soil prep innovation helps Kauai food grower
Good buddy Ken Carlson turned a new leaf this year…actually, a bunch of ‘em (via kauaiessences).
Working with master Kauai gardener Kamran Taleb, Carlson found a soil-prep routine that’s dramatically expanding his produce-per-square-foot.
Adding to his existing circular garden plot, Carlson created a new 20′x20′ space with 4 rows of 16 foot-long mounds, about two feet high. The mounds are composed of mulchy soil mixed with Carlson’s compost, then covered in weed-barrier cloth, with 1′ troughs between them and X’s cut into the cloth where new plant-starts are dropped-in.
Bottom line: Carlson’s vegetable are jumping out of the ground.
Carlson estimates he can produce “enough food to feed a few families at least†on this small plot.
Carlson has put in 32 plants per row with high fences around the outside for beans, peas and other vines making the perimeter.
“A good use of a small plot of land in changing timesâ€, says Carlson.
You go!
Turns out the ground cloth helps keep-in the nutrients…which is a major issue with Kauai’s poor soils and rains…
Published by Ken on January 4th, 2009 tagged Community Initiatives, Food
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January 4th, 2009 at 10:31 am
My organic gardening guru, Mort Mather, likes to say that the soil is a bank. You can only make withdrawals if you made deposits.
I’ve been gardening this way for years. Sometimes it’s hard to find a good supply of compost and manure, and I have to buy bags. But once I’m set up in a place, I create a lot of my own compost, so I just need the manure.