OK Folks,
I've been asked by several people to explain how I did my coin garden, since I have the time and I like to share.........here it goes.
First, you have to be in an area where the soil is clay based and compacted well, sandy soil will not work well. I live in the wheat capitol of the world and we have great soil. Next the area should be metal free, do this with your metal detector in all-metal mode and clean it out, I did not do this important step and lost one of my nickels as I will explain later. Then, wait until the ground is saturated with moisture well below where you intend to bury your targets, coins and/or co-located trash targets. You can let mother nature take care of the moisture or use a soaker-hose.
For all you gardeners and farmers out there, this goes without saying, you can't work the ground until you can take a sharp-shooter/spade/shovel and Dig Without Mud sticking to your sharp-shooter/shovel. Wait for the soil to have the right amount of moisture so you can 'work' the ground and have nice clean 'intact' plugs come out of the ground. Sandy or loamy type soil will not work as well as clay type soil as the plug will not hang together......and this is the most important step. I used a sharp-shooter to dig my plugs, I took care to make a nice square, four sided, deep plugs. After you have cut the four sides of the plug to the depth you want, take extra care in removing the plug to be sure that it comes out of the hole intact with no crumbling or lost soil material. If the plug crumbles and falls apart, then the ground is too dry or the soil is not made of the right composition for clean plugging.
I then took some of my dug coins and one gold ring and started the planting. I already knew where I wanted the garden to go as far as location and I did it in a straight line going toward a landmark on my property. I started the garden with the man's gold ring buried at 5 inches, then about a step further a buffalo nickel at 5 inches, a step further another buffalo nickel, (this one being masked by iron) then several silver dimes starting at 5 inches while going further along the garden path they go to about 8 inches in depth. Then I started planting silver quarters at 6 inches going along the path to about 10 inches deep. Half dollars were next starting at 10 inches to abourt 12 inches then ending up with two silver dollars at 12 inches to just over 14 inches.
I would dig a deep plug each time and then lay the coin/target flat in the bottom of the hole and tamp it in, then carefully replace the plug in the same orientation as it came out of the ground, the soil matrix of the plug needs to be in the same direction as it came out... for the layers of naturally mineralized soil to be in relationship with the soil it just came out of. This part of the plugging and replacing the plug is the most important part of this garden, getting it as close to a "naturally buried target" in the ground as possible.
As far as needing a 'halo' to accentuate the signal of a detector, I just don't believe in it and my test garden proves my point. For just as soon as I planted it, I was getting good signals from 5 inches on small low conductors such as the gold ring and nickel (I lost one next to iron) to the deeply buried dimes to the ultra deep silver dollars. I think that undisturbed dirt matrix with a 'medium' moisture content improves target response to the eddy currents generated by the search coil, nothing more. I cannot emphisize this point enough,...... make sure that the plug comes out of the ground intact and not crumbling, plant the coin facing flat and tamp it in, and get the plug replaced exactly as it came out the ground, then stomp the plug down, water as needed. This has worked for me, and it will for you too, if I was a golfer, this would be my putting green.
I've been asked by several people to explain how I did my coin garden, since I have the time and I like to share.........here it goes.
First, you have to be in an area where the soil is clay based and compacted well, sandy soil will not work well. I live in the wheat capitol of the world and we have great soil. Next the area should be metal free, do this with your metal detector in all-metal mode and clean it out, I did not do this important step and lost one of my nickels as I will explain later. Then, wait until the ground is saturated with moisture well below where you intend to bury your targets, coins and/or co-located trash targets. You can let mother nature take care of the moisture or use a soaker-hose.
For all you gardeners and farmers out there, this goes without saying, you can't work the ground until you can take a sharp-shooter/spade/shovel and Dig Without Mud sticking to your sharp-shooter/shovel. Wait for the soil to have the right amount of moisture so you can 'work' the ground and have nice clean 'intact' plugs come out of the ground. Sandy or loamy type soil will not work as well as clay type soil as the plug will not hang together......and this is the most important step. I used a sharp-shooter to dig my plugs, I took care to make a nice square, four sided, deep plugs. After you have cut the four sides of the plug to the depth you want, take extra care in removing the plug to be sure that it comes out of the hole intact with no crumbling or lost soil material. If the plug crumbles and falls apart, then the ground is too dry or the soil is not made of the right composition for clean plugging.
I then took some of my dug coins and one gold ring and started the planting. I already knew where I wanted the garden to go as far as location and I did it in a straight line going toward a landmark on my property. I started the garden with the man's gold ring buried at 5 inches, then about a step further a buffalo nickel at 5 inches, a step further another buffalo nickel, (this one being masked by iron) then several silver dimes starting at 5 inches while going further along the garden path they go to about 8 inches in depth. Then I started planting silver quarters at 6 inches going along the path to about 10 inches deep. Half dollars were next starting at 10 inches to abourt 12 inches then ending up with two silver dollars at 12 inches to just over 14 inches.
I would dig a deep plug each time and then lay the coin/target flat in the bottom of the hole and tamp it in, then carefully replace the plug in the same orientation as it came out of the ground, the soil matrix of the plug needs to be in the same direction as it came out... for the layers of naturally mineralized soil to be in relationship with the soil it just came out of. This part of the plugging and replacing the plug is the most important part of this garden, getting it as close to a "naturally buried target" in the ground as possible.
As far as needing a 'halo' to accentuate the signal of a detector, I just don't believe in it and my test garden proves my point. For just as soon as I planted it, I was getting good signals from 5 inches on small low conductors such as the gold ring and nickel (I lost one next to iron) to the deeply buried dimes to the ultra deep silver dollars. I think that undisturbed dirt matrix with a 'medium' moisture content improves target response to the eddy currents generated by the search coil, nothing more. I cannot emphisize this point enough,...... make sure that the plug comes out of the ground intact and not crumbling, plant the coin facing flat and tamp it in, and get the plug replaced exactly as it came out the ground, then stomp the plug down, water as needed. This has worked for me, and it will for you too, if I was a golfer, this would be my putting green.
