The start of another week out at the farm brings the duty of prepping the beds for eventual planting. I got 10 cubic yards of composted horse manure on Craigslist that has been aging since November, so today I spent all day forking it into the wheel barrow and out of the wheel barrow...into the wheel barrow and out of the wheel barrow, over and over again. Meditation at its best. The picture is only after 6 days of work in the garden, and I have to say, things are really starting to materialize. I plan on starting all my spring veggie transplants in trays tomorrow and hopefully will finish with all bed preparation by the end of the week. The picture also shows leaves laying in the walking rows of the garden. This is an crucial part of the garden's overall health. Not only will mulched rows add nutrients to the garden over time, but they will provide much needed moisture control. Evapotranspiration occurs all over the earth's surface every day. Water is drawn up through the earth through evaporation and escapes into the atmosphere at varying rates depending on climate, ground cover, etc. Large scale agriculture cannot spend resources to mulch their rows, and as a result, irrigation and soil erosion increase dramatically. Within two hours of putting the very dry leaves on the very dry soil, moisture was already getting trapped underneath the mulch! I hope this will help draw up the water table underneath my little quarter acre plot, thus decreasing irrigation needs.
Howdy,
ReplyDeleteI like how you talk about what you are doing in these photos. For someone like me, I do not know much about farming, so I appreciate it when you talk about what you are doing and the purpose of it.
See you later!