Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Creating a new planting area for Jerusaem Artichokes, spring 2012

Spring project - converting a narrow shallow root filled gravely strip of soil to a productive crop with tall green growth that hides the chain link fence and provides delicious tubers for the gardeners and food bank. When we dug into the soil, we found there to be a hard gravel base just a few inches below the topsoil. After stripping the plot of weeds, we took a pick axe to the gravel layer and to the stump and tree roots, wrestling with them to extract them from the soil. See victorious Kathleen below. I harvested some jerusalem artichokes from a friends yard the year before and grew them in my own plot. They were a big hit with me, extremely productive and delicious. I had been warned about their aggressive spreading tendencies and began looking for a place along a fence (for tying when they get gangly tall) and locked in by edges so they can't spread too fiercely. I donated a bucket from my harvest for this project. We have amended the soil after the initial loosening of the gravel, adding compost, manure and leaf mold. The soil by 2013 is full of worms, rich in humus, and productive.










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