Vegetable Garden 2012

Today was the day to prep the front yard vegetable garden bed. I had a small bag of worm compost and some glacial rock dust to use for amendments. I probably should have used more compost, but that was what I had on hand. I also had a pile of semi-composted leaves that I worked in to the deep part of the soil to improve water retention and provide some organic matter in time. 

The basic plan was to double dig, except I was working with a mound so I had a little bit of slope to contend with. Also the area wasn't rectangular but was more of a lens shape. So I had to play it by ear somewhat.
I like the long handled spade I got at Red Pig Tools specifically for this kind of work. 

Still the basic principle was:
* Cover the whole area with the amendments.
* Remove a foot or so of dirt in a strip about the width of the spade. * Put in some leaves.
* Work them in a little.
* Repeat. 

Once I was done with the digging, I broke up the biggest of the clods and raked the dirt into a nice mound. Then I flattened the top, and created two tiers on the way down. I tried to make the tiers level with a little bit of a lip so water would fill the whole ditch and percolate in without overtopping the levies. These are basically mini-swales. 

Next up: Planting vegetables!

Tree Climbing

Today in my Fall Tree Care class we did our tree climbing test. 

First thing Spencer had to get a line up into the tree to get things started. 

 I got harnessed up and and tied my knots: two half hitches, a blake's hitch on the climbing line, and some figure eight stopper knots.

Climbing the tree using a double rope system.

 Made it up the tree.

 The instructor sent up a little extreme ironing for me to do while I was up there.

It was a lot easier to repel down than it was to climb up.

 Back on the ground it was time to undo all the knots.

Good day.

Tools, wonderful tools

The talks at my organic gardening class today were fantastic.

The first one was on pests of all ilks. Now I'm even more interested in learning about aphids and other garden critters.

The second talk was from the founder of Red Pig Tools which was awesome. He searches out old tools and when he finds something that works that can't be purchased he makes it himself in his forge. I learned that I have been double digging all wrong -- way too much work the way I do it.