Urban Farm Preparation

We worked out in the yard most of the weekend cleaning up and organizing after the grading work we had done. Saturday afternoon I rented a tiller and started chopping the claypot we call our yard. Where the basketball court was, we had a load of topsoil placed - so that was not a big deal - nice and deep. However, in the 10x15 or so area that we added to round out the garden footprint, we had to dig through the clay. The tiller ran through two tanks of gas and we have about 6 inches of tilled up soil. I plan on adding a layer of topsoil to this area as well.

The leaves are beginning to fall. We are going to be mulching them and adding them to the garden area. Once we get a good collection of vegetative matter there, we will cover it with black plastic and let it cook over the winter - turning every other week or so.

I have some lime pellets and some general fertilizer that we are going to use to nourish the soil. I am also planning on getting some earthworms. My hope is that we get some bugs move in to the compost pile. The soil is going to need all the help it can get.

I am going to pickup a composter this week for our household composting. I want to keep the odor down in the garden area, so I am going to keep the kitchen wastes separate. The City of Charlotte has nice bins available at a very reasonable $40.

We have been discussing the possibility of chickens. We thought it would be neat to have some egg layers. I looked up the ordinances for the city and found that we had to file for a permit. I did to see if it would be permitted or not.

Kristin is calling herself a "farmess". At least we are having a good time ;)