the terrace beds: Balyn's feat

Today was a very important day for PICA, and especially for Balyn. After we had finished the morning part of the day, Balyn invited us to plan out what the two terrace beds on the Farm are going to look like this coming spring and summer. Balyn has been working on those two beds for a year or so, cultivating them and growing cover crop, and now he's handing them off to PICA (sadly, he's going up to Mendocino after graduating this quarter). The hope is that they will be able to provide food for the Short Course happening this summer (every other year it meets here), as well as give more to seminar and PICA in general. Balyn's worked so hard ...he wrote a senior thesis on his work. As soon as he prints it out, we'll keep it in the PICA library.

The two terrace beds overlook the bike path as it goes from above the A-Quad to beneath the Farm - they point slightly southeast, towards the center of Monterey Bay. Balyn has ideas for planting the hillside with native plants. As for the two beds... they've seen two quarters' worth of covercropping, and they were recently tilled in. Balyn suggests making one bed the dried goods bed - the one in which we save seed and store the crops for wintertime - in other words, the one which saves the most for future PICAns. The other one would feed PICAns and Short Course participants.

Mike had said some ideas for potential intercrops: corn-bean-squash (milpa), eggplant-potato, and tomato-basil-marigold. Balyn says we can divide the beds into smaller-sized chunks to work out the intercrops or crop schemes. He decided not to leave behind a crop rotation scheme, because he wants the ideas to come from the PICAns themselves. Gulliver has stepped up and offered to become the coordinator for the two beds. Gulliver is so awesome.

Back in the garden I was exploring the soil tilth of bed 5a when Mike arrived and clamored for a double-digging. The bed had been partially double-dug by PICA seminar on Thursday, but they had not been able to finish it. The soil, past the first spade's depth, was much too compacted still, and I had irrigated it since then to help soften those deeper layers.

We decided to smoothe the soil back over the bed (it was in mounds), put a layer of compost on top, double-dig the trenches in conjunction with a hoer (breaking up the dirt clods) and a bucket of compost per trench, and start on one end of the bed and work our way to the other, without subdividing the bed. Once we had agreed on these things, we were ready. Without further ado, Rain, Sarah, Mike, Billy, Matt, Gulliver, and I set to work.

We took turns cutting the bed and bottoms of trenches with a pulaski, moving each trench sideways and breaking up the clumps with a hoe, gathering compost from the tarp near the gate, and forking the rock-hard bottom of the trenches. Tony came and helped us out at once point. The eagle flew by overhead. Turns out there was quite a heavy layer of clay there (still is) that we can barely penetrate still. There are other areas in the Garden more easily penetrable than that bed, I must say. But our little team, amidst the banters, managed to break the soil a few inches further down. We finished three hours later, stopping only for cookies and coffee.

Mike raked the top of the bed smooth, and elevated higher than the other four beds. We left that bed as an example and will most likely double-dig bed 4a tomorrow. The sun was sideways in the sky as we finished, a little before sunset. And at that point, Ngoc and Diane had gone to town making sushi. We went inside to help them, ate some, and then went to see David perform with his Taki Ñan ensemble at Family Student Housing, which was amazing...

Spring Break week

Amazing Spring Break week:

On Wednesday, a group of PICAns led by David Saxton, constructed the bike canopy structure. Now it will be very very hard for the bike to get rained upon (if, indeed, there is to be more rain this season. Steve's mentor calls the first two weeks of April 'the Crazy 15 Days', and I'm anticipating it). It was a process - Sarah, David, Gulliver, and I first fitted together the metal poles and assembled the skeleton. Then we flipped it (amidst pieces falling apart) and put the canopy cloth over it. Tony and Mike helped us attach the cloth to the skeleton, and then 6 people carried the thing over to the bikes. It was big enough that it nearly covers the entire back area. After some adjustments, we propped the thing on blocks of concrete that were inlaid with wood. David drilled the canopy legs into the wood, and now it rests stably on them, level with the rise. Our big concern is whether or not the Fire Marshals will approve of its proximity to B2's door - in a fire emergency, would it inhibit people from getting out? Tony (Maintenance Man) and Susie (of the Front Office) said that the Fire Marshals would have to make the final decision. For now, though, we're keeping it up.

On Thursday we were lazy dirtbags. So bury us.

On Friday Sarah, Dave Griese, and I cut out the herbs in bed 12a - we planned on transporting them to bed 1a, the directed-for herb bed, and planting brassicas or winter-loving crops in 12a. The bed sits in shade, lower than the rest of the Garden, and has a higher clay content than some of the other beds. Some of the "colder" species may like that in the summer, when the Garden gets baked by sun. We left the herbs for a few hours, then transplanted them out later on. Then, in the late afternoon, we mulched the picnic table area with redwood duff. It will help to suppress the weeds, as well as make for a better visual, for now. In the evening, we planted all the basil out in bed 15, where the tomatoes are already taking off.

The next morning, Saturday, early early, Dave Griese and I began turning bed 12a. The soil was, indeed, as clayey as I remembered - we single-dug it, incorporating it with Haddad's soil (which has nice texture) and finished compost - the first finished compost ever from the new system! Ohh, it was rich and soft. I laud it for its black-gold feeling. Mmm, *bling blang!* Dave wanted to create a new bedend for 11a, further out from the sage, so we did that. Dug nearly 2 feet of compacted clayey soil from the area and filled it in almost entirely with new stuff. Dave worked his buns off on it with a pulaski. Then we returned to bed 12a. Sarah and Tony joined us, and we raised it a couple inches. Then we planted it with spinach, kale, and endives that Dave had started in the Hoop House. Sarah and Dave decided to cover it with bird-netting, propped up with bamboo sticks, then watered it in. Now it's set! :-)

Today, when Mike came back, he and I did a walkthrough of the Garden to set priorities. Then, right afterwards, the PICAns set to work creating a cinderblock garden!! Tony, Sarah, Mike, and I brought the cinderblocks from the Hoop House area, arranged them and mixed halfblend with compost to fill them, and planted the rest of Dave's starts. Now growing calendula, sweet marjoram, garlic chives, and the occasional epazote, these beds have given new character to the picnic bench area.

He, David Saxton, and Sarah just put in some work on the compost system's new roof structure. Now we're hemming and hawing about supper. It's good to have everyone home again. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?