"Soil is a material composed of five ingredients — minerals, soil organic matter, living organisms, gas, and water. Soil minerals are divided into three size classes — clay, silt, and sand"- The Nature Education Knowledge Project

In the Santa Fe Botanical Garden there is a fairly significant underlay of our famous northern New Mexico caliche, in varying depths, almost everywhere that was dug more than a few inches deep.

(Caliche is layer of soil in which the soil particles are cemented together by calcium carbonate (CaCO3). These layers may form at or below the soil surface. Caliche may appear as light colored concretions (lumps) which range in size from less than 1 inch to several inches across.)

The pH (acidity/alkalinity) scale runs from 0-14, a pH of 7.0 is neutral. Plant nutrients become available or unavailable according to the soil’s pH level. Only nitrogen, potassium, and sulfur are unaffected by soil pH. The general pH of the Santa Fe Botanical Garden soil is 7.3 (alkaline).

Specifications for the Orchard Gardens
For Trees (except fruit trees):
A good-quality compost was mixed with the native backfill at 25% rate, plus Yum Yum Mix was incorporated at 20 lbs per cubic yard of backfill.  This probably worked out in “real life” to about 2 to 3 shovels worth of Yum Yum Mix per tree.  It was specifed that tree holes be dug at minimum 2x the diameter of the tree root ball so the initial root growth was good until those roots hit the wall of untouched native soil.

(Yum Yum Mix is an all-purpose fertilizer and soil conditioner. It is a premium blend of organic and natural alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, greensand, kelp meal, planters II, rock phosphate, humate and dry molasses.)

Additions to the soil on the groundcover areas along the Main Path and around the “veronica lake,” for the meadow in the Meadow Garden and in the groundcover “trough” above the Xeric Garden “hot box" ½ cy compost (about ½” layer), 15 lbs Yum Yum Mix, 5 lbs Planters II Rock Dust, and 1 lb Superphosphage (0-20-0), mixed into top 8” of soil per 100 sf of planting area was used.

[PLANTERS II ANALYSIS: Calcium (CA)10%, Magnesium (Mg)1%, Sulfur (S)6%, Boron (B)0.02%, Cobalt (Co)0.0005%, Iron (Fe)1% and Molybdenum (Mo)0.0005%.]

For the Rose/Lavender beds, the Orchard (grass area), the Orchard Perennial Borders, and the Orchard fruit trees:
The rose beds were loosened to a depth of 18” in order to penetrate and try to remove some of the caliche layer in that specific area. Then to a depth of 12” before planting, per 100 sf the following were used.
1 cy compost (approx 3” layer), 20 lbs Yum Yum Mix
9 lbs Planters II Rock Dust, 2 lbs Superphosphave (0-20-0)
2 lbs pelletized gypsum, 4 lbs soil humate

For shrubs, vines and perennials other than the areas mentioned:
The same mix as for trees was used:  25% compost + 20 lbs Yum Yum Mix per cy backfill.

In the dry garden cactuses, agaves and yuccas were planted with loosened native soil and Yum Yum Mix only, no compost.

For the revegetation seeding 3 cy compost and 50 lbs Yum Yum mix per 1000 sf seeding area was used.  A top dressing to lightly cover the seeded area was also used.  It’s a Gro-Well product called “Topsoil” that’s more like a combination of sand, fine compost, and clean soil. 

Also important for all plants planted: a “drench” was specified to be used after the plants were planted and thoroughly watered in and settled.  The drench consisted of a good-quality seaweed product, Superthrive, and a mycorrhizal inoculante “MycoApply Soluble MAXX.” 

(MycoApply® Soluble MAXX is a suspendable powder mycorrhizal inoculum consisting of a combination of 9 species of endomycorrhizal fungi, 10 species of ectomycorrhizal fungi, and specially formulated amendments well-suited to a variety of soils, climates, and plants.)

Specifications for Ojos Y Manos
The specifications were essentially very similar to those that were used in the Orchard Gardens.  There were fewer of the lesser ingredients used (rock dust, etc) for the essentially all-native plantings. Compost and Yum Yum mix were used at similar rates to those in the first gardens.  The same post-planting drench was also used.