Rainy day

It's raining. Has been for a few hours. Not heavy, just light and steady.

Not a great combination with back pain but at least my shoulder feels better. If it doesn't let up soon have to eat and go the medication route. Just Ketoprofen. Hate anything that fogs me up.

Got called for a shift 12 to 12 in the ER this morning. Then got canceled 5 minutes later. Staff nurse took the shift. Hoping rain, snow and ice will get me some work.

Even though it's raining, I went out to plant a couple of garlic cloves. Dog dug up some of the ones planted before.

The sandy part of the soil still seems rather resistant to moisture. Or it's excessively absorbent. Top layer of soil is moist but go down an inch and it's dry as talc. No runoff apparent. Maybe the top layer of soil is absorbing so much that moisture never reaches below the surface? That would explain a lot.

Noticed it before but just figured I wasn't watering enough. Now rethinking that. This probaly means a higher clay content than I previously thought but mixed well with sand. Sand keeps the soil loose but the clay binds up moisture at the surface, above root level. Then, in the summer, the moisture evaporates rather than sinking in. All meaning plenty of moisture but none available to plant roots.

This is all currently pertaining to the remaining raised beds but gives me a clearer picture of the rest of that area. Leaves me with a few options come spring and necessary steps before then to grow the whole space.

While I've been adding organic matter to that soil over some time, a lot more will be needed. A lot more. And it will have to be dug in very deeply. Guess I'll start collecting more leaves!

If that's not enough, then irrigation methods have to be revised. Drip irrigation will work but will require hypersaturating the surface soil before moisture reaches the roots. Then keeping it that way. Maybe a better option would be setting up subsurface irrigation. Lots of work but can be done. Thing I don't like is the semi-permanent pattern that will require for the garden.

However, subsurface offers another advantage. If the moisture is trapped at the surface above root level, so are most of the nutrients. With subsurface irrigation, I can devise a system where I can deliver dilute fertilizer directly at root level.

Whatever option I choose, seems I have a lot of digging in my future.