building our soil
August 1st, 2010 by caitlyn
There are so many logistics to consider while preparing the land for our small farm. Making the transition to a larger space requires us to constantly evaluate (and reevaluate) everything from the most efficient order of operations to the most appropriate tools for the job. We rearrange our priorities and shift around items on our to-do lists on a daily basis.
First on the list is preparing the soil for planting. For a while, we were making weekly trips out to Mar Vista Stables to shovel horse manure from their corrals. It’s a beautiful scene out there – foggy ocean bluffs, old wooden shacks, and the friendly horses that munch next to us while we shovel their poop. The manure is a rich source of nitrogen for our soil, and since it is from the corral (as opposed to freshly scooped from the stables), it is already nicely aged. This cuts down on the amount of time it needs to decompose before we can safely plant into it.
We’re also experimenting with mulch – lately we’ve been laying the tops of fennel plants onto the field (before they go to seed) as we cut them down in order to keep the soil moist and suppress weed (fennel) growth. Fighting fennel with fennel!
Now that we’ve gotten amendments onto our first field, our need for water is ever more pressing. We’ve been able to temporarily pipe some water in from a generous neighbor’s hose, using a flow meter to keep track of our usage, but we’re still working on a more permanent solution. With no water meter on the property, and with our use of the space being temporary, access to water on the lot is a complicated matter. More thoughts on this later.
In other news, there’s a good article here about our project and the productive conversations that have begun about zoning.
A great way to get your access to water, would be to look at the residential homes in the area and ask your neighbours if you can install and utilize rain barrels. They can be hooked up to the gutter systems on the houses, and when you are doing your rounds, you can use a cart/wagon with large buckets and ‘harvest’ that water. That way your community is also contributing with zero effort on their part – and they can utilize part of that water for their own gardens too!
It is also possible to install a gutter on your greenhouse and install two or three rainbarrels of your own.
Just don’t forget your insect screen (that way you don’t have a problem with mosquitos later.
Good luck!
Yes! Thanks Amanda, good tips. We’re really excited to get a rainwater catchment set up going (and hopefully graywater too). We’re also really interested in the idea of tapping into the ground water since the lot we’re on sits right atop what used to be Cayuga Creek. It will be a little while before we can set up and collect water in these ways though, so we’re working on getting a reliable source of water in the meantime.