When planting in-ground, I always ammend it with something. Your soil looks rich but how well draining is it?
Earthworms are always a good sign but the centipedes could pose a problem. Not sure if they chew on leaves or not.

I like that bed so far..looks nice. Your plants are still young but should take off soon.
What State are you in? What are your temps like?

Stoney

I'm in the western Rockies at about 5000 ft. alt. Temps have been 70-80 days and 55-65 nights. I measured soil surface temp at 98 recently. It gets blistering hot in the late summer months.

the first couple inches of soil dries fast but you can make sandcastles whither the stuff that's deeper.

Maybe I should do a rocky drainage bed underneath it all? How deep do pepper roots go when grown as an annual?

I grow my plants as perrenials here in So. Cal.
I've seen roots grow a foot long or more.

Stoney

Roots in my containers will easily reach the bottom of 5 gallon pails and essentially be root bound. I am not sure if they will do that in regular soil or not though.
I have very sandy soil where I live...very sandy. I don't try to grow anything in it. If I plant anything in the yard, I usually dig a big hole, fill it with a good garden soil and then plant whatever into that, kind of like an in ground container. If you want to create a garden out of a large area of very sandy soil, I would suggest maybe a raised garden bed filled with a higher quality soil.

But before I go through that trouble and expense, I would give the natural soil a try. Try a few plants, peppers, tomatoes or whatever and see how they do. If there are worms and there was natural vegetation growing in it, then it might be just fine as it is.
Bruce

Looks pretty good to me djoy. Worms is a good sign of organic matter. Kimmsr in the soil forum says you want to have about 5(I think) per shovelful. Sandy soil generally needs copious amounts of OM, but yours sounds good to go. Peppers don't need incredibly rich soil.

Maybe add an inch or two of compost and/or some pine bark fines for structure. Mulch another 2-3 inches when the temps get up.

Kevin

Centipedes don't bother plants. They're predators.

I am of the same opinion as Kevin. Seems to have good amount of organic matter. If it feel too sandy I would add more compost to it to gain some moisture retention property. Peat moss is another choice.

I think I am in agreement with Kevin as well seysonn. It definitely needs more structure. I am going to try to do it with the materials at hand. Got more branches and leaves than I can handle every year plus some hearty bark from a Black Locust that recently aged out. Excited to craft a few things from that wood!...hmmmmm... sorry, back to the subject.

Yes Jean, I believe you are correct the centipedes are o.k. as are the shrews, dragon flies, spiders, snakes, worms, mantis, wasps, bees, bats to name a few :-) I don't think the shrews would agree with me on the snakes though.
That riminded me of a favorite garden visitor of mine, As we were standing in the garden today I was telling my friend how cool humming birds are.....rite then we heard that whistle of a satisfied busy bird consuming nectar from one if the locust trees as he was passing through.

I appreciate all the comments.

thnx,
dj

I have sandy soil, and I till in as much compost as I can every year. It helps the soil retain moisture.
Double-digging, or double-tilling is another method. You dig a trench 1' deep and as wide as your tiller, throw the dirt to one side of the trench. Drop your tiller down into the trench and till that material, and add 4" of compost and till again. Add another 4" of compost to the top of that, return your soil and till that in. Do a soil test before you start so you can determine the PH of your soil so you can add amendments more deeply. The point is that you are looking to develop an artificial strata that will hold water and nutrients better. Looks like you have plenty of clay minerals in that sample.

I don't have sandy soil, so I'm speaking in generalities. It is my understanding that any soil benefits from a 1-2 inch layer of compost laid on the top of the soil. If you already have a good amount of earthworms, just an annual layer of compost might be all you need. You could simply just loosen up your soil first, by inserting a pitchfork and moving it, prying it back and forth without actually turning the soil, which some feel disturbs the natural structure of your soil. You could add bark fines as a mulch on top of the compost to keep weeds down and insulate the soil against those high temperatures and retain more moisture.

Like Bruce, I would try doing that first and see how your peppers do before going to a lot of effort and expense to do much more.

The Soil and Compost forum is also a good place to read what others are doing with their soil.

There is a difference between sandy soil and sand. I have been growing in sandy soil for years and always had good luck. I amend with lime and organic fertilizer mulch with straw. You should test your soil and lime and fertilize accordingly , Mulch with straw and you should do fine. You can double dig next year if you want but if you have worms you should be fine. You can lime and side dress your plants any time if needed even over top of mulch. Have a good year. I find peppers like sandy soil , not pure sand but your soil has worms so your soil should be fine

The soil in your first pic looks good, and the presence of earthworms means that there is good organic material. But for beds you need depth - 12-14". Dig down, mix up all that you find, and re-evaluate.

What I did in my rose beds (in Georgia clay) was go down 14" pulling out tree roots and rocks, haul off some of the nastier stuff that should have been on a potter's wheel and not in a garden, and fill in with various amendments - mostly organic material. Mix it all up, tamp down some, and for the roses top with 3-4" of bark nugget mulch.

You also should try to acidify toward pH 5.5 or lower, though I don't know how long it will last.

Good luck,
Dennis

Compost compost compost

For anyone interested, kimmser over in the soil forum gave me this interesting five point test to do on my soil. Here are my results.

1. Checked for organic matter. I used a half gallon beer jug and put four inches of soil in it, then filled with water and gave it a thorough shaking. this is how things settled out. Still a lot of organic matter floating on top.

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2. Drainage. I dug holes in two different locations, first hole was in an un-worked area and the second was in the bed that I had turned three times and removed weeds.

The first fill took 18 and 19 minutes respectively to drain. Interestingly, both holes took 26.5 minutes to drain the second time. That's pretty quick drainage from what you are saying kimmsr.

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3. Tilth. From what I would call slightly wet (first photo) I
opened my hand and it fell apart as shown.

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When I mixed it with a little soil that was slightly more moist but still not what I would call soaked it held its shape and crumbled easy when poked.

4. Smell. When the soil is completely dry it has almost no smell. When it is wet it ranges from poopy, smelly shoes to the smell of the inner flesh of a ripe white puff ball (mushroom).

{{gwi:288582}}

5. Worms. The newly reclaimed areas are at best one worm per shovel. The areas that have been gardened in previous years by someone else are close to five per shovel.

Now what do ya think?

Compost for sure I'm thinking maybe mix in some straw and or some wood chip fines?

dj

Nope. Just strictly WELL aged compost at this point if you plan on planting there this season. And even then, I would give it a good couple soaks( and weeks) after applying said compost and before planting. Wood chips, non aged manures should be applied several months in advance. Wood chips will rob the plants of nitrogen. Soil should smell very earthy and almost sweet after compost application.

That sounds like pretty damn good pepper growing soil. It just needs OM added to it regularly. Don't be afraid to add more in the fall.

Kevin

That's a "perc-test," used to check for water absorption to determine how quickly water will percolate through the soil when designing drain-fields for septic tank effluent water. The slower the absorption, the more clay you have. That's fairly good drainage. The holes are usually 2'X8" or so, the width of a post-hole digger.
A good check for water in your garden, is to cut a piece of 1" PVC 2' long, cap one end, and drill a bunch of 1/16" holes in it on the sides, and wrap it with weed block. Dig a hole in the garden area, place the pipe in it leaving a couple inches above ground, and compact the soil around it. After a rain, stick a piece of unfinished dowel in it to see what your water level is, and how long it hangs around. Keep a coffee can over it to keep out rain or water from sprinklers.

Not all sandy soil is bad.

Some is from old flood plains like the Sacramento Valley or wherever.
Lots of good stuff is in the sandy soil.

My Uncle grew great gardens in his sandy soil.
All he did was dig old plants under after mowing them with the lawn mower.
At one time he raised rabbits and added poop to the garden,but his soil was great to begin with.
The garden came long before the rabbits...

Did he ... did he .. shoot .. the rabbits?

That would explain a lot!

I prefer to plant in the ground to be honest. Less maintenance, easier to work, I can keep the soil in good shape just adding things to it, compost, leaves, hell even through the winter certain types of food scraps and whatnot. But I also understand that not everyone has the ground to do so or just not in a good area for it.