Progress

We opened our Wilderness garden one decade ago so that garlic could be planted in soil free of pathogens from the deadly disease that nearly destroyed our entire crop.  Written references  to that situation indicated that our garden near home would always carry the seeds of that illness.  New garlic was purchased and we have been able to grow healthy garlic here ever since.

Eight planting beds were planned but two of them remain undeveloped.  It seems that more than can be completed is always part of the plan.  The soil near the house contains many broken stones that can be used to build decent safe paths but here the soil was more finely ground by the glaciers with the desired small flat stones mostly missing.  With planting beds needing attention this central path was more of a stone dump than a safe place to walk.

Earlier this year Becky attempted to enter the garden crossing the weed filled jumble of stones that filled this area them.  A stone of some size caught the end of her foot throwing her toward the ground.  A steel pipe had been driven into the ground to mark the edge of the planting bed.  Becky fell  heading directly toward that pipe.  Some combination of luck and skill resulted in the pipe end barely grazing the side of her head.  No blood was drawn and we will not mention the contents of my pants as I stood behind her helplessly.  The pipe was pulled that day and this proper end of the path was built yesterday.  A load of junk stone has been removed but small flat stones are still needed to finish this job.  For now the end stones have been solidly placed with absolutely no wiggle.  Small flat stones will be placed on top of the path as they become available.  No steel rods now reach for the sky and they will always be removed before I leave the job.  The white plastic pipe near the fence serves as the hinge for the gate.  It is totally encased by the bent fence and is a hazard to no one.

Here we see the boundary between a bed that has been fallow but weed filled.  Believe it or not these weeds are rather small since this bed has been already cleared this year.  The adjacent bed has been repeatedly covered with grass clippings and the weeds are removable using only hand tools.  As of today the planting bed is totally free of weeds from end to end.  Screened manure would have been spread here today had the early morning lightening and rain not altered our plans.  This ground will be frequently enriched and hand tilled between now and mid-October when the garlic is returned to the ground.

Here are our tools of choice.  All of the weeds on the pile in the background were carried there using the purple trug.  The American made Cobra Head hand cultivator follows the spade that only loosens the weeds.  Gloves protect Becky's hands with an ample supply of water close by.

This wild location at the base of a wooded slope is developing as planned.  In response to reading two sentences written by John Burroughs describing his search for the seldom seen in this area Cardinal Flower, I have spent many years trying to find a location that will support this plant without further help from me.  The raised road to the gravel bank traps the water that moves down the hill in the background.  Cardinal Flower needs generous amounts of water in order to survive.  This hill slopes toward he north delaying the early plant growth that so often freezes out both here and in Burrough's Catskills.  Lingering snow cover protects the tender green growth that has been under the snow for the entire winter.  Our garden plants have been severely hammered by this year's drought.  Short stems bearing few flowers are all that we find in our there.  Many early spring visits will be made here to check the progress of these plants next year.

New Garlic Ground

At first glance this looks like a strange location for a garden.  The forest in the background extends almost to forever.  Heading east one could walk in a straight line for three miles before encountering the first year round hard road.  Traffic noise is nonexistent here.  An occasional airplane is the only outside machine that violates the silence.  It is possible to look in a full circle and see no buildings.  Little imagination is needed to see this as pioneer farming.  I now need the tractor to bring in the tools used to till the soil here but all of them are hand tools.  Long views and solitude make this a delightful place to work.

Disease has made the garden near the house unsuitable for growing garlic.  New ground and new seed were necessary if we were to continue growing garlic.  The remains of squash vines in the right foreground are in the bed that grew garlic last year.  Vines and weeds to the left mark this year's garlic bed.  Two wheelbarrows are in the area being prepared for the next garlic planting.  Brown grass clippings are killing the sod as the first step toward clearing next year's new soil.

Our basic method to open new ground is to first kill the sod.  Then the stones are screened out.  Waste stone builds great looking and fully functional garden paths.  From them the growing beds can be worked without ever stepping onto the planting soil.  The addition of woods soil, pond muck or compost completes the preparation of the planting area.  Here I need to get a move on as the garlic should be planted next week.

Today digging revealed a puzzle.  Under nearly a foot of  brown topsoil, a layer of sticky yellow subsoil is revealed.  Exactly how the glaciers laid down these different materials is not understood by us.  It is possible that the topsoil was deposited long after the subsoil.  Markings of an ancient fire were found under the topsoil.  It could have been a natural burn.  It could have been a prehistoric fire.  It does not seem possible that it is a modern burn.  There has been no disturbance of the soil here that deep.  The circumstances surrounding this burn remain a puzzle.  It seems unlikely that the remains of a fire would persist for a long period of time.  It seems unlikely that the burn is recent since the soil is undisturbed.

In all of the soil sifting that I have done here, no Native American artifacts have ever been found.  Lower ground near the river and the eel weir has yielded countless primitive points.  A flint factory was located nearby opposite a feeder stream.  A summer camp near the eel weir seems likely.  It appears that all of the activity of these early residents here was concentrated near the river.  Our stony hills saw little early activity.  That diminishes the chances that the fire remains mark their presence here.  So I ponder and dig surrounded by natures splendor.