On 15/01/2014 10:06 AM, songbird wrote:
Fran Farmer wrote:

I've been away for more than a month, and although Himself did a lot of
watering, there are some places where the soil has dried out to such an
extent that it's now baked and water repellant and all attempts at
normal watering (ie hoses and sprinklers) are proving fruitless.

How have others coped with this other than puddling and making mud pies?
This does seem to work, but I'm sure there will be some reason why I
shouldn't do this even though it can't be because of soil structure
since where there is none to begin with once it's as dry as a chip. I
also do not like using soil wetting agents since I've never been able to
find out what it does to earth worms and I know they will return
eventually, once it rains or the winter comes and the weather cools.

i asked some other folks what they would do and
i have gotten several different replies:

- mixing water and molasses at 10-20:1 ratio.

Now that sounds interesting. I'm wondering if they suggested molasses
because it would help with keeping/fostering biota?????

I have a massive drum of molasses in the shearing shed which is a left
over from when there were horses here. I'll hunt it out and give it a try.

- adding compost and mixing it with the top layer of
soil. i suspect adding moist compost would be even
better.

- using more compost to cover the gardens once it is
moist again to keep the moisture there from escaping
easily.

Both of those make good sense, The latter suggestion is similar to my
'mud pie' making tactics so I know that will work.

- bentonite clay (not sure why anyone would add clay
to dusty soil, but perhaps it would help make granules
or clumps)

That suggestion is interesting too but all I know about Bentonite is
that it is traditionally used to stop leaks in dams ('ponds' in USian??)
if a farm has a leaking dam, bags of bentonite are poured in to stop
the leak.

- which i think is what gypsum would do too for that
type of soil but i've never had to deal with that myself
so i can't speak from direct experience.

how is it going? making progress?

I'd say a tentative 'yes'. I've been gradually going round and paying
close attention to spots within areas where he just applies a blanket
watering. Working as a team seems to be a bit more effective in getting
water to the really precious things but it's still just about survival
and I'm not expecting things to do any thriving - that would be a
bridge too far.

We got a bit of rain yesterday (Hallellula!) and so that will help.
Nothing, but nothing can ever replace the effectiveness of rain. I
suspect the only thing to do from now on is to completely cover the more
sensitive growing area (veg) with shade cloth in high summer and either
never go away for more than a few days, or just admit that it's time to
move to the burbs or bring in a bulldozer and get rid of the lot and
then lay down pebbles.