i got soil on my mind

i've been staring at dirt for the past two weeks now; shovelling it, combing through it, tamping it, planting in it, boxing it out, importing it. after the rain past and the dirt settled earlier this week, the garden revealed a landscape of rocks. and what i've come to realize (with the help of a soil test and empirical observation) is that what i'm working with is some seriously nutrient deficient dirt, can't really call it soil.

the area the garden sits is atop a recently formed hill, below which the land was leveled to build the barn. so my thought is that in fact, the topsoil has been bulldozed over further revealing a cross-section of the earth below. wierd thing is, there is tons of limestone which is supposed to keep the ph level down. maybe the amount of quartz (does not hold nutrients) in the sand out-figures the limestone. so i've added limestone and manure, but i really think i need to import soil still. any thoughts?

last night katie and i were talking about getting some topsoil and she said i should first look at the soil around the tree stumps they burned awhile back. she said one day she noticed the horses pawing at it and rolling around in it. of course, slash and burn, the charcoal is super good for soil, i thought. after briefly reading up on charcoal as a soil supplement, i learned that in the ancient amazon basin indiginous farmers would charcoalize waste, grind it to a powder and mix it into their soil. thus the mystery of the best potting soil in the world was solved. the now highly fertile area the indians had once inhabited is full of charcoal. and the area surrounding? infertile. the only difference between the the soils, down to the molecular level - charcoal. am i crazy to think that is awesome?

i walked around the stumps today. they are down below the barn in the flood zone near the matta river. there is tons of charcoal bits all over and the soil is actually undisturbed and lush. i think this is where i'm getting my topsoil, to which i'll add ground charcoal. man i wish i'd done this a month ago! despite the setback, everything is sprouting nicely and i've got several beds to make still. we're thinking of devoting half the garden to corn for the horses. time to start some more corn i guess!