This week within sustainable agriculture we continued our double digging process. We dug a twelve inch trenches with a spade shovel and loosened the lower part of the trench with our spading fork. The soil that we dug was pushed over to the last trench while keeping the topsoil on top and the lower soil below. Our goal is to keep the same layer of soil, but transfer it to the prior trench and loosen the bottom of the trench to make it suitable for deep root systems. The main purpose of double digging is to introduce aeration, make the soil looser and make suitable drainage environment for the plants.
During the process of double digging and cleaning my groups plant bed we came across Bermuda grass which is an invasive plant that is a common nuisance (see previous entry). Bermuda grass is hard to dispose of, but to eliminate it is best to take out the roots with the plant. We put the Bermuda grass in designated buckets and the plant was taken to the invasive plant area.
After double digging and clearing the unwanted Bermuda grass we put a thin layer of compost over our bed of one to two inches and added straw to maintain the beds moisture. We also added our irrigation.
-Mateo V
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