The Garden That Didn't Grow.

I had a great talk with a local lady at the Tiny hometown Trunk or Treat event on Saturday.  She was wearing a shirt that said "Farm wives aren't afraid to get their hands dirty."  I commented on how much I loved her shirt and we started chatting.  We discussed chickens, rabbits and gardening. Oh the gardening. She said she had given up because of the back earth... note not black soil. Black soil is good rich soil full of nutrients. Black earth she described to me as having been contaminated with oil.  Make plenty of sense as there is oil in them thar hills to the east of us. I have 2 kinds of soil in my yard. On one side I have soil that is black and holds together like crusty shells and glue that is the black earth. On the other side I could dig, dry and sieve the clay, and make sculptures with it. Neither side is ideal for gardening. The only plots that did well are the boxes out front which I have discovered have heavy duty landscaper paper under them keeping the roots of my plants from coming in contact with my land.

Now armed with this information I do believe I will be digging out my boxes laying landscaper paper down and when necessary starting from scratch. Luckly I have a child with 6 rabbits... anyone want a rabbit??? seriously anyone?? So if the 4H youth informations is right I'm looking at 3 tons of manure per year for my garden beds.  Can you imagine! The great news is rabbit manure requires no composting. It is not a hot manure. Unlike the chicken coop poop that I need to toss in the composter, (when Tippin isn't eating it all) I can have my child clean the rabbit area and just dump it in my garden boxes. 

My dear husband wants to just raise the level of the boxes fill them with rabbit droppings and plant... 

Meanwhile... 

I'm wondering where I can get biocentras (sp?) bacteria that eats oil, eliminates it, and then dies off for want of anything else to eat. One would think natural selection over the entire time this soil has "just been this way" would produce an oil eating bacteria, but my poor yellow stressed out plants showed me this year totally negates that thought process. 

I'm still trying to solve the mystery of who ate my garlic. I planted it, it grew, it started to die back.  I went to harvest and no garlic bulbs just holes in the garden, the soil smelled of garlic I was not imagining things I did plant it it was here... now who or what would steal garlic?