There is something satisfying about honest hard work, as the phrase “bread labour” coined by Scott Nearing. This is an experiment to labour for our own food.
Previous attempts at cultivating the garden failed, primarily due to lack of people caring for it. The first caretaker was good at it but he was temperamental. During his many down moments, the garden was neglected and became overgrown. Then it became too much work for him to reclaim the garden from nature. The second caretaker has a bad back and didn’t like to bend! Now SC, the current caretaker, is young and eager to do manual work.
One mistake we made before was not preparing the soil, the land was packed full of rocks. Rather than digging into this rocky layer, I decided to build raised bed instead.
Here is a great write up on the benefits of raised bed. http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/three-key-benefits-of-gardening-in-raised-beds/
- Constructing the raised bed
- Soil preparation
- Planting and caring