Growcology Takes To the Field

I am proud to present our latest milestone.  

The Growcology team headed out into a barren, sun baked, rock hard  field last week with the intent of making a fertile, productive, and long term drought tolerant garden to serve as our welcome area in front of the barn.  This evening we kick back with a few beers and enjoy the satisfaction of a day's end, having toiled together for a common cause.

What you see in the picture is the spirals halfway Lasagna Mulched.  

Following the recipe in Gaia's garden, we put down a thin layer of goat manure over the earth which we broke up with pick axes followed by a layer of newspaper about 5 sheets thick.  We then added another layer of goat manure followed by a foot thick layer of slightly decomposed horse bedding and manure.  The next step is to put down a good layer of compost and then a nice thick layer of straw over that.  

The principle of the lasagna mulch is not to have fertile soil right away.  It is actually to compost the way the forest builds soil, only in a highly expedited way.  The lasagna mulch will actually make nutrients like nitrogen unavailable for up to six months while it all breaks down, resulting in thick, rich, water retaining soil with a healthy microbial profile.  The way we plant it in the mean time is to carefully dig holes in through the mulch layers and fill them with finished compost or topsoil, plant our seeds or seedlings in them, and cover them back up with the straw layer.  

The lasagna mulch required quite a bit of water to get started.  We must have spent hours standing with hoses, hand watering every layer to make sure it was of the consistency of a damp, wrung out sponge.  Maintaining a proper moisture level is vital to the process, and it requires regular watering, especially in Riverside summer heat. Over the long run, however, the healthy soil with good mulch cover and shade from plant canopy will retain water extremely well and require much less than if done other ways.

I would like to take the chance to thank Frank and Lucy Heyming for allowing us this opportunity on the property, and providing us with most of our materials.  I would also like to acknowledge our rock star volunteer Twelve and his two children Ruby and Nova for showing up almost every day we've been in the field and putting in a few hours.  

Keep an eye out, as there is much more to come