Do you see it?

A row of rye on the side (right), crimson clover and tillage radish in the middle

 Buckwheat with the light green leaves. 

Crimson clover in the middle
Tillage radish with white tags

 Buckwheat and rye (top)

Crimson clover and tillage radish in the middle

 Patches of crimson clover

I may either put some compost as soil amendment the clay soil or let nature landscape for us

 This plot looks very fertile

Japanese daikon in the middle with white tags

Buckwheat on the right

 Raised bed

 A row of rye in patches

Rye and Buckwheat

Raised bed floor plan

5-25-15 It's alive !!!

Modified 3 sisters  (Corn, Bush beans, Sunflower)

 Middle (Circle) flower bed -- Aster

 Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) sprouts

 Crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum L) sprouts

Traditional farmers call them weeds... we call them companions

 Lima bean sprouts

 Nasturtium sprouts or crimson clover or grass...?

 Raised bed vegetable -- looking OK

Found some red wigglers, ants, spiders and other crawlies at the bottom of the damped plastic bag (bottom left). It seems like a haven for these creatures which helps to aerate the soil and degrade organic matter. Perhaps the reason for mulch being so essential is because of this? Haven for earthworms = haven for roots? 

Placed 5 red wigglers onto our raised bed and they had a hard time penetrating through our soil... took them sometime to get comfortable. I have to start mulching my raised bed to provide a fluffier surface soil for a haven for earthworms. With what? Ideally cover crops... but they are still growing =.=" Maybe I should get some hay

 Rye (Secale cereale L) sprouts

Soon to be my mulch, hopefully

 Tillage radish

For decompaction purposes

 Viola sprouts

White onion

Note for the day:
Most gardeners are now working on their plots. Roto-tillers being used, traditional monoculture crops, using the word "production", "suppressing weeds". And here we are, planting "weeds" such as crimson clover, plants that attract pollinators such as sunflowers and buckwheat. To be honest, it feels weird to be non-traditional.

Let's see if our method actually works. Does this really help to nurture the soil? Does this really provide a sanctuary for pollinators, balancing pests and predators etc. Let's observe the science behind living soil and see if doing less work, mimicking nature, actually give us a better yield.

I really hope we don't get a warning for a messy/weedy garden :D

5-20-15 Monocots and dicots

 White onion

 Sunflower

 Turnip

Gonna sacrifice a few seedlings to decrease competition

Hmm... that seedling looks like sunflower, not corn.

5-17-15 Cover crops seed sowing

 Picture taken from the side (closest to parking)

Sowed cover crops:

Rye, Foxtail millet, Crimson clover, Tillage radish, Buckwheat

 Center

Replaced tomatoes and peppers (killed by the one cold night we had)

Furthest away from parking

 Our cover crop floor plan

 USDA NRCS Cover crop chart

Cornell University Cover Crops Decision Tools

5-10-15 How much soil?

Calculated soil/dirt requirement for 12 x 6' raised bed.

Thanks to Soil requirement calculator

For 144" (length) x 72'" (width) x 8" (depth) = 48  cubic feet or 1.7778  cubic yards of soil

Bought 48 bags of Earthgro - Organic Humus and Manure = $83.52

Mixed with existing/leftover peat moss/potting mix from previous gardening 

Planted our poly-culture crops and sowed seeds

5-9-15 The beginning, DIY raised bed

 Bare dry dirt with lots of spiders

 Went shopping in home depot:

[2" x 12" x 12'] x 3 (all cut in halves for transportation) = $63.21

Scrap wood/plank (for reattaching the 12ft) = $0

 3 quarter inch board screws  

 

Naomi at work.

All finished in 1 hour. 

Thanks to How to Build a Super Easy Raised Bed

Our first community garden plot

Naomi and I have been doing some gardening since last year. However, our gardening experiences were limited to either indoor (requiring artificial lights) and balcony (not optimal direction for good lighting). Both of which are fun and taught us a lot but did not truly capture the essence of nature, an ecosystem. This year, Naomi and I have stumbled upon Fairlawn Community Garden and decided to try it out.

Land: 20 x 40 ft
Cost: $60 (3 year plot)

Objective:
- Getting closer to mother nature
- Experiment with cover crops to replenish our soil
- Experiment with poly-culture gardening
- Find out what works and what doesn't
- Have fun!

Goal:
- Keep a log of success and failures
- Grow some food
- Attract beneficial insects
- Reduce weeds with cover crops or cover crop mulching
- Not getting warnings for untidiness

References:
1. Midwest Cover Crops Council
2. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
3. Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyculture
5. Companion planting chart