One day we saw a raccoon foraging for earthworms just below the refreshed soil between the fabric pots.
What was previously silty soil filled with scurrying beetles here and there was now invertebrate and worm rich.
Our experiment in refreshing our urban yard from over 150 years of human use was successful in ways we had not anticipated!
How it started…
Our second spring had us beyond tired of tracking silty soil into the house. Addressing the issue shone light on the reality of the cause. The topsoil had almost inexistent organic matter. Dig a little and we found a considerable amount of debris.
With both yard health and sustainability in mind we began the process of:
- Digging up parts of the yard.
- Sifting the soil to remove debris.
- Adding a mix of organic matter to the sifted soil.
- Putting the ‘refreshed’ soil back in place.
This was our first step in reclaiming and refreshing some of our outdoor space.
The organic matter mix we mixed into the sifted soil was usually: coffee grounds, compost, ground coconut coir, and yard trimmings.
We rubbed the yard trimmings over the mesh we used to sift the soil. This broke down the trimmings into smaller pieces better suited for earthworm mouths.
We made trips to coffee shops and asked for their used coffee grounds. Some would even have their used coffee grounds pre-packaged for such use.
After mixing the organic matter we’d add the soil back to the yard. On average we probably dug about 3 feet deep. Year one we seeded purslane over the area. Year two we seeded wheat grass.
We incorporated fabric pots on top of the area and grew a variety (chard, etc.) of mostly vegetables.
Our concern for the yard and silt tracking was very quickly replaced by enjoying the deliciousness of freshy grown banana peppers, cilantro,
chives, cherry and roma tomatoes, peas, peppers, zucchini and several other healthy tasties.
Some of the unforeseen benefits of having fabric pot garden has been:
- Better tasting vegetables than those we buy.
- Better vegetable textures than those we buy.
- Lots of herb and vegetables at a fraction of the cost of buying.
- Lots of fruit (mostly melons), herbs, squashes and vegetables that don’t need refrigeration, etc., until being harvested.
- Creating a pollinators haven!
- We’ve been able to grow without the use of herbicides or pesticides.
The most time consuming part of this is germinating the seeds, followed by caring for younger plants until they reach a vegetative stage.