lock up nitrogen until they die.
6 Likes
I would agree with @madflower69. Thats why my compost compostion is 1/3 dry leafes, 1/3 wood chips and 1/3 green stuff like grass or bio waste from kitchen or garden.
6 Likes
Just curious if Iâm the only one here that does a composting worm set up? Red Wigglers or European night crawlers?
5 Likes
I tryed once, didnt grow on me. I try to avoid extra work, l rather feed the worms that live in the soil.
I will probably get in to some sort of a insect/worm farming when l get some fishponds built thughâŚ
9 Likes
I have the 5 gallon bucket version with red wigglers that were mostly leftover from fishing. some others I have found around have been tossed in as well.
The only change I made was to seal it up. I hot glued screen over the air vent holes, and cut out a lid to seal where the middle and top buckets come together to keep bugs like fruit flies out.
it doesnât smell or attract bugs and it is easy.
They are mostly neglected. it took a like a year or two to get going, in part because I didnât start with very many worms (cheap), and started them with shredded paper which didnât have enough moisture, and I forgot to add some dirt to help them grind up stuff.
Otherwise, I really donât do crap. I emptied out the bottom one with worm juice a few times, and I switched the buckets around once like a month ago. I still havenât poked through it to see how good they did. I add waste and once in a while sprinkle dirt in. It mainly just sits in the corner. 
4 Likes
I hit the like button in spite of this part of your message.
7 Likes
Property prices out west gives me sticker shock too.
4 Likes
Jacob was telling me that would get at least a couple hundred acres down your way
4 Likes
Oregon and Washington States may seem like big states, but once you subtract off all of the National Forests, National Parks, other Federal Reserve lands such as BLM, military bases and firing ranges, Hanford Nuclear; States Managements Lands; Indian Reservations and private timber lands: cramming our populations onto the remainder lands leads to fierce $'s competitions.
Relatively mild winters draws many from other states too.
Ha! There. And did not even go all-political on 'ya.
The trick-of-it is to say No to most all of the traditional, and new culture, hole-in-the-pockets distractions. Invest your decades of time&efforts into your personal skills and family.
Took my in-homes traveling Nurse Wife 10 years to educate and hone her professional skills. $$,$$$ She has covered 1/4 of Washington State and 1/10 of Oregon State. That wears out vehicles. 30,000 miles a year.
Took me 10 years myself to gain the knowledges, skills, and tools to be able to at-home maintain her five needed vehicles in our 28 years of marriage.
My literal shade tree shop:
Her 2014 Ford Edge overheated tracked down due to worn out AC/radiator electric fans. (Could have been the internal chain driven water pump-puking it guts. The trans cooler inside the radiator leaking making a milk shaking blending. The electronic variable fans speed controller failing. A blown head gasket.)
R.H. side accessory belts with tensioner work done now. $238. tensioner! Only use OEM. One of the four O2 sensors next. Of course firewall jammed side. $256. Only use OEM.
Made in Taiwan/China fan module on the way. $195. versus $465. H.D. tow package version.
The now squeaking in cabin blower motor will get changed out too. Also TYC aftermarket. Great brand.
Halfway disassembled to the third set of Iridium spark plugs now at 198K miles.
Oh yeah. Oil change. And suck out the less than 1 quart of fully synthetic 75W-140 from the NO-Drain plug APU unit for the fourth time. ( made to fail at 150K)
Save us ~$1500 in commercial shops labor.
One months rent. One months of a small houses payment.
Multiply that out twice a year for 28 years. A quarter of a place like Marcusâs.
Do the same not-spent-out savings on new gadgets electronic âneedsâ.
The same on meals bought out.
The same on clothing. (Sheâs a professional woman. Has to present as such.)
Then even expensive West Coast you can own your house.
Steve Unruh
6 Likes