Reading the biointensive gardening books and trying to put into practice this philosophy on gardening has led me to another type. Of course I HAD to try it. What if this time it works? This method is actually easy after the initial start up. Really the start up isn't hard; just labor intensive. I think the hard work in the beginning brings a sense of pride for a job well done.
Basically what I did was a lasagna style pile. I didn't do it exactly as the books said because they said to only dig and turn the dirt where the pile will exist 12", but I did a double dig method thinking that was what it said. It can't harm the pile, but it was more work than I NEEDED to do.
I started by measuring how wide/long the one side would be and marked it by digging the spade along the edge. I didn't measure how long/wide the other side would be. I wanted to eyeball it and see how large of a pile I could get since we have the space and from what I've read the bigger the better. I ended up with about a 4'x4' pile. I double dug the bottom of the pile 24" approximately. Once I finished the digging I took what had been my previous pile and layered it on top, sticks, dry material, moist material, kitchen scraps, dry material and then soil. It came to about 2' high (maybe a little less). I gently watered it to make it moist (not soggy). Now it is ready for me to continue building. I made sure there was enough space for turning the pile. I think this one will work since it really seems to have the space to breathe etc.
Here are a couple pictures I took while digging and the finished product.
Part way through the digging...Notice Rolley Poley over there to the left? She eats worms as I dig. It's a great deal for her! She now follows me all over the garden just in case I might dig.
This is the finished pile.
Here is a picture of the nice clean slate we plan to turn into our garden. We have a lot of space which means a lot of veggies, grains and herbs to eat, store and share!
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