Black Mountain Community Garden

Summer Biointensive Series, Part II

2011-01-31T13:41:00.000-05:00

Laura Lengnick continued our series on Biointensive Gardening this past Saturday. This second installment started with a brief summary of the eight components of Biointensive Gardening, then focused on double digging and composting.

To recap, the eight components to this approach are Double Digging, Composting, Intensive Planting, Companion Planting, Carbon Crops, Calorie Crops, Seed Saving, and finally a whole system approach--as in you have to use all of the components for the approach to succeed in feeding a person sustainably.

Double Digging, described extensively in John Jeavons classic book How to Grow More Vegetables, Double Digging is simply a method for using human labor to deeply aerate and amend soil. The tools involved are an English garden spade, a garden fork and a broad fork or U-bar. Lengnick had some beautiful specimens from DeWit. These are tools for the fine art of gardening; the sort of tools that are satisfying to use for their beauty as well as their productivity.

After a number of folks tried their hand at double digging, moving the top foot of soil in our three foot wide bed over, then loosening the second foot with the garden fork, we moved on to a demonstration and discussion of compost. Ecology Action, the founders of Biointensive Gardening, focus on low technology methods for producing high quality compost either rich in nutrients or carbon depending on the beginning ratios of carbon to nitrogen. We chose to build a hot pile, using one five gallon bucket of green material/nitrogen (weeds from garden plots and kitchen scraps) to every one bucket of straw/ carbon. We spread about an 1/8 of a bucket of soil over the pile. We watered each layer. This ratio produces about a 30:1 ratio of carbon to nitrogen. This pile will be very hot, break down quickly and lose much of its mass, producing a low carbon, but high nutrient finished product, best for use as a fertilizer. With more buckets of carbon to nitrogen, we could move the pile toward a slower pile, more carbon rich and less nutrient dense.

What we realized as a garden during Lengnick's presentation was that we needed to become "carbon scavengers," as she put it. In order to create enough compost to breakdown our nitrogen heavy production and replenish our soil, we need to be providing a great deal more carbon. While we could buy straw, Lengnick pointed out that if we are bringing carbon in to our garden, we're depleting carbon somewhere else in the system. So in addition to scavenging straw from our horse farming neighbors, shredded paper and wood chips from the greater community, we also need to start growing more carbon crops. Examples are corn and sunflowers. In a true Biointensive mini farm, 60% of the 4000 square feet in production are devoted to carbon crops! That's a big reframing of the way most of us farm.

Lengnick will continue her series on August 21st at 9am at The Black Mountain Community Garden. Next month's workshop will feature Intensive Planting.

Volunteers get it done

2010-09-11T23:13:00.001-04:00

Three unexpected volunteers showed up in the garden recently and finished double digging two fifty foot beds. Another group of volunteers, arranged through United Ways Day of Caring, planted celery, beets and rutabaga. These beds will be covered with hoop tunnels to extend the plant's growth (and harvest!) long into the Winter season.

Picture credit: Annie Price

Healthy Soil Practices: Building Windrows in the Garden

2010-09-11T21:49:00.003-04:00

Inspired by our Biointensive series with Laura Lengnick, I've continued to implement Healthy Soil Practices into our garden design. The beds pictured have grown strawberries for the past three years. The yields have consistently been abundant thanks to the help of volunteers rejuvenating the plots each year by thinning the plants down to one plant every six inches in rows two feet apart.

Despite good yields, I wanted to give the soil a break and rid the site of many of the invasive weeds (mugwort and grasses in particular) which have inhibited yields in portions of the beds. To begin, I had volunteers double dig the beds, which are each three feet wide and stretch over 50 feet. Then during a major garden work day I had volunteers build the windrows pictured.

We started by laying sticks on the soil surface then adding a layer of green material (weeds pulled from a neglected community garden bed), then a layer of straw and a sprinkling of soil. The soil acts as a microbial inoculant to the pile. As Laura explained in her first lecture, one tablespoon of healthy soil has more beneficial microorganisms than there are people on the planet! After we added all the layers, we watered the pile well. We continued building the pile until it reached a height of around 3 feet.

The pile will remain on the bed until next Spring when I will incorporate it into a number of beds. The beauty of this system is that it expands the scope of how to use a bed in the garden and how to meet the standards for healthy soil.

I love walking by these windrows; not only are they beautiful in an aesthetic sense, but also in an organizational sense. I've taken compost out of the bins and directly into the garden.

Since finishing these windrows we've begun building a windrow on another bed which has not been double dug yet and in which we grew early potatoes. After digging the potatoes, the ground was hard and formed large clots. I'm curious to see how building the windrow on this poor aggregate will change the soil structure.

Another difference in this second windrow is that we are able to use carbon produced in the garden--corn stalks. The first windrow was built with purchased straw--which ultimately means our garden fertility depletes soil fertility somewhere else. I am tentatively estimating that we will be able to produce enough compost from our cornstalk windrow to feed all 16 of our 400 square foot beds in the Plant a Row for the Hungry portion of our garden.

Picture credit: Annie Price

Biointensive Gardening Presentation

2010-07-12T12:53:00.001-04:00

Click here to view a PDF of Laura Lengnick's power point presentation on Biointensive Gardening.

Healthy Soil Practices

2010-06-29T14:13:00.003-04:00

Laura Lengnick, PhD Soil Sciences, Director of Sustainable Agriculture at Warren Wilson College shared the following four basic practices for soil health at her presentation to the Community Garden on June 19.

Keep it covered.
Keep a dead mulch such as straw, pine straw, leaves, etc. on the soil surface or create a living mulch by densely planting crops so that mature leaves overlap. Lengnick shared that this technique is particularly helpful because the leaves create a carbon trap, making photosynthesis more efficient and preventing weed seed germination.

Disturb as little as possible.
Tilling soil dramatically disturbs soil health. Soil disturbance encourages weed seed germination, disturbs the billions of occupants living in the soil and interrupts the mineral cycle.

Keep it right side up
Healthy Soil has large concentrations of aerobic bacteria in the top 3 to 6 inches, gradually shifting to anaerobic bacteria the deeper in the soil structure. There are as many as 1 billion organisms in 1 tablespoon of good soil. In general we want to promote aerobic environments, said Lengnick. We want to maintain the gradient from aerobic to anaerobic environment. When we turn the soil, healthy topsoil will die, which takes a while to recolonize.

Feed diverse organic materials
In other words, like us, soil needs a balanced diet. In the case of soil we need to feed it carbon rich compost, manures and a mix of nitrogenous and carbonaceous cover crops such as legumes mixed with grains in a 70 to 30 percent ratio.

Healthy soil is the immune system of your garden. It can reduce soil born diseases, provide a better home for beneficial organisms, store, protect and even produce nutrients, and detoxify harmful substances. Healthy soil is 50% space. A small increase in soil tilth creates a large increase in water storage capability. Follow these simple practices and your soil will produce healthy plants which will in turn produce healthy people.

Cooking Demonstration this weekend at theBlack Mountain Tailgate Market

2010-06-29T13:13:00.003-04:00

This weekend from 9am until all the food is gone, I will be offering free cooking demonstrations highlighting what's in season this week at the tailgate market: cucumbers and yellow squash. Check out Goddess in the Kitchen for recipes.

Peak Oil and Biointensive Gardening

2010-06-21T15:09:00.004-04:00

On Saturday morning Laura Lengnick, Ph.D Soil Sciences and Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Program at Warren Wilson College, delivered a power point presentation on Biointensive Gardening, as created by John Jeavons, author, How to Grow More Vegetables.

Lengnick began by laying the context for her presentation. Lengnick has been involved in the Sustainable Agriculture Movement for 25 years. In recent years she turned her attention to The Transition Town Movement. I awoke to the impact oil had on agriculture and how much fuel agriculture uses, she said. In the conventional production of food in the USA, we are using seven calories of fossil fuel to produce one calorie of food. In the last 150 to 200 years we have burned through 70 million years of plants converting sun energy to chemical energy. We are halfway through the available supply. We have reached what is known as Peak Oil and what the Transition Network is attempting to address one community at a time.

Lengnick stated that the twin challenges of the 21st century are Peak Oil and Climate Change. We have reached the point when we have used up 1/2 of the all the oil we will ever produce. "All the easy oil and gas in the world had pretty much been found." William J. Cummings, Exxon-Mobil spokesman. And it isn't the last drop that matters, Lengnick emphasized. As soon as we reach Peak Oil, which the United States did as an oil producing nation in the 1970's, there is an immediate price increase which has a huge impact on our oil driven economy.

Regarding Climate Change, Lengnick emphasized that she is not a Climate Change scientist. However, regardless as to whether you believe the reports about climate change, you can look at historical data that shows that this period, in which we developed modern agriculture has been a period of unusually stable climate. We assume that a crop that does well in a particular zone will continue to do so. Yet if you look at charts mapping planting zones for North America over the last 30 years or so, and you will find that our hardiness zones are steadily marching North. This means adapting to new insect and fungal attacks as well as finding new species adaptable to the new zone. What scientists have found is that weeds, not domestic crops, are the quickest to adapt to the new zones.

Peak Oil challenges one assumption of modern agriculture: there is a continuous global flow of materials, energy and wealth, while Climate Change challenges the other assumption of modern agriculture: climate is stable.

Lengnick continued her discussion by pulling up a slide entitled, "PEAK EVERYTHING?" As with oil we are reaching peak water. Although a renewable resource, we are using water at an unsustainable rate. She also cited studies that reveal we may reach Peak Phosphorous levels by 2030.

"We are really facing serious challenges," stated Lengnick. "But in challenges lie opportunity." In Lengnick's perspective this challenge requires a paradigm shift from "command and control," to "adaptive and responsive."

We have to understand, predict, manage and adapt to change, stated Lengnick, citing the work of Brian Walker and David Salt, authors of Resilience Thinking.

Lots of the characteristics of sustainable agriculture fit with the indicators of resilience thinking and resilience systems, Lengnick continued. Soil Health is key to resilience. Healthy soil promotes four processes responsible for conferring resilience.

Energy flow (It could be said that all wealth on the planet is derived from photosynthesis.)
Mineral Cycling (Healthy soil not only produces biological fertilizers but also removes toxins)
Water Cycling (Healthy soil captures and stores water)
Ecosystem Dynamics (Pest suppression through plentiful beneficial organisms)

And here Lengnick turned her presentation to Biointensive Gardening, a system of 8 practices which may be the solution to the Twin Challenges of the 21st Century.

John Jeavons created Biointensive Gardening in the early 1970's as a response to what he considered one of the most important and most destructive practices on the planet: feeding people. Over the years, his program Ecology Action has determined that compared to conventional large scale agriculture, Biointensive Gardening uses 80% less water, 50% less mineral inputs, and 99% less fossil fuel energy. He uses as Wendell Berry puts it, the world's greatest untapped resource: people.

Biointensive gardening produces 2 to 6 times more food on about half the amount of land. In the US it takes 20,000 square feet to grow one person's diet, in developing nations 16,000. By the year 2020, it is estimated that developing nations will have only 9,000 square feet per person for food production. Biointensive Gardening requires only 4,000 square feet to produce a vegan diet per person.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Biointensive Gardening builds the soil up to 60 times faster than in nature. Which brings us back to the significance of this solution--it instills resilience.

Laura Lengnick will be presenting to our garden community again on July 24 and August 21. These hands on workshops will further introduce Biointensive Gardening, covering the elements of Double Digging, Composting, and Intensive Planting.

Home remedies for insects and fungus

2010-06-18T15:31:00.002-04:00

Here is a great link our intern, Christina found for homemade pesticides and fungicides.
http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html

Purslane, Weed or Delicacy

2010-06-18T12:35:00.002-04:00

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) grows abundantly at the Community Garden. I used to pull it and compost it along with common sorrel, smart weed, mugwort and various grasses. Until I ate it as a gourmet dinner salad at Modesto's in Asheville. There they served a bed of it topped with roasted peaches and a balsamic vinaigrette. Heaven. And now purslane is my favorite summer salad when peaches come in from South Carolina. Which they have. So keep an eye out for this succulent, slightly tangy weed and harvest it for your table, not your compost.

According to Wikipedia, "The stems, leaves and flower buds are all good to eat. Purslane can be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked like spinach, and because of its mucilaginous quality it is also suitable for soups and stews." Purslane contains more omega 3 fatty acids than any other leafy plant. It also contains vitamins A, C and B as well as the minerals, iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

Here is a link to a salad recipe using purslane. The recipe also calls for potatoes which you should be harvesting your first crops of now. http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Web%20Recipes/PerfectPurslaneSalad.html

On a final note, if you determine that purslane is not to your taste, you may decide to leave it in your garden as a companion plant! Again, from Wikipediea: "As a companion plant, Purslane provides ground cover to create a humid microclimate for nearby plants, stabilizing ground moisture. Its deep roots also bring up moisture and nutrients that those plants can use, and some, including corn, will actually "follow" purslane roots down through harder soil than they can penetrate on their own. It is known as a beneficial weed in places that don't already grow it as a crop in its own right."

Special Thanks To Dr. Wilson

2010-05-17T08:15:00.004-04:00

For years now Dr. Wilson has been single-handedly growing starts for the Community Garden to sell at the Black Mountain Beautification Committee Plant Sale. Each year he is able to raise hundreds of dollars to support the garden.

This year single-handed took on a new meaning for Dr. Wilson because of a serious injury he incurred to his left hand while making wooden Christmas toys this past Winter. Despite his injury, Dr. Wilson carried on with his tradition. This year's plant sale raised $361.

In addition to growing a couple hundred tomato plants for the fundraiser, Dr. Wilson, with the help of gardener Becki Janes, has also grown all the starts (broccoli, kale, cabbage and lettuce) for the 10% donation plot program. Tomato plants left over from the plant sale will go into any 10% donation plots yet to be planted as well as the Plant-A-Row beds in the field.

Field Trips to the Garden

2010-05-13T13:28:00.004-04:00

Last week every first grader from Black Mountain Primary visited the Black Mountain Community Garden. The classes visited with their teachers on three different days. Health Services Administrator, Carolyn Fryberger and School Garden Educator, Kari Brayman along with myself lead discovery oriented walks through the garden. On our final day of visits, four Warren Wilson students helped to lead the walks.

This is our second year offering this fun opportunity to Black Mountain's first graders. This is the first year, however, that I've had students who have family members with plots. Shawn Creasman's niece Annaleah and Glenda Furhman's grandson were excited to share their families' plot with their classmates.

During their visit students learned about our rainwater collection system (they are fascinated with the huge rain barrels at the top of the hill), how we make compost and why, plant families--such as the allium family/ genus (onions, leeks, garlic and shallots), solanaceae (potatoes and tomatoes), and brassica/ mustard family (cabbages, broccoli, kale and collards).

Early Morning Harvest

2010-04-21T10:57:00.002-04:00

I harvested salad greens and kale with the sunrise this morning. The air was cool and the soil dark from yesterday's rain.
It's a lovely thing to harvest at the garden and think of all the work that went into it--not just the obvious ones of sun and rain and soil, but the bigger story of fourth grade students on a field trip planting seeds last September. And Dr. Wilson watering those seeds. Warren Wilson students and Dr. Wilson setting up winter hoop tunnels. And then there were glorious weeks through November and December when I harvested sweet baby leaves of tatsoi and lettuce. Then the deep winter snows which came again and again this year. The weight of them collapsed the hoop tunnels and buried the tender greens.
But then spring came and with it dead nettle, hairy vetch and chickweed crowding in with the greens. Then the tatsoi went to seed, bursting with yellow flowers. Two hours and the many hands of Warren Wilson College volunteers removed the weeds a few weeks back. The greens began to grow again until this morning I could harvest 10 pounds, four shopping bags packed full of their goodness. I took them to Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministries. There are still pounds left to harvest for this week's volunteers and next week's distribution at the Carver Community Center.

I looked over our harvest records for exactly one year past, this April to last. We have harvested and donated 3, 042 pounds of produce from the Black Mountain Community Garden. This number doesn't include the produce that goes home with folks who volunteer in the garden, or all the delicious strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries harvested by children and volunteers. I am in awe of the impact one small piece of land can have on our community, when put to creative use. I work each day in gratitude for the original vision of Dr. John Wilson to begin this Community Garden, for the town government which has supported this vision, and for the many people who contribute to the vision every season.

Black Mountain Garden Show and Sale

2010-04-18T23:23:00.002-04:00

Saturday, May 15th the Black Mountain Beautification Committee is sponsoring their annual Garden Show and Plant Sale from 9am until 5 pm. It will be held in the parking lot across from the Old Depot. In addition to the native plants, trees, shrubs, annuals & perennials for sale there, demonstrations on composting and the use of rain barrels will also be conducted. A Master Gardener's plant clinic will be held and Rainbow Recycling will be collecting plastic pots for recycling. Dr. Wilson will have plants for sale there as well and his proceeds go to benefit both the Beautification Committee and the Community Garden. Mark your calendars for a great garden event.

Our wonderful volunteers

2010-04-10T14:16:00.003-04:00

Friday afternoons are one of the most exciting times to visit the garden. Warren Wilson students come in numbers to work at the garden, especially in the Spring, when Seniors are in need of volunteer hours to graduate. The transformation 10 to 15 hardworking folks can make in two hours is always inspiring.

Yesterday they placed the remaining posts to trellis the blackberry vines properly. Thanks again to the guidance of new Black Mountain local Brandon Blissett for his guidance on how to run the wires.

Two students cleared the rest of the compost from our old bins into the new. This morning, Charis, another Wilson volunteer, landscaped and mulched around the bins. They look really great. This week I'll ask the Town to start turning them with a front loader. I'll be curious to see how well mechanical turning does the job. I plan to grow compost crops this year to provide a source of carbon. If folks from the community increase their donations to the system, I envision we will have enough compost to provide for the entire garden's needs.

Students also began preparing the beds in the Plant a Row portion of the garden, also known as the D beds. After two years of cover crops the soil is beginning to be rich and friable.

Saturday Morning at the Garden

2010-04-10T13:42:00.002-04:00

A beautiful morning at the garden. "Vibrant" was the word Theta Drivon, our Alexander Technique workshop leader, used this morning upon arriving at the garden. Theta and her husband Jack Fischer led a group of garden members and visitors to the garden in creating body awareness. We worked with pitch forks, grub hoes, broad forks, and shovels to learn proper ways to lunge, squat and use our entire body to efficiently and effectively work in the garden. We looked at the ways leverage, balance and breath can improve our experience working in the garden. We explored how simple changes in alignment could make a movement seem effortless and sustainable over a period of time.

For me personally, as I am a yoga instructor and life long dancer, I found Jack's suggestion to bring awareness to my breath particularly helpful. In a squatting position, sometimes referred to as crow pose in yoga, my lower back can become tired over a period of time. Jack encouraged me to breath all the way into my lower back where I experience tightness. This created a feeling of expansion in my torso and made me realize that often I breathe shallowly as I work because the simple act of weeding or planting seeds does not consciously require deep breathing.

Everyone in the group expressed something valuable that they gained from the workshop and would be using in their garden work in the future. I am grateful to everyone who participated and to Jack and Theta, Certified Teachers of the Alexander Technique, for spending their morning with us. To learn more about their work visit: www.altMD.com/Specialists/ConsciousAlignment or email to jacksknack@gmail.com.

Hard working Warren Wilson volunteers

2010-04-04T22:08:00.002-04:00

Our regular Friday volunteer group from Warren Wilson College was particularly productive this past week.

Wilson students mulched and fertilized the blueberry trees, reset new posts for the blackberry trellises, weeded three beds with greens still remaining from the winter season, planted one bed in yellow onions, set up drip tape for the recently planted sugar snap peas, and did some clean up along the river of cardboard and old compost piles.

Thanks to the leadership of new Black Mountain Community member Brandon Blissett, the compost bins are ready to use. Brandon, who has a masters in Landscape Architecture, plans to make the new bins a bit more aesthetic within the next week. In the meantime, please place all new compost, including scraps from your kitchen (and your neighbors' kitchens) in the first bin.

In other news, Dr. Wilson visited Painter's greenhouse on Friday and came home with numerous donations for the garden from the ever generous Steve Painter. I look forward to bringing them down to the garden on Monday and increasing our herb beds. If you have any herbs that can be rooted, cut or divided and donated to the garden, please let me know. I would love to plant rhubarb, comfrey, nettles, chamomile, lavender, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano and so on.

I am also looking to plant currants and gooseberries as an understory to the recently planted apple trees. If you have a good source (free?!) for these please let me know. To catch you up, students on Spring Break from the University of Louisville in Kentucky planted 11 apple trees along the border of the future Community Garden Greenway, which will run from the boardwalk under I-40 along the river, then past the garden up the hill to White Pine Dr.

On a final note, if you haven't seen the Nanking Bush Cherries in bloom this week, come down soon, they've been so beautiful.

From Katie Towner At Warren Wilson College

2010-03-31T13:29:00.002-04:00

Bountiful Cities Project is helping to organize a Permaculture Design Class from April-October. The information for this course will be posted on the central kiosk at the Black Mountain Garden and am hoping that you all will please let any students or other folks who would be interested know about this awesome opportunity. As you probably know, these classes typically cost between $1000-$2000. It is being offered at the sliding scale price of $300 - $400 so that these skills can be accessible to a wider range of folks. Right now, they are not doing any large-scale advertising, and are hoping to fill the class via word of mouth to folks who have a strong interest and could normally not afford it.

If you have any questions contact me at 771-3774

Katie Anne Towner

---
Katie Anne Towner
Interim Director of Community Leadership
Warren Wilson College

What's in the ground so far

2010-03-30T12:20:00.003-04:00

Last Monday 16 fourth graders from Black Mountain Elementary planted 100 feet of snow peas in the sleet. There were many frozen fingers and lots of peas left in the path, but hopefully a good number made it 1/2 inch below the ground along the fence. Watch their progress in D16. We should see some green shoots in a week or so.

On Friday and Saturday Warren Wilson volunteers planted potatoes in D9. They built two raised rows along the 50 foot length of the bed, with a path between them. They hand tilled compost and rotted horse manure into the rows. They dug two 8 to 12 inch deep trenches in each row, making four trenches in all. They laid cuts of potatoes 4 inches apart in the trenches and covered them with about three inches of soil. They placed a light cover of leaves over all to retain moisture in the soil. As the potatoes send up green shoots we will continue to hill them with remaining soil and more leaf mulch.

Planting Time!

2010-03-30T01:20:00.003-04:00

This year's cooler temperatures in our area have changed planting times for some of the early crops. Normally during the period from March 15 through April 15 we would expect to plant root crops such as beets, onions, carrots, radishes, potatoes, turnips and rutabagas. Greens like kale, lettuces, mustard, chard and spinach are also good choices for this time of year. Now that the ground can be worked well, consider peas and all the cabbage family plants.

For a complete listing that includes varieties, go to:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/quickref/vegetable/plantingguide.html

Note that at the bottom of the chart it is suggested that in Western NC, a delay of 10 to 20 days from the dates shown is recommended before planting your garden.

Soil Temperature Chart for Seed Sprouting

2010-03-26T09:34:00.000-04:00

The chart shown here can help a gardener determine when the soil is warm enough for germinating a variety of seeds. A simple thermometer that can be thrust into the ground a couple of inches will work nicely to determine the warmth of the soil.

Knowing when the soil is ready to plant

2010-03-26T09:18:00.000-04:00

The Old Farmer's Almanac has been an information staple for gardeners for more than 100 years. While it is not the last word in gardening, it often contains excellent information for the novice and experienced gardener alike.

Knowing when your soil is ready to receive seeds so they will sprout as quickly and efficiently as possible is essential to gardening. While it is most desirable that seeds come up as early in the season as possible (to beat the insects as well as the heat that can be a real plant killer), there are some important signs to watch for to insure that the soil is truly ready. What follows are some tips to keep in mind when examining garden plots wherever they may be located

Grab a handful of your garden soil. If you can form it into a ball, the soil is too wet for planting. (Chances are the seeds will rot.) If it crumbles through your fingers, it's ready for planting.
Here's another soil test. Make a ball of soil and drop it. If the ball crumbles, your garden is ready for seeds. If it holds its shape or breaks into two clumps, it's still too wet for planting.
You can also step into the garden and then step back and look at the footprint you've left in the soil. If it's shiny, then there's too much water near the soil's surface to dig and plant. If it's dull, then excess water has drained away and it's time to plant.
Old farmers had an even easier guideline: When the weeds start to grow in your garden, it's time to plant your hardy vegetables.

As soon as the soil is ready for planting, stir it well and let it sit for several days. Then top-dress it with compost or well-rotted manure and get to work.

When it's nearly time to plant, you'll want to prepare your garden soil. Soil is more than dirt! Soil needs to be nutrient-rich, to enable your plants to absorb moisture and anchor roots. If your soil needs help, here are some tips on soil fixes and soil amendments:

Soil Fixes

If you have clay soil, add coarse sand (not beach sand), compost, and peat moss.
If you have sandy soil, add humus or aged manure, peat moss, or sawdust with some extra nitrogen. Heavy, clay-rich soil can also be added to improve the soil.
If you have silt soil, add coarse sand (not beach sand) or gravel and compost, or well-rotted horse manure mixed with fresh straw.

Soil Amendments and Benefits

Bark, ground: made from various tree barks. Improves soil structure.
Compost: excellent conditioner.
Leaf mold: decomposed leaves that add nutrients and structure to soil.
Lime: raises the pH of acid soil and helps loosen clay soil.
Manure: best if composted. Good conditioner.
Peat moss: conditioner that helps soil retain water.
Sand: improves drainage in clay soil.
Topsoil: usually used with another amendment. Replaces existing soil.

An accurate soil test will indicate your soil's pH level will specify the amount of lime or sulfur that is needed to bring it up or down to the appropriate level. A pH of 6.5 is just about right for most home gardens, since most plants thrive in the 6.0 to 7.0 (slightly acidic to neutral) range. Some plants (blueberries, azaleas) prefer more strongly acidic soil, while a few (ferns, asparagus) do best in soil that is neutral to slightly alkaline. Acidic (sour) soil is counteracted by applying finely ground limestone, and alkaline (sweet) soil is treated with gypsum (calcium sulfate) or ground sulfur.

Bob Wardwell's most recent workshop covered some of the soil testing information given here. In addition soil test kits were made available to interested gardeners. For additional information about the pH level required for certain flowers, vegetables, trees and shrubs, consult the chart found at:

http://www.almanac.com/content/ph-preferences

Introduction to Black Mountain Community Garden

2010-03-23T18:50:00.002-04:00

I am pleased to borrow this from another garden blog. It so completely says what Community
Gardens are all about. See: http://pathacrosslauren.wordpress.com/ Happy Spring!

The Community Garden. They’ve been around forever but are slowly growing in prevalence and popularity (no pun intended!). In places where people don’t have the space or resources to grow their own gardens, community gardens provide an excellent option for those who want to build their skills and make fewer trips to the grocery store to buy produce grown in Chile. Community gardens can revitalize abandoned urban/suburban spaces. People can enjoy nutritious and fresh produce and then learn how to do things like dry, freeze, and can their harvests for later months.

Not only does the concept of a community garden defy the idea that every action has a downside, it also challenges the idea of self reliance in a way that, oddly, strengthens the idea of self reliance.

If people are coming together to share their resources in a community garden, are they really being self reliant? Yes and no. Whenever people come together in any sort of group, some sacrifices must be made on the individual level in order for the group to function. In a community garden you must be mindful of others’ spaces, rules, and so on. The garden empowers people to grow their own food when they might not otherwise be able to… yet they’re dependent on the space and resources of the garden to do so. What’s going on?

What’s going on is a greater kind of self reliance – that is, the self reliance of a larger community. It sounds like an oxymoron, but a group of people is also an entity, and this particular entity has the power to provide for itself and enhance the well being of each of its members through trading, sharing, and social contact in a positive context.

I’m totally convinced that there’s nothing bad about community gardens. If there is, please challenge me. But I see them as potentially one of the most important sites of a better future. A future in which human beings are more self reliant as well as more in touch with themselves, with their surroundings, and with other humans.