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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] [KC No-Till] Growing Veggies on a Former Parking Lot

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  • From: Marty Kraft <martyk@allspecies.org>
  • To: KC No Till <kcnotill@googlegroups.com>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] [KC No-Till] Growing Veggies on a Former Parking Lot
  • Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:28:22 -0700 (PDT)

Niles Home for Children has a lot at 1830 E 22nd Street, a block over
from our current garden. It is on a southern slope and has been
terraced. The lot is a mixture of gravel and clay with a little
asphalt, brick, etc. It is very low in organic material. We are going
to make it productive.

Sunday from 12 to 3 we're inviting people to come and help. Please
come with or without tools. Here is the plan.

We have some donated compost, not nearly enough. We will spread that
thinly as far as it goes. Then we have some leaves collected and
donated by the Greensman last fall. Those will also be spread thinly.
After spreading we will till that in shallowly. Yes I said TILL. I'm
doing that to keep the compost and leaves from sliding off the slope
and to form a seed bed for the cocktail of restorative plants we're
going to plant. Just before seeding we will inoculate with mycorrhizal
fungi to insure the health of the plants and to produce more organic
mater. Finally we will drag a chain or board across the soil to cover
the seeds and wait for rain.

We will let this all grow till late fall when we will mow it and let
it lay and go back into the soil. Next year we hope to grow veggies
here.

The seed cocktail includes rye, forage radish, Austrian winter pea,
buckwheat, cow pea, purple hull peas and other southern peas, millet,
sorghum, hairy vetch, and red clover. These plants will work in
concert to restore the soil. There are a lot of lots in the city that
could also be restored.

Thanks

Marty Kraft

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