It's 1st September, yes and our 1st official day of Spring and Wow what a good one it's been.
Sun, warm, blue sky, a little cloud here and there, birds chirping and lots of people turned up at the garden to dig the dirt. Could not have been a better start to Spring in our Community Gardens. They are looking amazing. Look at this:
Sun, warm, blue sky, a little cloud here and there, birds chirping and lots of people turned up at the garden to dig the dirt. Could not have been a better start to Spring in our Community Gardens. They are looking amazing. Look at this:
2nd Sept. Lost the rest of what I had to say last night. Clicked the wrong corner.
Today it's still very much a beautiful Spring day but a bit slower and more listening to the birds, as the chain saws have stopped cutting down the pines up on hill near us. It's hard listening to those trees coming down.
Nutrient Dense Food
Now back to what we did yesterday: It was such a full day with lots of volunteers turning up to the warmth. So we explained and showed them, the minerals and substances that we need to get the right things in our soil. They helped us add a mineral mix and a liquid mix.
We have had the results of our soil tests and we had George our Soil man come to help us understand what is lacking and what we have too much of. It's a new world entering into the workings of the soil. The Soil test results meant very little to me and I would of read it very different from what George explained to us.
We have far too much Calcium and Boron in our soil which is interesting, because I would of thought that was good. But it turns out just like in our bodies too much bread or McDonalds puts us out of balance, well it does in soil too. Too much calcium in the soil means that the plants arn't taking up the calcium and leaving it in the soil so there is something in there stopping that from happening. Also too much Boron is not good, it's stopping other mineral or elements not functioning properly. So we definately need help to understand what to do.
So yesterday we spread the mix of things over the double dug beds, then topped it up with beautiful compost and forked it in a little, spread a couple of watering cans of water and left the sun, air and gentle breeze to do it thing on it. Here they are:
Today it's still very much a beautiful Spring day but a bit slower and more listening to the birds, as the chain saws have stopped cutting down the pines up on hill near us. It's hard listening to those trees coming down.
Nutrient Dense Food
Now back to what we did yesterday: It was such a full day with lots of volunteers turning up to the warmth. So we explained and showed them, the minerals and substances that we need to get the right things in our soil. They helped us add a mineral mix and a liquid mix.
We have had the results of our soil tests and we had George our Soil man come to help us understand what is lacking and what we have too much of. It's a new world entering into the workings of the soil. The Soil test results meant very little to me and I would of read it very different from what George explained to us.
We have far too much Calcium and Boron in our soil which is interesting, because I would of thought that was good. But it turns out just like in our bodies too much bread or McDonalds puts us out of balance, well it does in soil too. Too much calcium in the soil means that the plants arn't taking up the calcium and leaving it in the soil so there is something in there stopping that from happening. Also too much Boron is not good, it's stopping other mineral or elements not functioning properly. So we definately need help to understand what to do.
So yesterday we spread the mix of things over the double dug beds, then topped it up with beautiful compost and forked it in a little, spread a couple of watering cans of water and left the sun, air and gentle breeze to do it thing on it. Here they are:
Now we are going to leave them for about a week, keep watering lightly and then plant the up with a summer crop of vegetables. Right next door we are going to grow identical things in soil without the extra minerals etc, just soil like we always have. We added the usual horse poo an compost, dug it in and at the same time will plant the same things.
During the growing season, we will test the plants with a Refractometer for the sugar levels in both beds and see if there is any difference.
In four months we have to add the same amount of nutrients to the soil and keep testing the plants, so after a year (2 growing seasons) we will know if there is any change of the nutrients in our plants and we will compare them to the results of plants we grew in our normal way.
Keep watching this space, I will report every 2 weeks from the time the plants have half grown. in about 6 weeks.
During the growing season, we will test the plants with a Refractometer for the sugar levels in both beds and see if there is any difference.
In four months we have to add the same amount of nutrients to the soil and keep testing the plants, so after a year (2 growing seasons) we will know if there is any change of the nutrients in our plants and we will compare them to the results of plants we grew in our normal way.
Keep watching this space, I will report every 2 weeks from the time the plants have half grown. in about 6 weeks.
Double dug bed in our Demo part of garden
This bed was planted by Kay Baxters team in the middle of winter, we added the minerals to this bed as well yesterday around the plants that have only just started growing in the last 2 weeks. We'll see what happens with this bed as well as soil was taken from here and included in the tests.
So that's the main thing that I am doing. We also have nearly all our beds reading for the spring plantings, we have made compost, mowed lawns, cleared a big area to grow carbons. AND we are right into growing our seeds for plants to sell at our Kiosk. It's all on.
You are welcome to join us, I am there Monday Tuesday and Wednesday mornings now and will come at arranged other times. There is so much to learn by being part of our day.
Cheerio for now, hope to see you at the gardens
Sincerely
Helen
Garden Manager
This bed was planted by Kay Baxters team in the middle of winter, we added the minerals to this bed as well yesterday around the plants that have only just started growing in the last 2 weeks. We'll see what happens with this bed as well as soil was taken from here and included in the tests.
So that's the main thing that I am doing. We also have nearly all our beds reading for the spring plantings, we have made compost, mowed lawns, cleared a big area to grow carbons. AND we are right into growing our seeds for plants to sell at our Kiosk. It's all on.
You are welcome to join us, I am there Monday Tuesday and Wednesday mornings now and will come at arranged other times. There is so much to learn by being part of our day.
Cheerio for now, hope to see you at the gardens
Sincerely
Helen
Garden Manager