By Kaylie Edgar
Our garden has experienced quite a few changes since the ground was first established in 2006 as a student garden. From short raised beds to row planting to now our large raised beds, the garden has had the intention to maximize growth in a minimal space. However, these wonderful beds need to be filled with soil. As we learned from a visit from Steven Wynbrandt of Wynbrandt Farms and Biodynamics, a garden is more concentrated in growing good soil rather than growing great produce. That is, if your soil isn't good, neither is your production. What constitutes good soil as good soil we have learned comes down to a few factors namely it's ability to retain water, humus, and fineness of particles.
In Fall of 2013 our beds were coming back from a very productive previous Spring and our members were ready to tackle a new year of production. We began to realize that our soil seemed to have been counter productive to our goals. It was dry, lacked life, unable to absorb water, and contained large pieces of mulch or bark that made it difficult for seeds to germinate. After instructions given to us by Steven, we began to start a conditioning process in order to remove the large pieces and keep the fine particles of soil.
Here's what we did beginning in February of 2014...
Our garden has experienced quite a few changes since the ground was first established in 2006 as a student garden. From short raised beds to row planting to now our large raised beds, the garden has had the intention to maximize growth in a minimal space. However, these wonderful beds need to be filled with soil. As we learned from a visit from Steven Wynbrandt of Wynbrandt Farms and Biodynamics, a garden is more concentrated in growing good soil rather than growing great produce. That is, if your soil isn't good, neither is your production. What constitutes good soil as good soil we have learned comes down to a few factors namely it's ability to retain water, humus, and fineness of particles.
In Fall of 2013 our beds were coming back from a very productive previous Spring and our members were ready to tackle a new year of production. We began to realize that our soil seemed to have been counter productive to our goals. It was dry, lacked life, unable to absorb water, and contained large pieces of mulch or bark that made it difficult for seeds to germinate. After instructions given to us by Steven, we began to start a conditioning process in order to remove the large pieces and keep the fine particles of soil.
Here's what we did beginning in February of 2014...
First we had to empty out each of our 1.5'X6'X3' beds of their soil entirely. In order to keep this soil separate from the mulchy ground we laid out a tarp. As we were doing this process we discovered a large amount of roots from the trees that boarder our garden. We decided these may be a source of the lack of water our soil had been able to give to our plants and created unforeseen competition for water between the roots. |
Next came the time to actually work on filtering our soil. We made a "filter" by creating a simple box frame and then nailing down two layers of metal screens we had at our garden. Then our members shoveled piles of dirt onto these screens and shook them, discarding materials such as rocks, mulch, bark and wood chips, and dense roots. This proved to be the most time consuming task. |
As we refilled our beds with it's previous soil's more refined state we added a generous amount of water and stirred it in--others choose more tactile approaches to mixing seen right--in order to re-introduce the moisture the soil lacked. We also were faced with a different problem. A lack of soil in general. We found we had barely 1/3 of each bed filled with after the filtering. We then had to find a new source of soil. |
After calculating the soil loss, we found we needed 2 cu yrds of soil. It was a priority of ours to make sure we purchased soil that was fine and promoted growth of our plants in order to prevent the same problem we had before. We also kept in mind the cost. It proved to be costly to purchase bags of potting soil from nurseries. We also discovered a lack of regulation of soils in California. In an essay by a former Dig leader and UCLA student, James O'claire, he discusses that there is not a lot of definition in soil quality or ingredients. This can prove to be problematic for individuals attempting to start a garden of their own. We eventually settled on ordering from a bulk soil distributor out of Whittier, CA who gave us estimates of the fineness of their soil options. This ended up costing us nearly $300. After nearly three months of shifting soil once a week and handling the bureaucracy to get funding for dirt, we finally had all of our beds filled by May 4th, 2014. |
Our results
We decided to combine the new soil in some of our beds with Wynbrandt Biodynamic Compost in order to provide extra plant food. We also mixed each bed with a Dr. Earth organic fertilizer for vegetables and fruits. The results of this efforts paid off by the end of the 2013-2014 school year.
The Wynbrandt Compost, using the "Sea of Greens" sowing technique, proved to be very effective at maximizing production in a small space. We took only a quarter of a bed size and were able to produce an amazingly high density of great Russian Kale and Arugula that grew surprisingly fast and even. May 27 June 20 |
Entering the new 2014-2015 school year we have found that the quality of the soil after this spring seasons seems to have recovered well. We continued to practice adding Wynbrandt Compost and Dr Earth Fertilizer. However, we discovered the weed barriers, even multiple layers, were not enough to keep tree roots out of some beds particularly near the trees. We have decided for now to remove as many roots as we can and brainstorm about other root preventing techniques later on.
On October 5th, 2014 we attempted to amend the L shape bed with Dr Earth and practice the "Sea of Greens" sowing technique using Wynbrandt's compost with buttercrunch and butterhead lettuce. This summer and beginning of fall has proven to be particular hot so we shaded these seeds with a sun barrier. Thus far our results are little scattered yet we expect to have a highly dense collection of lettuce later in November since butter lettuces have proven to flourish in the past.
On October 5th, 2014 we attempted to amend the L shape bed with Dr Earth and practice the "Sea of Greens" sowing technique using Wynbrandt's compost with buttercrunch and butterhead lettuce. This summer and beginning of fall has proven to be particular hot so we shaded these seeds with a sun barrier. Thus far our results are little scattered yet we expect to have a highly dense collection of lettuce later in November since butter lettuces have proven to flourish in the past.
We still have a lot to learn and research about making our soil transition through many different hands at the garden
Thanks to the support from community members like Steven Wynbrandt and funding from TGIF we have been able to learn a little more about how best to grow great soil!
Here's to another wonderful year of learning and collaborating!
Here's to another wonderful year of learning and collaborating!