New member...need some HEEELPP!! :-)

[JoeliePolie]

Hello wonderful gardening community! I am a pretty newbie gardener in my recent retirement. LOVING it, but I have ZERO knowledge about any of it. I live in the San Francisco bay area....Sausalito to be exact. Just over the Golden Gate bridge from SF. Just doing the best I can to build lovely front and back yards. Mostly from the internet (which everyone knows can be a very dangerous place to research things!) I'm hoping that one of you might be able to help with a wierd thing that has started happening in my garden. I'll attach two photos. What's happening is that mounds of dirt are appearing around my plants. One by one (and no.....we have a locked gated property....cannot be someone playing tricks on me!). I grew up in the midwest where we had gophers and moles, but this is different. The soil here is VERY dense clay (which is a whole other problem). So this doesn't actually seem to fit the soil profile. But I just cannot figure what it is. Anyone able to help me identify, and hopefully treat it? Thank you all SO MUCH!! <3

 

[Avocado]

Looks like gopher mounds. I collect them dirt and use them as potting soil. But I need to start getting rid of them gophers.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

The soil here is VERY dense clay (which is a whole other problem).

I know you said you know what gopher mounds look like, but perhaps different soil ... ? We don't have gophers in the UK so it is just a guess.

Where I live we also have very heavy clay. When I hoe I gradually work all the clay lumps into one corner of the bed, then put them in a bucket and stand it in the greenhouse to dry. About once a month or so I have a fire, and I chuck in the buckets of clay. When the clay is fired it is completely different, and by mixing the fired clay and ash into my beds I have really changed the soil consistency over the last three or four years, I break up the bigger lumps with a hammer after firing. Of course it is not the only thing I add, there is a lot of plant material going in as well, but it really helps. I always think of it as getting double bubble; one, I am taking the clay out, two, putting it back as something else.

 

[Ernst]

Huh! You are in the Bay Area!
I was in the central valley about 80 miles east of you.
Many folks who have not lived in California do not know that California has micro-climates.
My first question is what climate are you in?
Also I too have a more retired lifestyle now that I am getting checks from the Government rather than sending them checks.
So to you congratulations on getting back to the Garden as it were. Can you dig it baby?

So in Southern Illinois it's a whole different world my friend but here I could own an actual house ya-know..
The basics are what does the plant need? Is the pH in the right range for that specific plant and other things but first what are they and what is your environment like where they are planted?

 

[JoeliePolie]

I know you said you know what gopher mounds look like, but perhaps different soil ... ? We don't have gophers in the UK so it is just a guess.

Where I live we also have very heavy clay. When I hoe I gradually work all the clay lumps into one corner of the bed, then put them in a bucket and stand it in the greenhouse to dry. About once a month or so I have a fire, and I chuck in the buckets of clay. When the clay is fired it is completely different, and by mixing the fired clay and ash into my beds I have really changed the soil consistency over the last three or four years, I break up the bigger lumps with a hammer after firing. Of course it is not the only thing I add, there is a lot of plant material going in as well, but it really helps. I always think of it as getting double bubble; one, I am taking the clay out, two, putting it back as something else.

Thank you Oliver! This is a great idea. I will definitely try it out!

 

[JoeliePolie]

Huh! You are in the Bay Area!
I was in the central valley about 80 miles east of you.
Many folks who have not lived in California do not know that California has micro-climates.
My first question is what climate are you in?
Also I too have a more retired lifestyle now that I am getting checks from the Government rather than sending them checks.
So to you congratulations on getting back to the Garden as it were. Can you dig it baby?

So in Southern Illinois it's a whole different world my friend but here I could own an actual house ya-know..
The basics are what does the plant need? Is the pH in the right range for that specific plant and other things but first what are they and what is your environment like where they are planted?

Thanks Ernst. I'm in Sausalito, and we have MICRO-micro climates here! (We have family in Stockton....I know the valley well!) Our end of Sausalito is foggy, cool and sometimes rainy, but not much different than outer Sunset or Richmond. Shouldn't be related to this at all though. Avocado (above) said it looks like

Hello wonderful gardening community! I am a pretty newbie gardener in my recent retirement. LOVING it, but I have ZERO knowledge about any of it. I live in the San Francisco bay area....Sausalito to be exact. Just over the Golden Gate bridge from SF. Just doing the best I can to build lovely front and back yards. Mostly from the internet (which everyone knows can be a very dangerous place to research things!) I'm hoping that one of you might be able to help with a wierd thing that has started happening in my garden. I'll attach two photos. What's happening is that mounds of dirt are appearing around my plants. One by one (and no.....we have a locked gated property....cannot be someone playing tricks on me!). I grew up in the midwest where we had gophers and moles, but this is different. The soil here is VERY dense clay (which is a whole other problem). So this doesn't actually seem to fit the soil profile. But I just cannot figure what it is. Anyone able to help me identify, and hopefully treat it? Thank you all SO MUCH!! <3

Looks like gopher mounds. I collect them dirt and use them as potting soil. But I need to start getting rid of them gophers.

Thank you Avocado.

Looks like gopher mounds. I collect them dirt and use them as potting soil. But I need to start getting rid of them gophers.

Avocado, I've been thinking about it, and as I mentioned elsewhere here, it could, theoretically be gopher mounds, IF they were out in open yard area. But having them literally ringing particular plants is just ODD. Cannot figure why or even how a gopher would be able to dig in a circle around the roots of a plant!

 

[Ernst]

Thanks Ernst. I'm in Sausalito, and we have MICRO-micro climates here! (We have family in Stockton....I know the valley well!) Our end of Sausalito is foggy, cool and sometimes rainy, but not much different than outer Sunset or Richmond. Shouldn't be related to this at all though. Avocado (above) said it looks like


Thank you Avocado.

Avocado, I've been thinking about it, and as I mentioned elsewhere here, it could, theoretically be gopher mounds, IF they were out in open yard area. But having them literally ringing particular plants is just ODD. Cannot figure why or even how a gopher would be able to dig in a circle around the roots of a plant!

But having them literally ringing particular plants is just ODD.
How funny "rings around yur posies.."

Aliens? Inquiring minds really want to know.
Perhaps try Google Image and see it it gets a hit on something?
What happens if you remove the dirt?
I always love taking the Train to Richmond. So I get your micro-clime.

Gophers tend to do their work early on and stay out of sight in Turlock so possessed Gophers down your way?

 

[Logan]

Hello wonderful gardening community! I am a pretty newbie gardener in my recent retirement. LOVING it, but I have ZERO knowledge about any of it. I live in the San Francisco bay area....Sausalito to be exact. Just over the Golden Gate bridge from SF. Just doing the best I can to build lovely front and back yards. Mostly from the internet (which everyone knows can be a very dangerous place to research things!) I'm hoping that one of you might be able to help with a wierd thing that has started happening in my garden. I'll attach two photos. What's happening is that mounds of dirt are appearing around my plants. One by one (and no.....we have a locked gated property....cannot be someone playing tricks on me!). I grew up in the midwest where we had gophers and moles, but this is different. The soil here is VERY dense clay (which is a whole other problem). So this doesn't actually seem to fit the soil profile. But I just cannot figure what it is. Anyone able to help me identify, and hopefully treat it? Thank you all SO MUCH!! <3

Hello and welcome to the forums. Do you have ants in SF? We have them in the UK and they can do just that.

 

[Avocado]

I found a video showing how to identify the pests by their mounds.