Notes from the Farm – Week 11 April 6th
This class was spent entirely out on the farm preparing beds and planting. With many hands we helped ready the garden for this month of the spring that has conditions for abundant growing in California.
Henry first gave us instruction on preparing the beds. He demonstrated single digging. Here you start with one end of the bed and begin working down it, opening the ground with the digging fork. You open a good foot into the bed, making small bites with the fork and flipping the soil forward (not over), creating a furrow. Henry showed how you hold the fork and use your body to break the ground open (see photo). As you work down the bed you disperse your weight by having a board to stand on and move back as you go so you don’t compact the soil. Always work the bed in the same direction. Once you have dug, stand to the side of the bed on the path, add compost, and spank the bed to break the clots of soil and grass. Add mineral amendments and top dress with compost. Try to mimic the natural world and create topsoil (4-6 inches) rich in organic matter.
Henry held up a chunk of soil (see photo) to give us a look at the soil profile, horizons, and structure.
Wendy spoke to us about turfloam, an ancient, classic, British way Alan Chadwick liked to teach to create beautiful potting soil for the greenhouse.
To continue with the bed prep after the single digging, rake out the clumps of grass with roots with rhizomes. Do not allow any of this into your compost! Create the pathway width, which is about the width of the shovel, and see that the bed is 3-4 inches high in soil.
At IVCFG this is the third season and this is why single digging is sufficient. When first establishing a bed, if you have hardpan underneath, double digging is necessary. In double digging you dig a spades depth and loosen a fork’s depth (thus the name ‘double’ digging).
The beds we worked with today are 36 inch wide beds with a 1 foot pathway in between. We ran and staked string low to the ground to keep the beds straight and uniform. We laid and stapled irrigation drip tape on the beds before planting. The beds with parsley and vetch growing tall required some hula hoe whacking. Calendula and Chard were harvested. We dressed beds using bow rakes, moving the rake on the diagonal to create a flat surface. We planted spinach, cabbage, chard, lettuce, chives, radish and more!
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