This Week

This past week in sustainable agriculture we have been getting our beds ready for planting.  The first step in this process is double digging, which aerates the soil and helps us grow our crops.  To begin the process of double digging we remove a section of the dirt on the end of the bed and move it to the other end.  We then aerate the space where we took the dirt out using either a spading fork or a u-bar. This creates more air pockets which allows more water to be absorbed by the soil and the roots can grow easier through the soil.  We then take the dirt that is next to the trench we dug out and turn it over into the trench adding compost and fertilizer as we go. This creates a new trench where we then repeat the process of aerating the soil, adding compost and fertilizer, and then moving onto the next section of our beds.  Once this process is done for the entire bed. We will be able to grow crops with the best chances of growing successfully and yielding the most amount of food. The image below is of the process of double digging.