Solutions for caliche?

Question

We live about 40 miles east of Dallas, Texas, zone 8. We’ve built a barndominium. The building is steel built on a concrete slab. The building was constructed about 20 – 25 years ago. There are no known issues. On the southeast side we have a 15’x 60′ lean to attached to the building. We want to make this outdoor living space. Our natural soil is black clay. There was caliche hauled in that was used under the slab and under the lean to. This, as you probably well know, is not the most desirable growing medium, plus it gets tracked in the house and the shop part of our building. What gets tracked everywhere is very, very fine. I’ve thought about various ways to cover the caliche and possibly grow something there that would help settle that dust but can’t really come up with a great solution. The last thing we want is concrete as it would hold heat from the blazing morning Texas sun.

At the slab, soil level is about 4-5″ lower than the slab and that area drops off slightly the further it gets away from the building. It may drop 6-8″ in 12′.

It would not be good to disturb what’s been here since the building was built. The risk of slab movement would be to great!

I’m open to dialogue and answering questions in hopes of coming up with a viable solution. Please contact me.

Thank you for your time,
Sherri

Answer 1

I think that this would be a questions to ask your local extension service! They will be able to help you find the best solution to the issue at hand. This link will help you to find the closest service to you: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/extension-search