You go girl!

Mara, that is going to be so beautiful in the Spring. It appears that we are in for more rain for all your diggings. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

I was going to mention that we don't "claw aimlessly" at our soil anymore. We bought a power auger, bulb planter, drill bit, 3x24 inches, on the net, and DH can now dig 30 holes in no time flat!!!

I just love it!!!!

Him.... not so much, lol.

I did another day of onward through the fog. Is anyone else out there digging and scratching at the soil. I went up into the WILD part of my land and I found some of the liatris sprouting that I planted out about a couple of weeks ago. That makes me so happy. I saw rosettes of other plants too that I planted. I mark them with "stars" of over lapped sticks.

I got the flat tire on the wheel barrow fixed so I was able to unload the 10 gallons of granite sand out of the hatchback. Tomorrow I scarify and soak in peroxide and then plant in some deep sand some astragalus seed from New Mexico.

I just love this fog. I know it won't last. I would hate it if it did what it does in Germany and Washington Coast all winter long but this is nice AND WARM! I feel so comforted by it. Moss is growing. It gives me so much hope for those little seedlings. And the tree seedlings that sprouted all summer are still there through the hot August. We have not had baby trees in the forest because of the drought. It is good to see some of them making 2 years old.

This post was edited by wantonamara on Thu, Dec 4, 14 at 19:52

The rocks in my soil would make quick work of that Auger. No gentle fill out here. A friend came over with an 12' wide augur attachment on a sizable tractor to dig some holes to sink in some tall 4x4for my 7' garden fence. and had to give up. I then had it completed by a friend with a jack hammer. I would have to bring in some garden soil to use that kind of garden tool. I have used some 2" spade bits and they seem to work until I hit a rock. Planting trees in the valley is all about finding a crack in the rocks and jimmying them apart to insert the small seedling tree. So far the ones I planted in september are still alive.

Sunnysa , I am jealous of your soil and your tool . What kind of bulbs are you planting for the spring.I am looking forward to the massive amounts of the wild onion . I saw them waking up when I was digging around. They only wake up on the wet winters. I have about a hundred seedling rain lilies that I sprouted and they are ready to go in the ground. I have a two" spade bit that would do them in the ground in the hollow, I don't need to go very deep and I actually have washed down soil there.. Thanks for reminding me of the tool. Right tool for the job saves gobs of time.

Mara, you have a very good point there. It just would not work in very rocky soils. I hope that it works a bit in your hollow. It really would be a time saver. That's the very reason DH will not let me use it. He says if it hits a rock, it'll take my hand off. We do have some very rocky soil in parts of our yard. I just think it's amazing that you are able to spit open rocks to plant some seeds. That's some real manual labor!

In October, we planted a variety of irises, some pineapple lilies, an assortment of bulbs that were on clearance at Lowes. Just before all the drizzle started, we dug holes with the auger all over.... just about two inches.. to break up our clay soil. The entire yard took just about a half hour with the auger. We threw down some Bermuda grass seed and raked it over. Now, with all the drizzle, it's finally beginning to sprout. Hooray for the fog and mist!

OH you reminded me, I have two buckets of iris that I moved and need to be put back in the dirt. The fog has lifted a tad. Off to town to buy some more dirt for a raised bed.