10/07/10

This weekend Ann and I created our permagarden (permanent garden)! You may remember two days of permagarden training during my pre-service training that left me incredibly excited and motivated—now we finally put all those ideas into action! We started bright and early Saturday morning and had to start completely from scratch, first clearing the area and then leveling the ground. We then put a fence around the area to keep out the chickens and Ann’s dog. We greatly underestimated how much fencing we would need, so we had to finish enclosing the area with woven palm leaves, but it worked out. Finally we began the digging! We dug a swell (trench) and berm (little levy) to control heavy rains and keep them from washing out our garden. We then double-dug (permagardening! It allows for maximal root growth) three planting beds. We eventually got all three beds planted and watered Sunday afternoon, so now we just cross our fingers and wait for things to grow! And we are really sore.