I finally had a good day. After weeks of low energy and working hard despite that, I gave myself some rest this week. More or less. 4 times gym and 3 times martial arts training does not help that much. And today, I put on some good extra physical work:
I build a compost.
The soil at the bakery is very scaly, hard and somewhat acidic I think. Lot's of sand, very few organic matter. I'm pretty sure that's why not even the grass really wants to grow, especially in the shady areas. Usually, that type of grass grows everywhere. Even within walls. But a lot of construction around the property has left its marks. Lots of sand and concrete were spilled, hence my suspicion.
Easier ways?
Of course. I could just buy dirt, black soil from the mountains. But where's the fun in that? No, I talked to a friend who's a gardener and always has bags and bags of grass cuts and leaves and other organic matter to dispose. I volunteered for that - but still needed something more organized to put it. Before, there was a space behind the fig-tree-mutation. Out of sight, and enough for the little the garden itself produced.
Here, I already cut out quite a bit of the fig tree and made the holes for the poles. That's when I realized that I could document it for a post in the garden community. So I started taking pictures. On the left you can see the organic matter I had already accumulated. The wheelbarrow is 70cm wide, so I made each 80cm wide. More or less.
It's all rule of thumb.
I have not much of an idea what I'm doing. It's all improvised. Have a goal, go for it, trial and error. With time, I developed some kind of experience in this. Like this one:
This is my favorite grounding technique. Connecting a block and a wooden post with a rebar. My friend Mr. K, who owns the bakery building, showed it to me. He does it with professional machines and angles and water meters and everything comes out spectacular. I drill holes and hammer and hope for the best.
Those are my posts. Dig a hole, put them in there, make sure the block sticks out a little bit. Since the soil was incredibly dry (no rain for weeks and as mentioned, no organic matter within the soil), I cheated and put in some water.
Works like a charm! A little wobbly, but I could remedy that by installing a bar on top of the two. Could. If it doesn't work. If it works, who cares. Don't make yourself more work than necessary! It's easier to fix it afterwards, anyway.
The wire mesh I used was a 5cmx5cm one, more or less. Probably in inches - everything is mixed up here, as the country uses metric system, but imports a lot from the US. That space is enough to hold back most of the organic matter. I drilled some holes in the back wall to insert screws half way in, then tie them to the mesh with pieces of wire, and screw them in until the wire was tight. In the middle posts, it's just regular cramps. I hope it's the right term...
In the end it looked pretty great, and stable. Enough for around 4 m³ of organic matter! I hope it fills up soon. Can't wait to have good soil around and see this garden flourish, too! It worked out nicely at the garden where I live, but it took me 5 years. It's mostly the top of the soil, so any wide-growing-roots cripple quickly, while deep rooters are quite happy, like the one in the first picture.
What now?
Getting some more organic matter. Then some worms. I already threw in some old card board, and we have a lot more. Ashes would be good for some alkalinity. I had measured the garden for my sprinkler, but it broke. And the new device isn't reaching as far, so I need another 5m of hose to attach to the other. Oh well, there's always something in gardens...
It's all in the magic.
By the way, if anyone is interested - Danny asked me to save the leaves of the fig tree to make marmalade out of them. They're very aromatic. You blanch them a few times, and then purée them with some sugar and stuff. I didn't quite understand it, his cooking skills are so far above mine... And I'm not bad. My restaurant was quite successful. But this dude really has a gift.
That's it! I'll try to get back to garden-posting. And be motivated to work in the garden at the same time. Have a good night!
