Hand-Cultivating

Planting season is upon us and we have been busy digging up the sod in our plotted garden area. My husband is unemployed outside of the home right now, so money is tight. The option of purchasing or even renting a motorized cultivator or sod remover is impossible. I researched a few methods of cultivating the soil by hand and decided to go with double-digging. If you don't know what that is, well, it's basically cutting your sod into rows and sections, digging out the first row, filling it with organic material and the top soil from the second row...do that until you reach the last row, fill that row with organic material and the top soil from the first row you dug out. Sounds simple enough...well, after cutting the sod out of ONE row, I decided we needed to leave the soil right where it was. There is just not enough time to double-dig. I need to get things in the ground NOW.

So, here is what we did...

  

Dad went around with the shovel and cut out grids so we could better manage what seemed to be a HUGE piece of land. In all actuality the garden plot is only 25'x35'...I say ONLY but when I think about it, that is almost as big as our entire house...

We chopped the top soil out of the sod with our hand trowels. 

See, there is Isaac working away on his little plot of land.

Sophie is working diligently and the garden is actually LOOKING like a garden!

We have 6 more 5x5 foot sections to do and we are DONE!!!!!

 

So, today I went to work on making these little signs for my veggies. We have been cutting trees down all over our land, so we have TONS of branches to work with. I have many more projects planned. 

I cultivated the soil and planted my lettuce, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, and onions, both yesterday and today. 

We found so many rocks in the soil and have been collecting them in buckets. They came in handy today as markers for my onion bed and to mark my kale. 

We have all worked so hard to get this done and we are so pleased with the results. It's hard work, but it is possible to have a garden even when you don't have a plow, a tiller, or a team of draft horses. Our hands and our backs are sore, but we have felt each square inch of this soil in our hands and with each square foot of sod removed, we have gotten closer to providing our family with home grown food.