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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Helene, 

    If your soil was not very fertile, certainly adding any and all sources of fertility will help.  There is no comparison between any plant grown with optimal fertility and one grown with low fertility.  Sand is inert and can't hold onto nutrients.  Clay and organic matter are very good at holding onto nutrients.  So your beaver dam collection is definitely a wonderful find.  And as you are so far north, the organic matter will last a long time in the soil. 

    However, there is no reason not to simply add some borax and see if things do better.   At 11 pounds per acre max, you just buy some Twenty Mule Team borax in the grocery laundry section and sprinkle it like fairy dust.  You could even try planting one little patch of beets with it and one without.  Please share results with us.  I haven't done anything so dramatic, all I know is I have nice beets this year, as nice as I could want.  Never before would they grow taller than an inch.  And not one sign of "virus" in the tomatoes.    Donna