My Friday in Pictures

Yesterday, I helped at American Youthworks' inaugural "drainage ditch" garden groundbreaking.  

An American Youthworks teacher gardens.

Since the gardens are in the drainage ditch, they are watered by rain and from upstream surface and ground water flow.  The plants are in raised beds, adding water drainage and preventing their flooding during periods of heavy rain.  

This garden is in an urban environment, which has  hydrological consequences.  As a  small scale watershed quality strategy, we made sure to put  mulch (e.g. pine needles) on all bare areas.  

We weeded and sowed Fall appropriate seeds.  The shadow of yours truly is in the bottom left corner.

A look at their compost pile behind the basil.

This is one of my favorite pics from the day.  These little garden blessings were placed all around the garden.

I hope you are having a great weekend!  Tell me about it in the comments!

The dirt on turning soil into plants: August edition

OK, you got me:

"A plant's dry matter* consists mostly of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which the plant obtains by photosynthesis from air and water, not from the soil.  (Reference #1)"

But the other macronutrients*, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, mostly come from soil solids.

As fascinating as soil is, much of my relationship with it is in the "benign neglect" category.  I'm hoping to change that!  But it is August and it is hot.  What to do in Central Texas?

Texas Agrilife Extension Service gives us a 2010 Travis County Planting Calendar, a list of vegetable varieties, and seed sources. Since today is August 26, the chart says I still have time to plant beans (lima and snap), cucumber, and summer squash.  And maybe I could squeeze in some Irish potatoes.  So I looked into my seed stash, and here is what I did:

• Planted cucumber and bush bean seeds.
• Covered them with my low-maintenance, wabi-sabi, I-don't-really-pay-attention-to-it compost.
• Watered them lightly.  Thought of our abnormally dry conditions.  Considered the feasibility of graywater.
• Looked around for potato seed resources, and found some awesome potato literature from Agrilife, University of Illinois Extension, and NCSU.  Also, Gone Feral in Idaho uses a potato box.  Looks easy, maybe I'll try it!  Then I realized seed potatoes are hard to find until their spring planting season.   

How is your soil today?  How are you showing the soil your love?

*Definiciones:

Dry matter: "

the percentage of plant sample, which 

remains after all the water, has been removed (Reference: Cooperative Extension Service University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University)."

Macronutrients: "A chemical element necessary in large amounts (usually 50 mg/kg in the plant) for the growth of plants (Reference #1)."