Sprouts and Soil

Here are some pictures of my first little sprouts coming up! So excited! I feel like a real farmer now. I can't wait to put in my new beds. I underestimated the solidity of the soil, as I was discussing in a previous post.

I took the soil out of the wicking pots to swap for a mix of compost and potting soil. I have a feeling that this will work better, and I think you do too.

Anyway, I just wanted to show off, so here goes.

Oh My Sod!

Sadly, my wicking experiment is not going as planned. I know now that you need a well aerrated and loamy or sandy soil to wick up water from below. Definetely NOT clay.

Why I didn't think about this beforehand, I'm not exactly sure. Unfortunately, this means that this year I'm going to have to bite the bullet and water from aboveground.

I'm thinking about installing a temporary grey-water drip irrigation system. The downside to this idea is the grey-water won't get filtered as well as it would through the wicking bed. Not at all, in fact. The grey-water will potentially gum up the works. I'm thinking of adding a freshwater flush on a timer to alleiviate that problem.

So this is the extremely basic outline of a drip irrigation system. I plan on using low-flow spray attatchments that will use less water. The thick black lines are walls, the red is what I'm going to put in, the green is what I'm planning to put in a little in the future. The thin black lines are the garden that I already have in place. Please excuse this terrible paint rendition of a drip irrigation system.

The grey-water will flow from the washer into the water tank so there is no risk of backflow into the washing machine. I'm thinking I'll put a ball-cock valve in the tank and connect it to the hose spigot so there is always a set amount of water in the tank. From there, I will attatch a timer to the drip line so it is watered only during set times. I wish there was a groovier way to do the timer part, but nothing comes to mind.

If anyone has any ideas or questions please comment!

Herb Spiral?

So this is my take on an "herb spiral". More of a Permaculture-esque raised bed. I didn't have adequate materials to make the spiral shape. I had few bricks or rocks, so I made a small square instead. I'm planting white sage, thyme, greek oregano, valerian, stevia and cilantro.

The purpose of making the raised bed is to eliminate the need for adding fertilizer and additonal ammendments for a period of time. The layers of materials decompose to create essentially a raised compost pile.

Materials:

• Soil
• Dried leaves
• Unfinished Compost
• Compost
• Leftover potting soil

Then you simply layer the materials accordingly. It is best to use a layer that will aerrate the pile and allow for drainage. I did this with some of our unbroken clay soil. You can also use a type of gravel or wood chips. If you have any green materials like grass or food scraps you can layer them in between brown materials.

Personally, I added a layer of drainage material, (clay) and then a layer of compost.

Then I added unfinished compost and a layer of leaves.

To finish the pile, I added finished compost and some old potting soil.

Then you're done! I watered in most of the layers. And now I can plant directly into all sides.