Scorching the Garden 2021
Part 5
May
We are celebrating our 4th documented grow. Not much is going to change, but there is still a ton to learn. Let’s see if we can learn a few pounds.
We spread out the rest of the wood chips, hoping we had enough. We use a lot of wood chips, like A LOT! The more we use, well, the beter. We covered both of the plots with a thin layer of chips, but we’re gonna need more. So we reached out to M&S and asked for another dump. A few large sticks ended up in the mix which we bury under more chips. They end up breaking down just the same after season. All in all, we used around 30 yards of chips for our gardens.
You’d be surprised how quick you can go through five tons of soil. The math we went with was a ton (cubic yard) of compost was the equivalant of 40 five-gallon buckets. We have around 200 planting spots, so yea, five tons. It looks like we have space for more than 200 plants. Luckily, we have another couple of tons of compost on another site. Next year, 6 tons.
If this is your first time visiting our grow, you may understand what we’re doing, but may not know why we do things this way or perhaps have seen similar techniques, but not quite like our system.
We don’t till the soil because it destroys the structure which is the tunnels and caverns made by bugs, worms, and roots. These voids fill with air and water and make it easier for roots to spread. Collapsing these chambers causes the soil to compact and makes it harder for water to penetrate. Tilling also breaks up the delicate fungal fibers that is the mycorrhizal network which protects and nourished the plants.
The cardboard acts as a weed barrier, moisture reservoir, and food for composters. Even after a hot and dry spell, the ground underneath stays moist. It’s biodegradable, cheap, and helps to renew the ground year after year.
We only put the compost where we want the plants because, why put soil where weeds will grow, but no roots? The roots will grow out into the compost and down through the cardboard.
The woodchips shade the soil and retain moisture. They form millions of air pockets for predatory insects to ambush pests that look to harm our plants. They also keep everything soft to walk on and clean to work with when it rains.
Now that plots are prepped, it’s time for the plants to go in. We let the plants dry out so when we pulled them out of their cells we could spread their roots when we transplant them. This gives them more space to grow faster. We seasoned every mound with our mineral meal mix, It’s a fortifying blend of minerals found in nature such as eggshells, hardwood ashes, bone, and aged chicken poop.
After going into the ground, everyone gets a big drink of water. Now, we wait. Maybe we might see a weed in July. One thing we’ll do is spread some companion seeds like dill, dandelions, parsley, and flowers. Sadly, we have no sunflowers this year.
