Urban Farming Externship - Week 7

Hi everyone! I was able to get a lot of work done outside this week. My mouth healed quickly and I was more than ready to go play in the sunshine! I began by adding the needed gravel to my bed. At the end of week 5, it still needed a couple more inches to get the gravel up to ground level. If you look to the bottom left of the picture below, I also added some little rocks outside my overflow pipe, just because it looked cute! (Maybe it's a fairy pool?!) 

Next, I cut a piece of weed barrier cloth to fit over the gravel, with a hole that fits around the watering pipe. This will help to separate the soil from the gravel. If the soil mixes with the water in the gravel, it could make the soil soggy and lead to root rot. 

After I put in the cloth, I began to add my substrate. I added a couple of inches of compost along with worm castings from our worm farm. My intention was to mix this with the soil dug out for the bed, however, I ran into a problem. 

We are in the middle of monsoon season in Arizona. The heavy rains made the pile of dirt I dug out hard and compact. I also saw that it was very rocky - something I didn't notice before. I reached out to my instructor, Torrie, for advice. Torrie recommended that I sift the dirt before putting it in our bed and mixing it with the compost we had. Though our native soils are sandy, rocky, and prone to compaction, they are rich in many nutrients needed for plant growth. Though it's a bit more work, I'd much rather use what the Earth has given me than go out and buy something else from another part of the country. 

To make the sifter, I used pieces of wood we had in our backyard along with screws and a staple gun that we had on hand. The only thing I had to buy was the hardware wire, which was relatively inexpensive:

I present: Arizona Soil Sifter!

Next week I will sift through the soil and remove any rocks and large debris. After that, I plan to plant a cover crop before finally planting some veggies! I did decide to hold off for a bit on the second bed. I want to make sure that the first wicking bed is functioning as it should before I put as much work into the second one. If there are improvements to be made, I'll update the necessary posts. 

Lastly, I'm finishing my project much quicker than I thought I would. My externship requires 25 hours of work, which gives me time to gain more hands-on experience in another area. I plan to do some volunteer work at a local urban farm - I'll keep you posted with updates! 

Thanks for reading!