Black Clay Gumbo - North Texas
We didn’t know until we experienced our first spring in Sunnyvale - exactly what the earth had in store for us. I’m not talking philosophically. I literally mean the earth, the soil. They call it black clay gumbo and it is one of three soil types in the Dallas Fort Worth area. My visiting girlfriend (from Pennsylvania where they have beautiful soil) thought it would be a great idea to dig a garden bed around the chicken coop. An hour later she had only dug out about 3 ft.² and said what the heck is this?! I had already told her about it, so I could do naught but laugh. It is just something you have to experience to believe.
Because our soil is mucky and consists mostly of clay, it presents us with a number of problems.
The first is that it is an alkaline soil, so it needs to be heavily amended if you want to grow anything.
Second, it doesn’t drain. Like, at all. Further, adding to the difficulty of growing things. Additionally, while we knew this when we brilliantly dug our fire pit base extra deep to allow for drainage, during the first rain it filled to the top with water and didn’t drain out for three days. So rather than fixing our problem, we made it worse by digging a deeper pool.
Third, it’s very slippery when wet. This causes a twofold problem with footwear when it rains. You need enough traction so you don’t fall on your butt, yet if you have too much traction you end up carrying five pounds of muck along with you in your tread. Same goes for trying to drive in it.
Fourth- digging has to be timed perfectly. Too wet and you can’t get it off of your shovel, too dry and it is like digging through rock. So just digging a hole or a swale is a huge undertaking. These rocks took hours to set in the ground.
Fifth- water is not the only thing that doesn’t absorb. Nor do nutrients… making gardening an incredible challenge. Soil must either be heavily amended, or brought in from somewhere else.
Some other challenges - water and animals is not a good combination so we have to be extra diligent in cleaning the pens and replacing bedding, because the muck is everywhere since the water doesn’t drain away quickly.
Try making a chicken dust bath with clay… I have to purchase soil in bags to make my chicken baths - which is just ridiculous and makes having chickens quote costly as they could really use a fresh bath almost weekly.
When it rains heavily the entire property sits under a few inches of water even as it runs off in rivulets. So good rain boots (with moderate tread) are necessary for a few months of the year and things like mulch and topsoil and seeds just wash away.
When it is not raining, the soil is so hard it cracks. Large cracks that cause injury to animals who get their hooves stuck in the cracks, or simply trip. We have also lost some kids toys in those cracks. Did I mention they are large?
Forget straight fences. Fence posts move with the earth - which expands and contracts with the seasons. Nothing stays straight, so we are forever adjusting gate hinges and latches.
People in our area have to water their foundations. No joke. We have sprinklers designed just for that purpose so our foundations don’t crack.
It’s really funny because projects that you think will be simple are complicated by all of these issues with the soil. And so there really are no easy projects.
So, if you are considering a homestead in Texas, make sure you are prepared and check your soil type first. Texas has over 1,300 soil types and 21 soil regions. Black clay gumbo is by far the hardest to work with.
https://soilsalive.com/north-texas-soil-types-d1/
