Mud, mud and more mud

[cymbaline]

Sometimes when the soil has been compacted and there isn't much by way of organic matter in the soil, it becomes like a solid mass that sheds water. It's fairly common in permanent barnyards where there are no roots in the soil anymore and the topsoil is constantly compacted by foot/hoof traffic. Sand actually makes it worse as it percolates into the soil and makes something akin to cement.
If you want to improve that soil, you can partition parts of it off from the animals and amend it with good compost and then plant some cover crops on it -- like clover, bell or fava bean, etc. -- when that grows you can either chop it into the soil, or let the animals back on it to graze it down and return it to the soil with their manure. The key is rotation so that each patch of soil gets a break from having every scrap of organic matter picked clean off of it and tramped down. If you have to have animals on it all the time, you can also construct wire covered decks that you place over "resting" soil, which allows plants to grow but keeps the animals from picking them right out as they can only access the portions that grow above the wire. If the "decks" are of manageable size, you can move them around as needed.

That sounds like my situation. The wire deck idea is very clever! If it were only for a few weeks and they were only on it when they chose to be, I wouldn't be risking bumblefoot, right?

 

[SouthernPride]

I really don't have the ability to move my pens around as they are attached to the coops. I got a couple bags of PDZ and seem to be helping to dry it up. I think my best bet is to lay down the garden weed barrier then pea gravel on top.

 

[Amiga]

Here is an example of a really good material to use under gravel. http://www.usfabricsinc.com/products/drivewayfabric

And I am not promoting this site, but here is a quick example of prices for this material. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=geotextile

I have used it on a number of jobs, and here at home. The edges need to be rolled under, around stones (like twice the size of a fist) to keep them from poking up out from under the gravel. It is not that difficult, just takes a few extra minutes.

 

[SouthernPride]

Thanks Amiga! That looks like a good solution.

 

[cymbaline]

So, I was tilling my garden this evening and got the idea to till the duck pen too, to break up the compaction. It looked nice at first, but after I dumped their pool and refilled it, the ground still looked like this after an hour or two:

It's like something about the poo just makes the mud turn to slimy muck that takes forever to dry out. :/

 

[DucksAndGardens]

It's lack of drainage. The soil gets saturated so there's no place for the water to go.

 

[cymbaline]

It's lack of drainage. The soil gets saturated so there's no place for the water to go.

That's what's so puzzling though - the ground is dry underneath.

 

[Mrs.H]

That's what's so puzzling though - the ground is dry underneath.

Mine is the same way? When it's muddy and mucky due to rain it's so awful thick etc then once it dries up within day or 2 (well during warmer months) the ground is so dry it literally is all cracked.

 

[localife]

That's what's so puzzling though - the ground is dry underneath.

Soil can become so damaged that it is effectively cement, so it will remain impenetrable to water while muck can build up on top. This often occurs when poultry is kept on wet soil, because they are eating all the organic matter and destroying the air space in the soil and compacting it by dibbling or scratching when it's wet. Even if you start off with magnificent soil, if you remove all the vegetation and then wet it and squish it around it will eventually become hard as a rock.