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["Sage Austin | Eureka! Design" <eureka AT hctc.net>]

We have very little soil. Digging any hole requires a pick axe. There's 
maybe 2 inches of topsoil before you hit limestone rocks from the size 
of pebbles to dinner plates, most of them tumbled by whatever once ran 
through our creek. This is on top of a layer of solid limestone 
conglomerate, a natural concrete of limestone with these rocks embedded. 
When it floods the river runs clear. When area trees get blown over 
their roots are as flat as pancakes. Needless to say we don't lime our 
soil. We need to add all we can to make it more acidic.

Our large oaks and some mulberries in the creek compost in place, 
providing us a rich soil which we "mine" by hauling it up to our raised 
beds. During floods topsoil washed down from the mountain and plain 
behind us is deposited in our creek, although our neighbor is digging a 
huge pond upstream so I doubt we'll see any of that again. Our deepest 
soil is in the creek, but it's also quite shady and where our chickens 
free-range. If it weren't for our compost, mostly from chicken bedding 
manure, we'd be in trouble.

This is the first year I've tried cover crops. The hairy vetch is doing 
well, but my red clover is disappointing. I planted it two months ago 
and, although it's alive, the leaves could fit on the head of a pin and 
hardly a quarter inch tall....??

The ants bring up a different kind of soil that we've not discovered in 
the first 2-3 feet, so it's a mystery to us. Maybe they are small enough 
to get past the conglomerate. Anybody know how deep ants go?

--Sage
Way Out in Texas