We started doing a little bit of planting in June, but during July the Farm really started to look like more than just a field of dirt.
Maintaining healthy plants means maintaining healthy soil, so we spent some time learning various methods for preparing a garden for planting.
In early July, the interns spent a day doing some hard labor, double digging a small vegetable bed. Double digging is a fairly labor-intensive method of preparing a new area for planting. There is a great little write-up here. Once the bed was dug, they planted some radishes and greens from seed. These plants are getting a lot of sun and not a lot of water, but they appear to be doing fine, even in the recent heat wave. Fast-growing radishes are certainly the Farm's first crop!
In the large area to the right of the herb bed, we also seeded some cover crops. Planting cover crops is another way of improving the soil prior to planting the main crop, or to feed the soil after taking out a spent crop. You can read more about cover crops and their benefits here. The plants we are using will add nitrogen to the soil and their deep roots will break up the clay-ish soil under the compost. And once the plants die back or get cut down, the plants will add more organic matter to the soil as they break down. These were slow in sprouting, but they seem to be taking off now.
To the left of the path, toward the rear of the Farm, we planted some bush beans. Like cover crops, beans are another crop that feed the soil by fixing nitrogen. These were planted simply by making a hole in the mulch and soil, and dropping in seeds. Despite a few bug holes, they seem happy:
The largest area planted in July is the Three Sisters Bed. The three sisters are corn, beans and squash, traditionally planted together by some Native American peoples. The three plants form a simple plant community, a technique widely employed in Permaculture-style gardens; each plant benefits the others, requiring less of the gardener. The Three Sisters bed on our Farm was prepared by tilling the soil first with a motor-powered tiller. Then corn and squash were planted in rows. When the corn has grown about six inches, we'll be planting the beans. This particular bed was also the first to incorporate an irrigation system, but more on that later!
We've also had a few miscellaneous plants added to the Farm; donated seedlings and some fruit trees. The upper and lower slopes adjacent to the main garden area are destined to become orchards. In July, on the upper slope, we planted a beautiful striped Panache Fig underplanted with some dogbane that is just starting to bloom. Also on the upper slope, a Santa Rose plum was added. On the lower slope, some donated squash and tomatoes were planted.
We're making the most of the space we have, and the automatic irrigation system, while we can. And while traditionally, most gardens are already reaching their peak right about now, we are taking advantage of San Diego's incredibly long growing season. It's almost never too late to start your garden!
