Work commenced on my garden this weekend. While I did start to get into the nitty gritty of preparing the vegetable bed, I spent a good deal of time tearing apart the crappy table, transporting soil amendments and buying plants. What kind of soil amendments, you ask? The best kind — manure! Check this shit out (ha!):
This is the fabled manure pile up in the Berkeley hills that gardners whisper about. It lives behind a horse stable and is huge. I think this pile of horse crap and stable bedding will outlast humanity. That’s how big it is. So I took a visit on Sunday to bring back some nitrogen goodness for my garden. While I was there a took a moment or two to soak up the gorgeous view:
Manure in hand — not literally, but all of this talk of shit is too much fun to let lie — I began the arduous task of making a vegetable bed out of lifeless soil. The technique I am using is called “double digging.” The “double” part of the name refers to the two feet depth that is reached through subsequent trenches of one feet apiece. The “digging” part of the name refers to the labor necessary to move around this much soil. The result, however, is worth it. Unlike landscape plants, vegetable plants require much fluffier soil so that they can put their energy into the above ground shoots, leaves and fruits that we eat instead of investing lots of energy into their root system. Even for those plants from which we harvest roots, having fluffy soil is key for terrific tubers. Double digging creates an aerated soil with plenty of water holding capacity — perfect growing conditions for delicious veggies of all kinds.
So here’s a shot of the second trench:
Basically, the idea is to work your way along each trench and move a one foot by one foot area of soil into the preceding hole. I’m following a somewhat unorthodox pattern for my trenches. Nonetheless, the important point to note is the brown manure at the bottom of the first trench (to the left) that gets worked into the lower, second trench when I move that section of soil over. Slightly confusing, but very effective. I’ll post more photos and maybe an illustration to better explain the process.
By the end of the day, this is what my plot looked like:
Yes! I can’t tell you just how good this work has felt. Sure there is the excitement of finally getting this project started, and the promise of a sweet garden with fresh veggies gets me smiling. But this is something else, something much deeper and very familiar. For many years I worked the soil, sweating and exerting and sometimes bemoaning the hard work. This weekend, though, I remembered just how vital that work really is and how human it makes me feel. More than human, or, come to think of it, perhaps less. Instead of “working” on my computer or going to meetings — all of which is important in its own right — I remembered that using my body to beautify my environment and provide sustenance for myself and others is one of the most natural and righteous things I can do. Of course, I’ve never forgotten this on an intellectual level, but emotionally, well, that’s a whole ‘nother story. Suffice to say, this weekend felt wholesome and healing and, one more time for the world, just downright good. I’m looking forward to next weekend already.
Filed under: At Home, Sustainability
