Garden update

 

Work is proceeding on the garden. I am hampered by the frequent rains and (sometimes) snow.

My current strategy is to move brush to the garden and burn it. I lose the nitrogen and the soil life loses the organic matter (energy) that is in the brush but I recover the potassium and phosphorous. I also generate char which is very durable compared to simple organic matter. Char is useful for absorbing and holding various nutrients.

I got enough ground cleared of sticks to rough-till an 11 pace-by-14 pace rectangle. If you look and use your imagination you can see to darker "char-rich" circles about mid frame, one on the left and one on the right. There is also a plume of shredded corn stalks raked over the tilled area upper-center of the frame.

As a sidebar, the soil in the wet-tropics is so warm and so moist that simple organic matter disappears within weeks of hitting the ground. It is very difficult to build up organic matter tropical soils for that reason. Char does not support termites nor decay organisms. It fills many of the functions that compost does in temperate regions.

Organic trash decomposes very slowly when it is not in contact with the ground. The best way to speed that is to till it into the top two inches of soil. It is not necessary to pulverize it to the molecular level. The fungi, bacteria and worms in the soil will cheerfully do that for me as long as it is touching dirt.

This area is earmarked for the potatoes. Potatoes are the earliest heavy-lifter that I plant and I target May 1.

This brush was too wet to burn. I need to move it so I can till the ground it is sitting on.

I may end up cutting the softer types into 12" long pieces for use as kindling in the fireplace.

Bonus video

18 minute runtime. Professionally done. Easy to watch and listen to. (Hat-tip Billybob in Arizona)

Methods are labor intensive but results are impressive.

They are able to build up organic matter in the soil because they saturate it with water. Denied oxygen, the material does not decompose.