De Craw

I went to Lowe's today to get stuff for the garden, and I think I'm officially disappointed with their seed selection. Lots and lots of green bean types, but no green onions? Did I see that correctly? I did. I got leek seeds; maybe leeks harvested early will resemble green onions. Yeah, and maybe leeks harvested late make their own soup (I can't think of leeks in any way at all without being reminded of Knorr leek soup).

While I was there I bought one of those multiple-tined claw-like tilling tools. Normally I just turn the dirt over with a narrow garden spade, but those claw deals have always tempted me. This one claimed to not just dig up hard-packed soil, but to annihilate it entirely. We'll see.

The soil on my property varies considerably from spot to spot. On the western and southern expanses, it is basically sand and gravel to some indeterminate depth. I've dug down a ways and never really dug myself out of the gravel, though the deeper one goes the more one starts to encounter flat lenses of clay. In the middle part (including where my garden is) lies an intermixed layer of silt and clay about three feet deep overlying an apparently bottomless (and surprisingly wet) gravel formation. In the eastern regions, though, the ground becomes all clay all the way down, and it's as hard and bitterly resistant as unshelled Brazil nuts. It's as tough and hard three feet down as it is at the surface, which makes planting trees in the front yard unpopular.

Which is extremely boring, now that I think about it, but if you want an exciting blog, maybe you should be looking elsewhere, aye?

Anyway, in the next few hours I'll test out the craw and see if it works worth a damn (and will throw it a good distance if it doesn't), and I'll lay out my odd mix of seeds and see if they please anyone. Spinach, head lettuce, leaf lettuce, Brussels sprouts, carrots, bulb onions, leeks, beets, broccoli and cauliflower... If they don't work, I guess I'll throw them too.