The Local Dirt

What is it about dirt? What you want is a beautiful garden. What you want are lovely
flowers, bowers draped with roses and clematis, beautiful beds filled with delightful
color and texture.What do you get? Earth from Hell.

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Your garden may be lucky enough to sit on cooperative soil, but many of us did not score
well on that game. The irritating thing about my neighborhood of Niles is that each plot
of ground is either blessed or cursed. Due to the roaming tendencies of Alameda Creek's
ancient stream bed, one side of Second Street sits on the loveliest loam you ever saw. But
the other side of the street sits on some of the most iron hardpan you ever struck shovel
to.
When we moved to our cottage on Second Street, I had fond visions of a white picket
fence and a luscious English garden. The previous owners had a simple lawn and foundation
plants, which I promptly began to remove. I donned gloves, sunscreen, and hat
one morning and gleefully pointed my shovel at the roots of the first shrub. I gleefully
pushed downward. Then I gleefully placed one foot on the shovel and pushed downward.
Hm. Not loam. Glee fading fast, I decided to jump on the shovel. To make a long
story short, I found my adorable cottage was sitting on hardpan; a hardpan that quickly
sprained my wrist, broke my shovel, and knocked me off my feet.
After sulking for a week and buying a new shovel, I tried soaking the dirt with water for
a few days, thinking to soften the cement‐like chunks of clay. With boundless determination
(nothing stops a true gardener!), I approached again, shovel in hand. This time, the
clay turned! Encouraged, I ventured deeper. Soon, great sucking sounds erupted with
every shovelful I turned. I was knee‐deep by now, but oblivious to danger! On and on I
slogged....
Eventually, my husband came home and found me, braced against my neighbor's fence,
covered in mud, and whimpering for rescue. As he pulled me out, the merciless clay
sucked off both my clogs and one sock. I never found them.
But there is one thing clay is good for: I've made some lovely pots with it......