RECLAIMING MY TOPSOIL

Quick! Before it washes away down to the creek!

Since our pastures are at an angle, topsoil runoff can be a problem. Recently, a good amount got stuck by one of our entrance gates, so I shoveled up all I could.

At one of our gates, the topsoil began to get detained as the rains tried to wash it away. along with the topsoil was things like sheep manure, Austrian Winter Peas, and Winter Rye seeds. My oldest boy "Monster Truck" and I noticed this and quickly got to work.

I removed the gate and we got started with a few shovels. I had a big flat one, so I could slide along under the topsoil buildup rather easily, and soon we were filling bucket after bucket. This stuff is a precious commodity, so there is no way that I wanted to let it go to waste.

The first time, we actually ran out of empty buckets! We filled fifteen five gallon buckets before running out, so we had a huge load to add to our raised beds! Although we are planning on building up the pasture and preventing further topsoil loss, right now the garden is our primary focus, so we are using this topsoil to build up our raised beds. It's rich and amazing soil, so I'm glad that it didn't wash all the way down to the lake.

In the garden I had a few open beds that I had just added some free "compost" to, which was basically some really old wood mulch. I wanted to add something more to it before I covered it for the winter to help enrich it, but I am currently out of rabbit manure and homemade compost. The topsoil was perfect to mix with it!

As you can see from this photo, and from the end of the video, we ran out of available straw before we got everything covered, but we like to get done what we can. For the time being, we just do what we can and then move on to the next project. It keeps us busy and saves on extra trips to town.

We will have to see if the Winter Rye and Austrian Winter Peas that had been sprouting in the topsoil will still take root or not. Some plants will simply die after being uprooted, but many are more resilient. Even if they do die, it'll just add more organic material to the soil, which is still a bonus. For the rest, you'll have to check out the video. Enjoy!