Bare soil is in agony

That's what they say.

Previously, from February 7th, I posted a picture of the frozen soil height outside the mini-tunnel compared with the thawed soil inside the tunnel.  Here it is again.  You can see there's a 3" to 4" difference.

One thing I didn't mention at the time was that if protected, the soil won't subside back to it's original position.  You get frost tillage loosening the soil down to frost depth.  Now normally, bare soil is beaten back down and compacted by rain.  If it's protected though, it stays fluffier.  At least that's the theory. It's usually used as an argument for more mulch, but plastic seems to help a lot too. 

I'm trying not to do mechanical tillage, because that will destroy the soil structure and allow more compaction, even though it initially fluffs up the soil.  I do some hand tillage with a spading fork or a broadfork or other, shallower tools to discourage weeds.  Currently my biggest weed concern is rhizome grass, and I have to dig down a few inches to get it.

After I moved that mini-tunnel to a new spot, I checked the soil in it periodically. Today, that soil seemed thawed, so I moved the mini-tunnel and had a look.

The soil inside is a little lower than the surrounding frozen ground around it.  It was mostly thawed.  The chickens helped.  They didn't find many worms though.

It looks like there's a buried frost layer about 2" thick.  It's between 5" and 7" down.  The worms are below that.  My fork went through it though, and turned it up.  I'm assuming that means that throughout the garden, the frost extends down about 7"-8", so it shouldn't take too long to melt.  I might as well get to work melting it.

I pulled out one of my recently scavenged pieces of plastic.  It's 28' wide and forty-something feet long, which seems just about right for that particular spot.  Then I had to look around and find as many heavy things as I could to weight down the edges.  I should probably find more.  If the wind gets under a side, this will be up against a fence or off in the woods somewhere.

 

I don't like mulch plastics, because they're single use and then they're trash, but clear plastic on bare soil is one of the fastest ways to heat soil up and it's easy to re-use.  Once the soil is warm, I prefer an organic mulch, because it adds carbon to the soil which I need anyway.

This is spread in section 14 of this garden diagram:

The forecast is sunny today, then a stretch of cloudy/showery, then a mix of cold sunny and warm cloudy days next week.  By the end of that, this soil should be thawed.  (I should develop a plan for what to do then!) Section 14 is one of the most sloped areas within the garden, draining SSE.  The plastic will shed rain and melt into the raspberries in section 15.  The south edge of sections 13 and 12 has a ditch that will carry water off to the northeast corner of section 16 (hen house yard).

Section 14 is also the spot where I was digging gently with a shovel tip, turning over sprouting weeds last spring when my back seized up.  I tried foolish things to loosen it up and ripped something instead.  My back seized up again last week, but this time I've been gentler on it and it's just about back to normal.  I must change normal.  I must do core strength exercises so that this does not happen.

Meanwhile, the mini-tunnel is showing some wear.  Wind has flipped it and transported it 40' across the garden at least once.  the plastic is ripped as it rubs along the top of one end arch, and is coming loose along the bottom on one side.  But I've put it in a fresh spot in section 4, to thaw a little more soil near the other two places it's been.

 In the background right you can see my poor worn out garden art windmill.  It has a simple 5' flat blade set, and it's mounted on a bicycle bottom bracket.  That bottom bracket is upside down in the weather and it seems to take a year to wear one out in this use.  The blades are largely made of luan plywood scraps, and one of them is broken.  I really like to see it turning though.