sorry for the typo...

First, I would do the jar test to see what you see your own soil consistency is. If you are along the Front Range, the red comes from the abundant iron in the soils -- Flatirons near Boulder, Red Rocks, Garden of the Gods are all examples of the iron content in the soil and rocks. Water does run off hardened clay soil in a hard fast rain. There is no chance for the soil to absorb the moisture in a sudden thunderstorm or such. But I would do the jar test for yourself to see what happens then you would have a better grasp of what you are dealing with. :) Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jar test for soil consistency

Thanks so much for replying to me...

I have, in my possession, one soil test kit; but there's no jar, just four test tubes and I haven't used it yet for a couple reasons.

1. I don't have any distilled water on hand, and I'm afraid my city water will falsify my results.

2. The soil on my property seems to have very different characteristics every ten feet or so. I'd need to buy probably a dozen kits to get the whole big picture. I'm wondering how accurate the spendy testers are, with the probes you stick in the ground.

If they are fairly accurate... I'm going to buy one tomorrow as a birthday present to myself. That way I can test away all over the place prior to spending money on a more complete analysis. The soil seems to vary so much... I'm suffering indecision on choosing which spot most needs to be sampled. Not sure if that makes any sense... I'm just feeling really out of my element is all. Nothing about this geology reminds me of ND/MN... I just love it here, and feel like a kid in a candy store.

Some people on the soils form made me aware of the Interbay Mulch process... (which I had never heard of.) so I'm researching that now. Thanks so much for replying, because I do need to figure this out and I was stumped.

Going to check out your "jar test" link now... very cool.

convexles,
I understand your confusion. Not so much from other's terminology but from my own backyard. I also really need to do the jar test. Most of my yard (which is pretty bare, so I can SEE the ground) seems to be sandy, gritty, gravelly stuff. The dogs are constantly bringing in a lovely sandy grit I can feel on my tile floor. In the backyard however, during one of our yard projects last year, I dug down about 18" or so. I found unmistakable clay. It was a gray, almost greenish color (I don't live in the "red" area) and I could have made a pot out of it. My guess is I have both sand and clay and some areas that the two mixed together and have hardened to an almost concrete-like substance that is no fun to try to dig.

I realize that I am no help to you, just thought you might feel better knowing you weren't the only one. I'm planning to dig a hole to move a small tree this week. I'll have to remember the jar...

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

Holy smokes... thanks for linking me such an awesome chunk of info! I was all mixed up... but I'm set straight now.

I an in Woodland Park... right in town. I can see see Pikes Peak from here... which is SSW of me. But I'm west of Rampart Road, and north of Hwy. 24. I am madly in love with this territory... even though certain aspects of still baffle me.

About the Additional resources listed at the end... are these available online to non-MG's somewhere? If so, please let me know where. Sheesh! I was on the CMG site before... and don't understand how I could have missed this stuff.

Thanks a ton... this really REALLY helps.

Leslie in CO

Greenbean...

YES!!! The dogs are tracking it in here too, adding character to my hardwood floors.

Slightly off topic, but funny if you are a dog person.

Back home...I trained one of my dogs to "dig" on command. In a round about way, this was meant to remove the 'novelty' of his digging "at will"... but as a bonus...he's now a HUGE help in the garden at planting time; I simply point where I want the hole, say "DIG"... and he goes to China as fast as he can. This was one of his most favorite games... (Terrier) ...until we moved here.

I'll never forget the way he looked at me that first time... it was like: "What the HECK is THIS crud? Forget you! Dig this one by yourself!"

Trust me, if he doesn't like digging it up... it's pretty darn horrible. I cracked the metal end of a shovel trying to loosen it up the other day... and it's not solid rock either. It's just really hard... frozen... and it's just a mystery to me. I'm on a something of quest now... convinced there must be a better way.

Growing up in the ultra-fertile Red River Valley... I just never imagine how different relocating would really be. I still love it here though. And... it's really comforting to connect with some other gardeners up here... I have lots of planting projects on the agenda for this summer, and zillions of questions.

Big Thanks for your replies...

Leslie,
If I tell my dogs to dig, they just look at me funny (I never trained them to do it though, just wishful thinking when I need to dig a hole...)

Now that you mention it, they don't do too much digging in our yard here. I just figured it's 'cause there's not too much to dig up... They miss soft green grass too. Last summer, our older dog was so happy when we would let her lay in the grass in the front yard. They don't get much lawn time b/c they're not reliable off-leash. The older one is finally getting to be almost trustworthy, now that she's nearly 7...

We bought a big metal bar at HD last year (a San Angelo bar, which cracks me up b/c we used to live in San Angelo TX and it would have been handy to dig a hole there too...). Anyway, we didn't buy it for digging but it sure has been useful. A little water the day before helps too.

I forgot to mention, Annie's Granny over on the SFG forum has what she calls a water pick to dig at her winter home in AZ. If you need to dig a bunch of post holes or something, it might be worth trying out. I linked to her blog post so you can see what I'm talking about.

Here is a link that might be useful: Granny's water pick

As far as tools for digging... my dog is the best. I've been pondering on what do when the Airedale is otherwise 'unavailable' and have a few ideas so far.

The earth auger is really cool, but too expensive, and out of the question.

I have a hand-powered Ice Auger...(for ice fishing) and thought about modifying that for the task... ruled it out, too labor intensive... think we can do better.

Apparently... there's some kind of attachment you can get for a hand-held drill... like a 'mini auger' for planting bulbs... or something like that. I don't know the name of it, but before I found out about the IBM concept... this was what I was going to try next. (A girl can never have too many power tools... IMHO.)

I pondered on how long it would take to break up the yard with a tool like this... inch by inch. (Too long.) But... a more reasonable alternative might be just using it to perforate the surface... ever foot or so along the slope? Then, I could pack the all the holes full of organic material. Water could get down there... still time consuming, but better than nothing.

I once used a pressure washer to to carve out a huge bed for raspberry plants back home... that worked slick. But, I'd made a huge mess in the street at my current location if I tried that here. Uses too much water anyway. Not practical.

Lots of good info... here, and on the soil forum too. Thanks for all these great replies. I'm overwhelmed... but in a good way. The next phase of my problem solving process is to sleep on all this... but I have a tentative plan brewing... I'll let you know what I come up with. It's my birthday tomorrow... so maybe spring will come early? LOL!

Leslie in CO

In a general sense, and unless you live along an ancient river bed or next to a volcano or something, soils in Colorado are lousy and full of clay. Compounded by an almost inevitable disruption and re-mixing of soils around a house, worse in a subdivision where they bull doze a lot at a time.

There are two basic approaches. Raised beds, where you create your own growing medium, or amend the existing soil with compost, manures, and mulches. Or a combination of the two.

So, in a practical sense, these are your options. The good news is that it works, and you can grow just about anything suitable to the over-all climate and soil pH conditions - various degrees of alkalinity - and even that can be modified to some extent.

The more you do, the better it gets.

Leslie, much of the info at CSU is still free but they have started charging for some publications. A list of them is available at the link below.

Happy to have you join us and we will all try to help you as best we can. Welcome to Colorado. :) You live in a very pretty part of the state. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: CSU publications

I wanted to see Jali's "jar test" so scanned down that page, missing much of the information.

It said to put detergent in the water and soil in the jar and shake "hard!!" I thought to myself, "I can't do that! The rocks will break the jar!"

Then I look up the page and see that it says to remove the rocks. Well, I don't know if I'd have any thing left in the jar to test!

On my member page it says something about "It seems like IÂve been gardening since before there was dirt." There may still not be dirt - maybe I can consider myself in my infancy. But, I don't garden in Colorado. Up here, about 800 miles north of your location Leslie, I garden on glacial till.

I remember when I first put in a large garden. There was another new neighbor who felt it important to give a young guy some advice . . . He said I should bring in a truckload of sand. I looked at him, realized that he had no evidence that this would benefit, and discounted his comment. (I noticed that it wasn't 6 months before my neighbor had jettisoned him from her house so the discounting of this guy's worth may have been a shared perspective. ;o)

I don't need sand in any of the gardens that I've had over the last 40 years. Only 1, when I moved 100 miles south into the Palouse for a few years, may have benefited. That Palouse soil is wind-blown loess and clay, clay, clay. I had a terrible time putting plants into it and can certainly sympathize with what you are going thru, Leslie. And, I can understand how experience with one soil type doesn't translate well somewhere else.

What I've got to work with is rock in every form from pea gravel on up. But, I'm wondering if you would benefit from that long-ago neighbor's advice - adding sand to your Colorado soil.

David suggests organic material and that's great but sand would make for a permanent change. I'm asking here, having no experience with adding sand, would raising the percent of sand in your soil benefit your gardening?

Steve

Steve, generally organic matter is the best course to take in most places in CO unless you want brick hard adobe by mixing the clay with sand. I don't know about the consistency of the clay up by Woodland Park, but if it is at all like here, it is the same stuff the homesteaders made solid soddies out of, and there are a couple still standing 100 yrs. later. :)

The only kind of sand you would dare add would be sharp sand.

Sand can help (and permanently), but only if you add enough. The amount needed for it to be enough is rather daunting. The problem, as Jalirancher points out, is that if you don't add enough, it makes things worse. If you don't add enough organic matter to make it ideal, it still improves it (adding just a little improves it just a little). With sand, you make it worse right up to the point where you add enough. I've always been leery of adding sand for that reason.

I've been adding organic matter whenever I can and it has definitely made a difference. The soil in my garden reminds me of the soil I grew up with in Illinois--dark, crumbly, drains well, but also holds water. The soil in the lawn isn't quite that good, but I can run the sprinklers much longer without seeing runoff, there are a lot more worms, the pH has gone closer to neutral, etc.

Just a little addendum. I agree with the comments about adding compost (good) and adding sand (tricky). So when I am putting xeric plants in my heavy clay, I usually add some chicken grit - tiny little granite pieces - to make it drain better. You can get it at most feed stores. Can't remember for sure where I first got this idea, but it may have been an HCG website article on creating fast-draining soil.

Do you suppose there would be a market for my pea gravel as a soil amendment in WY/CO? . . ?

d'S'

It never hurts to try, Steve. Maybe E-bay?

Leslie,
I am also in Woodland Park (9/10ths of a mile west of 24) and my soil is awful too! I just spent 150.00 on wood to make raised beds. Now, I need to find a supply of soil and manure since the beds will be 8'Lx4'Wx12"H. One for veggies, and one for asparagus and strawberries. I hope to be able to put a hoop house up later in the season.

Flowers will just have lots of amendments in existing areas and a wish and a prayer for the other areas I want to plant! I'm considering this a learning year as it's the first I'll be here to experiment!

glo

Well, I officially 'broke ground' on my outdoor project(s) this week. I spent most of last week gathering materials and supplies. I've got gobs of organic material to work with now...straw, peat, composted bark fines, regular compost, pine bark mulch, Turface, gybsum, sand, burlap... etc. etc. I'm starting to get a grip on what gardening up here is going to be like... you just have to work a bit harder for it.

I've got my raspberries and strawberries in the ground. Blueberries in pots. Potatoes on order. Got all my containers filled up and ready for plants. Cleared a new bed along the south side of my deck. (pulled about a five gallon pail's worth of rocks every three feet or so as I went along. Sheesh!)

Anyway, I have LOTS of work to do still... but it felt really good to get started. Thanks again to everyone on this forum who responded to me, and gave me such great ideas on where to begin! I'll be back...

Leslie in CO