Planting coin/test garden. Need plans/suggestions

[Idaho-Marke]

AT LAST! Some ground is showing from under the snow. I have a 20 x 10 foot area where I want to plant a test garden and need ideas on how to go about it. I only want to do this once.

It's an area between my driveway and my mobile reflexology clinic motor home storage pad so it never gets planted. Only driven over and now this area is exposed and I can dig it and I want to do it now before more ground shows and I end up MDing instead.

Can anyone suggest plans on how I am to proceed. Spacing, this, that, the other thing it would be helpful to know before starting?

My thoughts are: Start at 3" down from a center point. On one side plant silver/Indian's with maybe trash in between getting deeper as you move from the center. Do the same with clad in the other direction moving out from the center. Any reason this wouldn't work? I realize driving over it will have an effect, but that will be a good thing if I plan it correctly, by maybe having another area planted at the same depth that won't be driven over just to compare the two.

That's as far as I've gone. Love to hear your ideas, suggestions and wisdom.

Thanks

HH

 

[dougmoore34]

here is what I did when I was teaching my youngest daughter how to use her first detector:
I setup a 20'x20' square with a string line with marks every foot on the line. I took a piece of graph paper (oriented it north and marked it to match my square). Each square on the graph paper was numbered and on a separate sheet I described what (if anything) was planted at the corresponding number. I would award her prizes for the right answers and she would even bury stuff for me to find. It was a great exercise. My brother has it now and has added little numbered flags at each foot mark (my permanent marker lines were fading out). Anyway good luck.
Doug in OR

 

[gmanlight]

Before you plant the coins you might want to clean the soil of as much metal as possible .
Sweep it in all directions using all-metal mode or at least zero disc max sen to virginize the soil.

 

[ron_c]

What gmanlight said, might also want to think about using a strong magnet. You will be surprized at the tiny amount of iron you might find.

 

[opinionatedelf]

Here is a suggestion I might make. I just took delivery on a new X-Terra 70 and while I was waiting for it to arrive I planted a test garden that was about 16 X 16. I did stake it out in 12" X 12" with string in either direction but when I started putting coins in I skipped the outside edge.

Two things I did when I planted. I got a piece of 1 1/4 dowel and marked it in 1" increments. After it was marked around the dowel with a sharpie and marked I took a knife and whittled the end to a point. That way when I planted something I would know exactly how deep it was as I started my learning curve on the 70. As Doug said, make yourself a chart.

The other thing I did was that with half of it I got a package of white golf tees from Wally World for $1.87. At right angles in the garden I would put one tee on each side of say a quarter, or dime, or whatever. That way at least on half of the garden I could practice going front to back, and left to right, and knowing just where the item was at. The other half I did not use the tees. That way I could practice in an area I already had the answers, and then work an area when I did not have the answers.

Now, you have no idea just how handy this is going to come in for me. I intend to do beach detecting as I am just a few miles from the Delaware Seashore State Park, but also want to do some land hunting. I recently had a terrible day at the beach with the 70 and after some messages from BB it was clear it was ME, not the 70. It is hard to pinpoint on the beach in the wet. You really need, as I need too, learn how to pinpoint with out the aide of the detector in case you get into a situation where you run in to GB trouble like I did.

I planted all kinds of stuff as well. Pull tabs, money, a couple old key rings, a gold ring that I have had for years, and some various items I got from my neighbor who is a "save it all" kind of guy.

What I am going to do is practice, practice, and practice some more, and for good reason.I have a life estate on some ground here that includes an area of 40 treed acres with a road running through the middle....I just found out that it is an old stage coach road that when cars came around people used to drive here and dump their trash. It is very trashy but I intend to work it, but I need more practice first and I might suggest the same. I am going to go back where I was on Saturday where I found a 1938 P Wheatie. I do not think that without using the garden I would have found it in all the trash.

Best of luck to you on your endeavor of a garden, and on your hunts. As so many have said before me, when in doubt...DIG IT!

Elf
Dr. Albert in Lower Slower Delaware!!!

 

[Idaho-Marke]

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