Splendor of Gardening in the Pacific Northwest Gravelly Sandy Loam Soils: Experimental Design for Retaining Soil Moisture

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Peter Emau: One challenge for farmers/gardeners in areas of glacial till with gravelly sandy loam or with soil profiles having high sandy texture- is how to retain moisture into the soil to allow gardening with little or no additional watering. In preparation for the 2022-spring gardening season, we are experimenting with a garden design to retain moisture from the rains in the fall-autumn and winter seasons. Given the soil profile which is predominantly gravelly sandy loam, we are adding alternating layers of straw and manure + soil as illustrated below:
A a garden plot in preparation:
For each garden plot, soil profile is determined up to 4ft depth to determine percent sand, silt and clay to determine the capacity of the each plot to retain moisture.
The ultimate goal is to establish something like this Kale plant- which grew throughout last summer of 2021 ( 3 - 4 months without rain) on this organic heap without additional watering.

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