After two years of intensive composting, mulching and spreading horse and chicken manure the soil is taking on a rich color. When we first put a standard row garden in this part of the property the soil was nothing but Brown sand. Today we have 6 raised beds built out of logs and filled with soil containing brush, and nutrients from the last two years. The importance of this project has been to reduce water usage, heavy mulch and brush hold the water thus using about 50 percent less water, and soil retention, allowing those nutrients to break down and feed the garden.
This year we are going to take three of the beds out of production and plant legumes; they will add nitrogen to the soil and will be harvested to feed the chickens. We will now rotate the beds every year in this manner.
Choregraphing the garden to build better soil requires a little planning but when we do the planning, the results can be incredibly satisfying at the end of the growing season.
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