Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your Garden grow…

I started my garden today and it started raining a couple minutes later. With the rain, the soil is very wet and sticky, which I found difficult to hoe. I am starting with the swales (ditches) on the perimeter for water but only got about halfway through main the first on (out of 4 sides). As I dig out the swales, I use the soil to create a raised berm (long mound) that I can plant perennials in when I can find the plants (like aloe vera, lemongrass, etc). When done with the perimeter I will start the seed beds, which I will “double-dig”. This means I will dig down one hoe length, move the soil, and dig down another hoe length. By breaking up the soil to this depth, the plant roots can go deeper so they don’t grow to the side as much and compete with neighboring plants. Plus the loose soil allows better infiltration and storage of water in the seedbed. The packed soil of the walkways around and between the beds will direct water to the seedbeds so they end up getting more water than just direct precip and slow hillslope flow. All of these concepts are part of the permagardening method we learned during training. Except I think it is going to take me a lot longer than I thought to build my garden. Like lighting my charcoal jiko now in the damp air takes forever because the matches won’t even stay lit.