Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 2 Entries. Sunday, January 11 View Page BEWARE, THERE'S ICE OUT THERE! Patch-wise, I made good use of the frozen soil and the moderate layer of snow on top: Two days ago I added boron and molybdenum to the patch. HOW and WHY did I do that... Well, B and Mo should be added homogeneously...one should avoid creating spots with excessive B- or Mo-content. In principle, I could add them during fall patch prep, just before roto-tilling the patch. However, B and Mo get leached out rather easily, and I want the water to wash them in (...to the patch) rather than wash them out (into deeper layers of subsoil). Therefore, I took a barrel of water, added the amendments into a good load of water and sprinkled everything more or less homogeneously across the patch using a watering can (16 cans in total). The frozen soil was great for walking across the patch, the first layer of snow was great for further diluting the amendments, and the new snow from the past two days will also help to wash them in (as soon as it melts....probably over the course of the next two weeks, according to the forecast). Wishing you all a great start into a great pumpkin year, stay safe! Sunday, March 8 View Page Today I dug a pit in my patch, not trying to find gold but to see the probably precious soil. About four years ago, I dug over the entire patch two spades deep, turning it upside down, moving the upper half (topsoil) a spade lower and the lower half (the sandy loam) on top, ready for being amended with compost and other good things. Now, about four years later, I was curious to see how things had developed. Good thing #1: As expected, I have found a layer of topsoil that is about two spades deep (50 cm). On the bottom you can see where the sandy loam starts. Good thing #2: The lower half is still pretty dark, even though it has not received any addition of compost over the past five years. Interesting thing #3: The lower half is still darker than the upper half. Apparently, there is a difference between 12 years of patch prep and 4 years of patch prep.