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| It has occurred to me that those pesky gophers do a lot of prep works for me!
I have horrible gophers, so i have to have raised beds lined with the gopher wire. I have a few compost bins. A tumbler that I start things in, a larger bin that I tip the tumbler into and a 3rd bin for "finishing" (hey, it works for me!) My question is....In the yards where we have gophers, that clay soil has been churned up just nicely! What should I do with this lovely churned up clay soil??? Back into the beds? Into the compost? Will it turn back into a clayey lump if I don't mix it with compost? Hey! If those gophers are going to go to all that trouble, why not use their labor???? Ideas???? Nancy |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by emgardener 9 BayArea CA (My Page) on Tue, Aug 14, 12 at 23:07
| Be nice to gophers! I just dug up my best squash plant to see why it was doing so well. Turns out the gopher tunnels were providing great aeroponic chambers for the roots to grow in. Posted some pictures at the link below. Now I am thinking about how to work with gophers in my garden, getting them to dig and aerate my plant roots without having them chew off the plant stems. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Gopher aeration tunnels for roots
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| They are not welcome around here. I've had them nearly destroy the dam on my pond, and this year, I had them move into my main front flower bed - twice. They do indeed stir things up. |
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- Posted by belgianpup Wa/Zone 7b (My Page) on Sat, Aug 18, 12 at 18:06
| Nancy, there is useful clay soil (mixed with other things), and there is clay gumbo. It sounds like your soil may be the better kind. Some soils are mostly clay, but not all clay. Why not do a Soil Type Test in a Jar, just so you'll know? Get a clean quart jar with a lid (a mayo jar is fine), add about 2 cups of soil (remove any rocks or debris), almost fill with water, and shake thoroughly for about a minute, then set it where it won't be disturbed for a couple of days. The sand is heaviest and will settle out in the first minute, then the finer silt, and then the clay. They should be relatively obvious layers, so you can see what you've got. Really fine clay particle may not settle in a few days. Organic matter will float. You might even use two jars, and add regular (non-gopher) soil to that, and then do a jar with the excavated gopher soil, and compare the two. |
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