Grow your own food class at Heartland Gardens Part 2
This week we learned about soil and getting it ready for planting. Ben Pino showed us a project we can do in our own garden to see the percentages of of soil, clay to dirt, and water, that we have. He put garden soil in a mayonnaise jar added some water, shook vigorously, and let stand for 24 to 48 hours. The results should be layers with sand being on the bottom,silt next, clay and top should be mineral water. Soil is the foundation, it should be 25% air, 25% water, and 50% nutrients.
Today we also learned about bio-intensive planting. This is planting to utilize all the garden space. We accomplished this today by planting in a triangle design. First we determined the spacing, then measure and sowed seeds.
The fun part was the double dig of the garden. Double dig is way of adding compost and air to the soil. Compost was added to the top of the bed. We removed the first 2 feet across by 1 foot deep soil, added compost, aerated remaining 1 foot deep soil with pitch fork. Than moved to next 2 foot section, move the dirt to the previous section and reputed the process. When the double dig was complete, we fertilized the bed, and added mulch.
The "blue plant it" planted chard seed directly into the dirt. Our seedlings, planted last week, were not ready for transplanting. Preparing the beds is the best way to minimize bugs.
The group was promised that next week won't be so much work. The focus will be seasonal gardening in SWFL and sheet mulching.
Article donated by Donna Thorp. Thanks Donna!
