Soil Pea Gravel everywhere?

[Satanta]

I've been hammering in T Posts to set up fencing for the Dogs and such. All around one side of the barn there is a layer of gravel several inches thick.

Ok, kind of a PITA to deal with but doable.

Today I went into the Back40 to lay out rows for the future gardena. Behind the Barn it is a good fifty yards, maybe more from the building to our tree line. We own some of the woods too. I eyeballed about three car lengths from the barn to put in my first Marker-gives enough room to bring the Jeep and traiker around or to bring in a dump truck with dirt or a Tiller and so forth. Going to lay out the rows in a Cone-widest ed away from the barn-idea is, if I start having too many issues with critters I can sit back in the barn and snipe them r, in case of Zombies it funnels them in for proper head shots.

Anyhoo, my first marked rowq went to about three car lengths from the treeline. Hammered in my next Marking post and...hit gravel.

Came out with my Tilling fork and jammed it into the ground the ntire length of the row-gravel. Randomly walked thru the field poking and hitting gravel. It is obviousthe entire area was covered with gravel at some point which has been covered with a layer of dirt and grasses over the years.

Any ideas?

Next is-can it be Tilled or what should my approach be?

 

[China Connection]

Put approx 18 inch raised beds over it and enjoy.

 

[West]

Make dam sure you aren't on top of your leach lines. Sometimes they back fill pea gravel for leach lines on your sewer system.

Other than that it's all good!

 

[packyderms_wife]

Make dam sure you aren't on top of your leach lines. Sometimes they back fill pea gravel for leach lines on your sewer system.

This^^^

 

[West]

Pea gravel is like pay dirt for the gravel haulers. I love pea gravel!

Did you know more monies or value has been made in a rock/gravel mine/query than any other known substance?

 

[mikeabn]

Pea gravel is like pay dirt for the gravel haulers. I love pea gravel!

Did you know more monies or value has been made in a rock/gravel mine/query than any other known substance?

I hate pea gravel. Gets caught in my sneakers and tracked all over the house. It has its place but not in a traveled area.

 

[West]

I hate pea gravel. Gets caught in my sneakers and tracked all over the house. It has its place but not in a traveled area.

Makes the best fish pond filter system ever!

Just musing....

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Bog Gravel Filtration: Water Cleaned by Mother Nature - POND Trade Magazine

Here at Nelson Water Gardens we are so sold on bog gravel filtration that we will not build a pond without one, and for one solid reason...

www.pondtrademag.com

 

[Chicken Mama]

My bet is that that's where your leach field is. Don't drive on it with anything heavier than a riding mower, and definitely don't plant any trees on or near the area. Its possible that your county may have drawings from the installation.
Could also be where an old barn was.

 

[mikeabn]

Makes the best fish pond filter system ever!

Just musing....

No.1 Filtration Gravel & Pea Gravel Supplier - Pebblestone Drive

Bulk filter gravel and pea gravel manufacturer, dealer & supplier in India. Gravel & pebbles for water filtration.

www.pebblestonedrive.com

Bog Gravel Filtration: Water Cleaned by Mother Nature - POND Trade Magazine

Here at Nelson Water Gardens we are so sold on bog gravel filtration that we will not build a pond without one, and for one solid reason...

www.pondtrademag.com

As I said it has its place, that being one of them.

 

[Freebirde]

I don't know where your barn is, but was that property ever a lakebed, floodplain, or riverbed? Another possibility is that the gravel was placed to park equipment there.

Locally soil is six to twelve inches thick on hilltops and hillsides, thicker at the bottoms. Below that is chert/limestone gravel. There are a lot of local gravel quarries and there are several dredging companies working in the Tennessee River for rounded gravel.

If it just pea gravel, you can plow it up and it will mix in the soil. If very much larger, it could damage your plow/tiller.

 

[Satanta]

So....everything from the back of the house to the barn-large four room barn, double door garage but inaccesible because of the septic tan on one side and a oak tree on the other with a covered parking space that could hold four cars nose-in and next to each other, the ;arge open barn big enough for twqo tractors and some equipement and the workshop with a double car garage door so to the East sode out at-;east 20 yards and the South sode big enough to put in a small football field....is my leach field? Uh, no.

The place was part of a working farm but the farm was parcelled out.

Been here 122 years [[The house]] no idea about the original farm-if this was the Main house or that exists [[or doesn't elsewhere.

The woods are young-no tree there is more than about 29 years old. There is a light post with defunct light and a water spigot in there-friend helping me look for it had a serious time ignoring the trees and their age and kept questioning "Why would someone put this in the woods?!?!?!"

Dood, the trees were not here....

Best thought so far is the parking of equipment but the property shows no signs of such. Seem there would be permanent ground marks/ruts or such.

Unlikely it was a lakebed-no terrain in this area would support such-too flat and too old, if it was filled 100+ years ago it seems there would be more dirt on top?

Sat image. The top is North and property ends at road there. West you see a two-track, property ends there. East you see our drive-note how it curves to the house but goes to a field-shared access, property ends middle of the drive. Tree line in back, some of the property goes further but for my immediate needs I was not concerned about it-yet.

The red area betwen house and barn, around barn and out back is the pea gravel with a layer of soil. I know the gravel ends a bit befooe the trees as we had a couple of older critters who did not make the move so they are buried just outside the treeline.and the soil looked good, saved some for the gardens.

 

[Satanta]

I don't know where your barn is, but was that property ever a lakebed, floodplain, or riverbed? Another possibility is that the gravel was placed to park equipment there.

Locally soil is six to twelve inches thick on hilltops and hillsides, thicker at the bottoms. Below that is chert/limestone gravel. There are a lot of local gravel quarries and there are several dredging companies working in the Tennessee River for rounded gravel.

If it just pea gravel, you can plow it up and it will mix in the soil. If very much larger, it could damage your plow/tiller.

Just large enough to make hammering in T posts a pain, habe to use a handheld pick to dig thru it-several inches thick-inspector of the property said he could not dig out the septic to inspect it and needed to bring in a backhoe because it was that thick over the septic. and leach field-both betweenthe house and barn to the Right.

I put in posts between the house and barn to run fences-on the right I had to dig out each hole. [[East side]]. West side hammered right in with no issues.

 

[West]

Better get your septic pumped and serviced.

They might be able to help find it as well. But it's gotta get done.

 

[pauldingbabe]

I've been hammering in T Posts to set up fencing for the Dogs and such. All around one side of the barn there is a layer of gravel several inches thick.

Ok, kind of a PITA to deal with but doable.

Today I went into the Back40 to lay out rows for the future gardena. Behind the Barn it is a good fifty yards, maybe more from the building to our tree line. We own some of the woods too. I eyeballed about three car lengths from the barn to put in my first Marker-gives enough room to bring the Jeep and traiker around or to bring in a dump truck with dirt or a Tiller and so forth. Going to lay out the rows in a Cone-widest ed away from the barn-idea is, if I start having too many issues with critters I can sit back in the barn and snipe them r, in case of Zombies it funnels them in for proper head shots.

Anyhoo, my first marked rowq went to about three car lengths from the treeline. Hammered in my next Marking post and...hit gravel.

Came out with my Tilling fork and jammed it into the ground the ntire length of the row-gravel. Randomly walked thru the field poking and hitting gravel. It is obviousthe entire area was covered with gravel at some point which has been covered with a layer of dirt and grasses over the years.

Any ideas?

Next is-can it be Tilled or what should my approach be?

Biodynamic square foot gardening.

Layer compostables on top like lasagna.

Don't try to till gravel. Your tiller will go sell itself.

 

[pauldingbabe]

Better get your septic pumped and serviced.

They might be able to help find it as well. But it's gotta get done.

Sooner than later Sat!

 

[Satanta]

Y'all need to refocus-septic was inspected and itt is fine, That was part of the deal before we bought the place.

This is like trying to get the guy to forget about the trees, Geesh.

 

[West]

Y'all need to refocus-septic was inspected and itt is fine, That was part of the deal before we bought the place.

This is like trying to get the guy to forget about the trees, Geesh.

Oh I went back and reread your post. Okay it was inspected, but they do need to be serviced every 5 years or so. They will actually pump all the sewer out and remove the sand that accumulates in the two part usually sewer tank. Then pump your sewer back in.

What happens is the sands fill up and into the leach lines, bad stuff.

We need to do ours again it's been about 10 years. But it was on the edge of failure, they removed over two feet of sand, probably 15 years of no service.

 

[Marseydoats]

It looks (to me) like an old road to the barn. In the mid-south where I live, every year farmers will spread out another dump truck load of pea gravel in Feb. to combat mud. It's like an annual tradition.

 

[kyrsyan]

I have sections of my yard that have pea gravel like that. It is also the best spot for my garden. Found out, eventually, that a prior owner used to run a car shop out of the garage. And he would dump pea gravel all over to park cars on. It's a few inches down but enough to be a problem when digging.

I have done raised beds there with deep wood chip mulch walkways. I figure in another 5 or 6 years the added soil from the mulch breakdown will mean I won't need to worry about hitting the gravel for normal garden digging. And at that point, almost all of the wood sides from the raised beds will be gone as well. Leaving me to plant wherever I want.

(I'm going with red is where you can't plant due to septic and tree.)

 

[WalknTrot]

Sounds like the layer of pea rock isn't real thick if you can pick through it and then drive a post. Curious as to where in the picture your septic tank is located.

Looking at your sat photo, I agree could simply be a dry corridor for passage of vehicles/equipment from the house to the barn. Then, if previous owners kept livestock, the layer of gravel in the area to the south may have been laid down for drainage/stabilizing of a "dry" lot. Very often there's a fenced "sacrifice" lot/corral built between the barn and the pasture gate, and cattle or hogs can make a real quagmire of it if they stand around in it for long...think winter or rainy season.

Anyway...if it isn't related to your septic system, helping drain/shore up the footing for some kind of livestock pen would be my thought...not knowing if the history of the place is with livestock, field crops or both.

Adding: Are those old row/tillage marks or just mowing marks to the west of your big square red zone? Thinking over there might have been the garden space for the place..of course, keeping in mind I have no clue where your septic system is located.

 

[Satanta]

Sounds like the layer of pea rock isn't real thick if you can pick through it and then drive a post. Curious as to where in the picture your septic tank is located.

Looking at your sat photo, I agree could simply be a dry corridor for passage of vehicles/equipment from the house to the barn. Then, if previous owners kept livestock, the layer of gravel in the area to the south may have been laid down for drainage/stabilizing of a "dry" lot. Very often there's a fenced "sacrifice" lot/corral built between the barn and the pasture gate, and cattle or hogs can make a real quagmire of it if they stand around in it for long...think winter or rainy season.

Anyway...if it isn't related to your septic system, helping drain/shore up the footing for some kind of livestock pen would be my thought...not knowing if the history of the place is with livestock, field crops or both.

Adding: Are those old row/tillage marks or just mowing marks to the west of your big square red zone? Thinking over there might have been the garden space for the place..of course, keeping in mind I have no clue where your septic system is located.

The area to the West is still used. a lot larger than you see, It is why our drive entrance and part of the drive is shared access.

They came thru over several days and pick tobacco several hundred yards to the West and South. Probably letting the closer areas Rest and will Til that next year.

I want to do raised beds on the West of the property-it is where all the water to the house and barn plus the spigot in the woods are along with the propane and electric-not really good to Till. Want field crops in the back along with some raised beds. Just not able to swing the funds as we need fencing and other things too.

 

[mecoastie]

Make sure that isnt where your leach field is. If not and the gravel is only an inch or 2 with good soil under it I would hire someone with a good ripper or deep plow to plow it up for you. But make sure you know where the leach field is. Also get the soil tested.

 

[Satanta]

Well, a few things I learned. No, no, and Mo NO! It is not my Leach field.

Also it is four inches deep at least and, talking to the farmer who leases the field next to me he said he would not be surprised if I hit larger rocks further down. I missremember what they call them here but they use them to line ditches and culverts-average football-sized. He is 69 and remembers the place as a kid/teen and they used to have horses here-I am guessing the gravel was to keep the horses from turning the place into a quagmire in rainy weather.

The four to six inches of rock is mixed with nice dark earth. Under it is sand with clay. More sand, thankfully so not hard to dig thru once past the stones. I had to set two fencepost today-6' 4x4's 24" down. Pickax past the rocks and my corkscrew post hole digger made it easy. The fact that it would start raining Every. Single. Time I got to about 4 or 6" from my depth where I *had* to finish the hole then, soon as I got the post positioned and leveled it would stop. Kinda slowed things down.

 

[summerthyme]

Well, a few things I learned. No, no, and Mo NO! It is not my Leach field.

Also it is four inches deep at least and, talking to the farmer who leases the field next to me he said he would not be surprised if I hit larger rocks further down. I missremember what they call them here but they use them to line ditches and culverts-average football-sized. He is 69 and remembers the place as a kid/teen and they used to have horses here-I am guessing the gravel was to keep the horses from turning the place into a quagmire in rainy weather.

The four to six inches of rock is mixed with nice dark earth. Under it is sand with clay. More sand, thankfully so not hard to dig thru once past the stones. I had to set two fencepost today-6' 4x4's 24" down. Pickax past the rocks and my corkscrew post hole digger made it easy. The fact that it would start raining Every. Single. Time I got to about 4 or 6" from my depth where I *had* to finish the hole then, soon as I got the post positioned and leveled it would stop. Kinda slowed things down.

You're going to have to go to raised beds and/or lasagna gardening. I'd look around for local tree trimming services, and offer your place for them to dump any chips they have. NOT BLACK WALNUT, though... if it's at all common in your area, and they can't guarantee they wouldn't include walnut, you'll have to go to a different plan. Black walnut is toxic to both plants and hooved animals... horses founder if bedded on BW, and I'm guessing goats would as well.

"Lasagna gardening", or the Baxk to Eden method don't require beds being built.

Good luck!

Summerthyme