Last Week

Last week in Sustainable Agriculture, we started the process of aerating our soil in order to produce good soil structure and create looseness of the soil. We did this by using a spading fork and cultivators, a small version of a spading fork, in order to aerate the soil. At first, it was quite difficult to aerate the soil because it was old soil but as the process moved on it got easier. Finally, on Friday, we began the process of planting. We planted potatoes, garlic, and beans. In order to plant potatoes, we cut the potatoes into multiple pieces with each piece having two eyes at the very least. We used a trowel to dig out a hole in the soil and then we put a piece of potato into the hole as deep as the height of the potato. We then covered the potato with the soil we had dug out and used an 8-inch stick to mark the next hole and we did this in a triangular pattern to maximize bed space. For the garlic, we took the cloves and used the same process to plant them but this time 4-inches apart. For the beans, the same process was repeated and we planted them 6-inches apart in a triangular pattern. On Wednesday of this week, we planted lettuce, kale, and beets. Mr. Stewart bought starters from the garden store so we used a trowel to create small holes in the ground and then we put the starters in the ground and covered them with the excess soil. Every day, we come in to water our plants because it's very important for the plants to be watered in the first 2 weeks after sowing. We are excited to plant more plants in the future weeks and sell them at the market! - Claudia Holland