Sarah and I want to be able to feed our family healthy and more sustainable food. One of the ways we will do that is through gardening.
I put in a small garden this year that way we can start to build soil and the family will get used to gardening before we make an even bigger garden next year. It also gives us a chance to put in infrastructure like fencing and water.
We also put paths between the beds so as rain water runs off the chicken coop roof it will water the garden instead of running off into the yard or the alley. We will also never walk on the beds because that damages soil structure and kills soil life. I will do some videos later on the soil life web and how it’s important to gardeners.
We also covered it in mulch. This will help prevent water evaporation and add fertilizer over time as it breaks down. Yes, it will take up some nitrogen from the soil as it first breaks down. But that will only happen in the small fraction of an inch where the soil makes contact with the mulch. After the mulch starts to rot it will make that nitrogen more available to the soil and to the mulch above it. And, on top of that, the plant’s roots are much deeper than the area the mulch will pull nitrogen from.
I plan on making more videos showing how to use natural processes to help with gardening. If you are curious you can check out my efforts to compost here.
I hope this helps you to live a healthier life and be more prepared for the future.