Hello Friends,
Somehow, it’s already August. The Harmony Grows garden is finally starting to take off. After a late planting due to the construction and land grading, all our little plants are heartily established and growing beautifully. Our plants went into the ground about a month and a half past the preferred planting date, but they have rebounded beautifully. We have over 40 tomato plants, consisting of many heirloom varieties, and dozens of pepper plants. We also have 3 types of squash, 3 varieties of beans and cilantro and basil growing quite happily in the late summer sun. In the coming weeks as we head toward fall, we will be doing an additional, smaller planting of some cool season spinach and kale.
As I’ve said before, I am hoping to rebuild the structure of the soil. Rebuilding the soil is an important way to nurture the land and ensure that we are not further degrading it while we grow our garden. Using best management practices (BMP’s) and learning what our “soil” needs is so important. So far, we have begun adding organic peat moss to the garden. Doing this can help retain moisture for the plants, helping them to establish better root systems. As we continue and work toward our composting goals, I think we will see marked improvements. Does anyone else have soil and composting goals? (No, just me? Okay.) I am also planning to implement some post season cover cropping, not only add biomass to the soil but to also help prevent soil loss through erosion as we have already seen during heavy rain.
If you are interested in coming out to get your hands dirty, we have started up a weekly Weed&Water on Wednesday mornings at 8:30. I’d love for you to see the progress we are making!
Love,
Kristy
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