“When chosen correctly, perlite can easily help flourish a garden and become a gardener’s best friend,” says Brittany Cowan, expert gardener and inventor of the Drain Away Drain Tray. “Most of all, perlite helps store nutrients and retain moisture that plants need.”

What Is Perlite Soil?

In nature, the mineral perlite comes from water-saturated obsidian, a volcanic glass mined primarily in Greece, the U.S., Turkey and Japan. To turn it into a garden ingredient, it’s crushed and heated to around 900 F.

“As the steam escapes, it expands into the substance we recognize in soil mixtures,” says Cowan. “It becomes quite porous, and those cavities help store nutrients and some moisture.” That volcanic popcorn is then sold as a soil additive, or mixed in with potting soil and seed-starting mixes. Hydroponic gardeners also use it.

Speaking of additives, should you use coffee grounds in the garden?

Benefits of Perlite Soil

Perlite’s main benefit is its high porosity. That’s why it’s so popular in gardening. Other benefits include:

• Helps soil drainage, which prevents root rot and increases oxygen to roots;
• Helps retain added soil nutrients;
• Made from naturally occurring compounds with no toxic chemicals;
• Neutral pH;
• Retains its shape in a soil mix, even under pressure;
• Inexpensive and readily available;
• Increases aeration. “Perlite allows for better airflow around the roots of the plants, thus encouraging faster growth and a bigger harvest,” says Cowan.

Disadvantages of Perlite Soil

While perlite is truly a gardener’s friend, it does have a few downsides:

• Can blow away in the wind or float in excess water;
• Doesn’t add nutrients to soil;
• Not a renewable resource.

Is Perlite Soil Safe?

As a naturally occurring mineral, perlite is considered safe and nontoxic. However, when working with fine grades of perlite, wear a mask and protective eyewear to prevent respiratory problems and eye irritations. Don’t forget to keep it away from kids and pets!

How To Use Perlite in Gardening

Gardeners use perlite in several applications:

• Soil mixes. Buy it pre-mixed into soils at a garden center, or make your own by mixing up to one-third part perlite with your soil. For succulents and orchids, you can use more. “Make sure to water your plant until the water drains from the bottom of the container,” says Cowan. “But don’t let the plant sit in water.”
• Garden beds. Every few years, add a two-inch layer with compost and other soil amendments. It’s optimal to work it into the top six to 12 inches, but some people just scatter it and let it work its way in over time. If you do this, consider getting particles that are not too fine to blow away, but not too coarse to stick on the surface of the soil.
• Propagating cuttings and seeds. Put root cuttings in a small jar or plastic bag with moistened perlite. For seeds, perlite can be applied to propagate cuttings as well as starting seeds. Put root cuttings in a small jar or air-filled plastic bag filled with moistened perlite. Seeds can be started in moistened standalone perlite or a 50-50 combination of perlite and soil, which keeps the sprouts from drying out.

Perlite vs. Vermiculite

Perlite and vermiculite both improve moisture retention and help aerate soil. Vermiculite is ideal for plants that need lots of water because perlite dries out faster, says Cowan.

“On the other hand,” she says, “perlite is better for plants such as cacti that need a well-drained soil, where vermiculite would retain too much water and lead to root rot.”

The post How To Garden with Perlite Potting Soil appeared first on Taste Recipes.

“Thomas Jefferson was such a genius,” says Gary Porter, technical director at the Masonry Advisory Council. “Authorities at the time thought that Jefferson invented this design. However, he was merely adapting a well-established English style of construction.”

It turns out the way Americans use a fork was also adapted from Europe.

What Are Those Wavy Brick Walls Called?

The term crinkle crankle walls probably came from the Old English word for zigzag. Sometimes they are also called ribbon, wavy, radius, serpentine, sinusoidal or crinkum crankum walls. The Dutch engineers who originally built them in England called them slang muur, which translates to snake wall.

Why Are They Wavy?

They serpentine for economy and strength, and likely also aesthetic reasons.

A single row of bricks laid in a sine wave pattern is as strong or stronger than a standard straight wall and requires fewer bricks. (In the case of UVA’s walls, about 25 percent less.) That’s because straight walls need two rows of bricks and sometimes buttresses to survive over time, whereas wavy walls need just a single row.

“So it was more efficient, and that’s why they did it,” says Porter. “These walls actually act as an arch, and so that makes it strong for wind loads that might push on the wall.”

At the University of Virginia, that’s part of the story, but unfortunately not the whole story.

In 2018 UVA conducted a study about its historic ties to slavery. It discovered Jefferson also intended the eight-foot-tall walls to mask the use of slave labor on the campus. The walls physically and visually separated white students from the enslaved laborers, while keeping the enslaved from seeing beyond the walls. It also allowed slaveholders to more closely monitor the work being done by slaves.

Where Are Wavy Brick Walls From?

The ones we know the most about were built in England from the 1600s to the 1800s. But the idea dates at least ancient Egypt, where archaeologists noted them in several cities. The first ones in England were built by Dutch engineers draining the marshlands of an area called the Fens.

In England, many of these garden walls are aligned from east to west, enabling fruit to grow on the south-facing part of the walls. The waves kept fruit trees sheltered from the wind and warmed by the sun.

While the Americans might have loved these walls, there’s one thing Americans and Brits just can’t agree on.

Are Brick Walls Ever Built This Way Today?

Not often. A curvy wall was more economical a century or two ago. Today, that isn’t the case.

“It’s something that has died out,” Porter says. “Using this design today would require more skill as the radius is more time-consuming for the bricklayer to lay, [plus it uses] more real estate with the widening footprint, resulting in more construction dollars required to build.”

But Porter hopes it makes a comeback.

“It’s an attractive thing,” he says. “We need this type of masonry to reemerge. I live west of Chicago and our downtown has a lot of older buildings. When you look at the top, they have lots of details that really give the building some character and you don’t see that much today because of expense. People don’t want to spend a lot of money.”

Where Can I See Them Today?

The highest concentration of crinkle crankle walls today is in Suffolk County in the East Anglia area of England, although they are found elsewhere in the country. In the U.S., except for UVA, their locations are not well documented. We do know of a few at a library in Chicago, and one at a cemetery in Boulder, Colorado. If you know of one near you, please share it with us!

The post If You See a Wavy Brick Wall, This is What It Means appeared first on Taste Recipes.