Soil Hunt

Last two days I spent some time on ordering soil for my yard and raised beds. About two feet of bad black cotton soil was excavated out from the compound last week. Now the task at hand is to get good quality red soil and replenish. Good soil is available in Pune suburbs - 20km out. Initially I took the short cut and entrusted a local gardener to get the soil for me. He marked up the price quite high and more importantly soil did not reach my yard even after two days. So today morning I started off to get it myself. Initially I scouted some garden shops around Aundh. First I stopped by an exclusive soil merchant and a friend of my brother in law. He did not have exactly what I was looking for but assured me that he can help. I took his phone number and then went about scouting for other options. People started quoting exorbitant prices - all mentioning arrival of monsoons has made soil transportation difficult. After an hour or so I was convinced that If I have to get the soil I need to go to the source. After taking care of some supervision work at my construction site I drove towards Pirangut, looking for a roadside garden shop. Did not find any. But shortly after Sutarwadi I saw some fresh mounds of red soil. Unfortunately there was no shop, office, watch man in sight. I drove further till about Mulshi and finally turned back and parked near Sutarwadi. I inquired at a shop for someone selling garden soil. I got a contact of one Pradeep Seth. After a couple of more asking around I got hold of the phone number. Pradeep Seth however was at a nearby village. So I took a village road, nothing more than a fitting dirt road, and went in search of this person. Finally I found him. He was ready to sell the soil delivered to my site at INR 1500 a brass. ($33 for 100cubic feet). I needed 25 brass (2500cft) in total but I had decided to use about 20brass (2000cft) soil and 5 brass (500 cft) compost. I gave him the delivery adress. Shook on the deal. He will start delivering the soil from tomorrow.

I am thinking of getting vermicompost from a buffalo farm near by. It is going to cost me INR 4000 a tonne. I need about 5 tonnes delivered. That is for tomorrow.

Brief Update (4th JUL):

The soil delivery started from the morning. Two of the four truck loads are already in site. Laborers are transferring soil to the plot now. In parallel I placed order for 2 tonnes of Vermicompost from Vrindavan Farms. I also considered ordering from INORA. Though it was practically next door its compost was costing almost double. From Vrindavan I am getting vermicompost at INR4000/tonne ($0.80/kg). INORA would have cost me INR 7000 / tonne. I will have the compost delivered once the soil filling is done. It will be applied on top of the soil.

Brief Update (8th JUL):

Vrindavan Vermicompost called me on 7th evening and checked whether they can deliver the bags. I gave the go ahead. They were efficient enough to arrange a vehicle and get the load shipped. It arrived 8th afternoon. For two tonnes, delivered to the site it cost me INR9650 (USD 214) including transport and unloading. Currently the 50 bags are stored inside a shed and will get spread on the soil once the soil filling is complete. Mauli, my soil contractor will be back from his pilgrimage to Pandharpur tomorrow. I will ask him to deliver rest of the soil tomorrow itself.

The raised beds are built.

In the last two weeks all the construction material littering my compound has been cleared off. Now there is a two feet depth till the plinth level available for filling good garden soil. I am going to get red soil, mix it with equal quantity of vermicompost and add some coarse sand for proper drainage. We have not decided what to plant on areas other than raised beds. There is a common consensus between my wife and I that there will be a nice green lawn with a paved walkway between the house and the raised beds along the brick walls.

The raised beds have been constructed and are ready for soil. One bed is in L - shape, rest all are in straight lines. 2ft x 10ft x 2.5ft internal dimensions. We are confident that the dimensions of the raised beds are sufficient for all our immediate farming experiments.

The backyard of the house is extremely shaded because there are some full grown trees along the back wall. This is concerning for us because we know most of the vegetables need good sunlight to grow. One option is to prune off some of the lower branches of the shade trees. Otherwise we will have to plant some root vegetables such as carrots through the back side. Will learn as we go.

In the next one week or so we will get the soil. Exciting!

Introductions.

My house will be complete in the next couple of months. I am looking forward to growing fruits and vegetables in my garden. You will say it an ambitious goal especially since my last 35 years of life I have not done any farming or much gardening. But let me remind you that I have a solid history of mastering completely new things with great success.

As of now my garden is going through planning stages. I have instructed my builder to construct 2feet depth raised beds , 2' x 10' dimension total of 9 such beds around the inside of my perimeter wall. The native soil in my plot is black cotton soil. Which is not very good for such vegetable farming. My plan is to fill the raised beds and the yard with good quality soil mix. I am thinking something like 1 part compost, 1 art red soil and 1 part vermiculite. I have no clue where to source this mix. I think I have couple of weeks to identify suppliers and negotiate a deal.

The south side has lots of drainage lines running through. Hope it does not create big problems for my raised beds. South side is going to be my golden side wince it gets maximum sunlight. East side has one side lined with tall trees. So it is very shady. A bit of a challenge but out here in tropical Pine, India even the shade areas are very warm and sunny.

Overall exciting period in my life. There is a long list of vegetables and fruits my wife and I want to grow in our garden. Will keep updating as there is progress. See you around.