Heavy Lifting and Colonial America

Garden Time

This week the Giving Gardeners did some heavy lifting. Fall is the time of year when the garden gets prepared for the coming spring. In a garden that is just coming into existence, it’s a great time to build beds and pathways and imagine what our space will look like when it’s covered in green. The Owls and Kittens are learning about manners and teamwork, and they proved their new skills by working all together to push a wheelbarrow full of woodchips up to help finish our pathway through the garden. The elementary students split into three teams – one group laid out cardboard, a second filled our wheelbarrow with compost, and a third raked the compost out over the cardboard to build beds. They are learning about Early America, and during garden time they experienced what kids their age would be doing to help their parents during colonial times. 

     The reason for the cardboard and more compost than you would find in an average garden is the unique type of farm the Giving Garden will be. Most farms use a roto-tiller, which breaks up and aerates the soil, stirring the nutrients and making them readily accessible to young plants. However, this practice quickly uses up the minerals in the soil and over several years begins to compact the top layer of soil down until it is almost impossible for oxygen to get through. This inhibits the number of organisms that can thrive around the roots of the plants and this directly correlates to how well plants can grow. There is however, another system of farming in which a roto-tiller is not used, and the surface of the soil is not disturbed. 

    No-Till farming is a process by which weed growth is restricted by blocking sun and oxygen with layers of cardboard. The compost placed on top of the cardboard gives the new plants the boost in minerals that they need and it gives them a chance to grow big and strong before the weeds can catch up. By the time the plant's roots have reached the cardboard, it is soft enough from moisture and decomposition for the roots to push through, and by the end of a growing season the cardboard is gone entirely. This way, every year you farm the land you return to the soil what you took from it in the first place. Your garden only has to contend with airborne weeds and your soil stays aerated instead of compacting down, (trust me, once you have tried pulling weeds in a roto-tilled and a no-till garden you will know the difference). 

    When the community garden is up and running in the spring, participants will be able to farm their plot in whatever way they choose, but the rest of the garden will be there as an example of something new to try. The Giving Gardeners love trying and learning new things. The children usually quick to answer even the hardest of questions though, could not fathom that summer vacation was invented only so that people their age could spend more time doing manual labor during the growing season.

Also, check out a video of the Owls and Kittens talking about compost! (It was put up between full blog posts)