Introduction

Hi, InvenTeam,

I wanted to let you know that I am trying to catch up with all the posts you have made since last Fall, as well as look at the videos you created. It might take me a little time to digest all you have done. I'm quite pleased and honored that you have chosen "Site Assessment for Gardeners: a step-by-step workbook for better gardens and landscapes" as your prototype for InvenTeam work.

While there is much to digest, I want to follow the measurement of soil characteristics as a start. Back in December, for instance, Tim located a link on soil compaction from the University of Minnesota. http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/cropsystems/DC3115.html It was good reading and informative. I have to always question farm related pieces like this to assess its applicability to a home garden and landscape. Both farms and home properties have compaction issues, but the emphasis on heavy tractors on large acreages of farm land growing shallow rooted food crops may pose slightly different concerns than planting a deep-rooted tree in a home landscape that has been compacted. Maybe there is more similarity than I am crediting.

Related to that was something that was on one of the videos, explaining how soil types would be linked to appropriate plants for the garden. I need to understand more about that, since it is key to successful site assessment. However, my question would be that soil survey maps were developed for farmland (there are those farm comparisons again). What John Doe experiences with his new suburban home that was once farmland or the gardener in downtown Troy, whose house was built in 1910, is very different from what the soil survey map shows for Farmer Gray. Home gardens and landscapes are built mostly on disturbed soils (partly from the construction and partly from practices such as bringing in soil fill or amending the soil over the years so that it has a different profile from the soil survey map on record.

Those are my initial thoughts. Keep up the good work. What you are doing is so fascinating and creative. I'm quite pleased.

Charlie Mazza