Despite the original posters overly extensive post, with certain questionable content, the central point is still quite vaild. We as a nation spend more money on grass than on any other crop. That by itself should be reason enough. Read up on the history of lawns and you'll find that they were orginally created as a means of demonstrating wealth (aka, I have this big area and I can afford to do nothing with it except grow grass I can't eat) Regarding the comments of junegem13 and zachslc, you might want to read up on the legal history of this movement. As it turns out, most weed laws (ones based on hight, not on noxious weeds) are unconstitutional. Nonetheless, if you are in a city or subdivision and decide to do a wildflower meadow where there is not an reasonable ordinance, then you should notify your neighbors and the city about why you are doing and the legal preceedants. The EPA has all this information. Regarding property values, that was the original complaint neighbors made against one landowner when she converted her lawn into meadow. When they were unable to demonstrate an actual decrease in property values, the city ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Afterwards, the neighbors decided if they couldn't beat her that they'd join her and replace their own yards with meadows. Property values in that one neighborhood are now some of the highest in the city (Specific names and places, are available if you want them). Time and time again, lawn alternatives done correctly have shown to raise values, not lower them. In Charlottesville, VA local government is working on an ammendment to exclude native meadows from our weed ordinance. Other cities are doing the same very quicky, especially since the weed ordinance as written by many localites constitutes a legal liability to local governments.

Gaitten asked: How long does soil improvement last? A very good question. It's one I've often thought about myself, when hauling home compostables or adding organic materials to my garden. The clearest, simplest answer I can offer from my reading and gardening experience is "It depends." 'Soil improvement' can include organic or mined or manufactured or processed inputs (usually called 'fertilizers') and various kinds of organic materials in various states (usually called 'soil amendments' -- although many of them, like compost and manures, are also direct or indirect aids to increased fertility.) Some of those inputs don't last very long. Nitrogen, for one example, can leach out with water flow, or outgas up in the air. Plants will use most of what nitrogen remains in the soil within a year, except what is temporarily tied up by bacteria, fungi, and the rest of the microherd. However, from the context of your post, it seems you are wondering how long organic materials will remain in the soil. Again, the answer is "It depends." There are multiple factors which influence how long OM remains in the soil. I would guess the four most important external factors are temperature, soil moisture, air supply, and cultivation. When soil is warmer, it becomes more biologically active. The soil microherd consumes the organic materials; this process improves soil fertility and structure (tilth) but over time it also degrades and consumes the organic materials which are the microherd's food source. When soil is damp (but not soaking wet like a bog) this also stimulates the microherd and consumes the OM. When there is good airflow in the soil, allowing oxygen to reach the microherd and carbon dioxide and other gases to escape -- aerobic conditions, in other words -- the microherd will grow and continue to reduce the OM. Cultivation -- digging or plowing or harrowing or raking the soil -- also increases airflow, especially in heavier soils with high amounts of clay and silt. One of the major advantages of no-till and reduced-till cultivation is these approaches help to increase soil organic matter over time. Temperature, moisture, air, and cultivation are largely physical processes. They each have biological and environmental impacts, certainly. Yet soil is more than just a physics project -- soil is a chemical and biological environment, an ecosystem. You also asked: If my property were abandoned today and completely neglected, would the vegetation that followed drain the soil of all the benefits of my soil improvements over time? Or will improved areas likely remain improved for decades to come. The answer to this question depends first on what kinds of organic materials are already in your improved soil, and what organic materials would be returned to it by being neglected for years. If the gardeners who built up the black delicious loam you describe used organic materials which are very slow to completely decompose -- the cellulose and lignins in wood are two examples -- the soil as-it-is-now will likely remain in good quality for a decade or more. During that time, assuming the garden soil didn't become heavily compacted with foot or vehicle traffic; assuming there was good rainfall for growth, but not too much; assuming good sunlight in the growing seasons, and amenable temperatures for growth -- existing weed seeds in your garden, and weeds brought in by wind and birds and animals, would likely create a new kind of ecosystem. Call it a weed garden. :) Within one or two decades the plants growing there would likely become bigger and taller bushes and shrubs and trees, their roots reaching further down and wider. These bigger plants would leave more debris on the surface which would decompose and recycle the organic materials originally taken from the garden. Their decaying roots and root hairs would also tend to maintain (and gradually increase) the amount of soil organic matter over time. Wind and water erosion, earthquakes, and other natural forces could slow or deter this process. However, under most natural conditions for most of the time, soil gradually continues to improve, until the content of organic matter held in the soil reaches an optimum for the climate zone where the soil is located. Cooler and semi-arid climates (like the Canadian Prairies, the great plains of the US, the Ukrainian and Russian steppes) tend to leach fewer nutrients and encourage grassland growth. Which tends to build deeper layers of topsoil and create more below-ground organic reserves. Damper and warmer climates (like the eastern seaboard of the US, the rain forest of Pacific northwest in Canada and the States, and the tropical rainforest in South America) tend to concentrate their biomass above ground, in trees and in the plant and animal life living on the trees. These soils don't hold as high a concentration of organic materials. All of the above doesn't really speak directly to your ultimate questions, Gaitten -- sorry :) -- but from my understanding, the many processes going on in soil creation and degradation all interact with each other in so many different ways, it's difficult to give a clear simple answer to what you asked. In three years of gardening here in my downtown Toronto back yard, I've built compost piles beyond counting from kitchen scraps, yard waste bags hauled home from nearby streets, and the used coffee grounds from a local coffeeshop. I've dug in leaf mold and built lasagna piles, even tried an Interbay mulch pile which produced 6-8" of beautiful compost in one season over a 5' x 8' garden bed. In my experience, and from my reading, adding large amounts of organic materials -- 2" or more of mature compost topped with a good mulch to protect it from wind and rain erosion -- has an immediate beneficial impact on the garden soil in the following growth season. Plants are bigger and healthier, more resistant to pests and diseases; they produce more. Yet without fail I've noticed the positive affect of the mature compost and mulch degrades within a year -- whether left on the surface or tilled in, shallow or deep. Unless more organic material is added, plants don't grow as well in following seasons. As a relatively new composter I found this discouraging. When I researched online I discovered what I half-seriously call The Dark Dirty Secret of compost: it goes away. Roughly 85-95% of raw fresh organic materials disappear in the first year compost is made and applied to soil. Of the remaining 5-15% about 1/3 disappears in two to five years, consumed by the microherd. 1/3 may last 5-25 years. 1/3 might -- might -- still be around one hundred to a thousand years from now. It's my personal conviction, based on reading and on my own experience, that intense soul cultivation, excessive watering, and the heavyhanded use of fertilizers (especially nitrogen and potassium) increases the breakdown of longterm organic materials in soil. Mulching and reduced tillage seem to slow this breakdown and build better soils faster, in my garden. This past year I've started to experiment with green manures and I'm hopeful they will also help improve the soil. It's a pleasant thought to imagine some small part of the organic materials I add to my garden may still be helpful 10, 25 or 100 years from now. Assuming no-one turns it into a parking lot or a construction site. :) You might find by Steve Solomon's book Organic Gardener's Composting a useful resource, especially Chapter Eight, "Maintaining Soil Humus." The full text is available free online at his excellent site, soilandhealth.org. Solomon explores these kinds of questions in far more detail and with references to other soil and gardening texts. All the best, -Patrick

Once I clear that 8 inch lip it's a pretty straight shot down hill. No coal in NH. It's in quartz, granite. Radon might be an issue but I don't think the shaft is deep enough. I can start a siphon with an old hose easy enough but hubby doesn't think the water will ever make it out of the woods. Says I would need a 4 inch pipe or better running a good 150 feet to make it. The woods is pretty thick. Hasn't been logged up there in 50+ years. This is where the water we have is coming from anyway. Just not getting enough now to feed all 4 houses using the vein. My own home is directly on the vein of water which is why I have some and the others don't. The mountain sort of drains on this side directly onto my property. The other houses have their wells off to either side of the main vein of water. They get the excess that flows off the beaten path. I have the means to store quit a bit. There is a small farm pond in my yard that isn't far from the well. Ditch lines and drain pipes direct a lot of the water towards it. The pond is generally around 7 feet deep. Doesn't flux much in a normal year. Until the last rain storm I had only about a foot of water in it. The last storm filled it to about a foot and half from the drain pipes. Pond is about 30 x 35 so it has room to fill a bunch more before the water continues down to the river. If my pond is full my well is full. If my pond is filling then one neighbor will be getting water before it hits the pond and the others should be getting it as it flows and or leaches out on down the hill. anyway, My thoughts are that the soil and thirsty trees will eventually get their fill of water and the water will come down the hill. Might take a few days to get there but gravity is going to win.

Um... okay.