Here are pictures of our constructed raised beds. The last picture is of when we just started constructing them, the first two are of the finished beds. They are circular raised beds. We designed them that way for more delicate crops where we can adjust the soil according to the needs of our plant and to enhance drainage. Sandy our ridgeback is standing on the terraces that we started this year. And you can also see our rustic "semillero" construction where we plant our seedlings and extremely delicate crops like lettuce.
The soil in this area is a heavy clay, which gets very sticky in the rain. There wasn´t much growing on it except some tuffs of grass and weeds as you can see. I picked this area to start my garden, because I felt like it had moisture from infiltration of a nearby creek and because it is on the edge of the forest. I´m a big believer in planting on forest edges. I find that the ecology there is more vibrant and productive. This is why I believe that including trees in agriculture is so important.
The first year (2006) I planted beans everywhere. I cut the beans just before maturing seeds and left them on the ground as green manure since I had no other kind at that point.
The following year (2007)I did the same, although I harvested a few dry beans for personal consumption and for replanting of them. That year we also planted the beans in the paddock areas, where they grew very poorly. The beige beans (frijol chiricano blanco) grew far worse than the red ones (frijol chiricano rojo). The plants of the beige beans remained small and yellowish, however produced aboundant seed. The plants were cut and left on the ground again. That same year we also planted improved pasture in our pasture area. It gre quite well but not very dense in some areas.
I repeated this same process in 2008. We also planted a few yucca plants around the area.
By 2009 we decided to create the circular raised beds. We excavated the earth with an excavator and hand shaped them into cirular raised beds in an attempt to reduce erosion, reduce water-logging and improve drainage. I realize this is not the most economical way to prepare the earth but I wanted to prepare some controled environments for my experiments.
We prepared the soil with bags of charcoal which we obtained from our neighbours who make pottery, as well as chicken manure. We used about 5 sacks of each in each 5m raised bed. Rocks were placed around the beds to secure them. I didn't originaly plan on them being so tall but that is what the workers did when I wasn't supervising but taking care of my then newborn baby and two year old.
Last rainy season I discovered though that drainage was still a problem so I have to find a way to find a solution. One way would be to mix sand or sandy soil into our mounds. I had originaly considered that but the cost is quite high.
When we first excavated I kept an eye on what native bug spieces we would find. I didn't see much except for ants and termites. This year however when we introduced irrigation tubing into our beds, we had excavate a small amount of each bed abd found for the first time nothing else but earthworms!!
I was very excited. I keep working hard to enhance the soil organic matter. I try to keep as much leaf litter as I can on the beds to decompose. As the soil organic matter increases it becomes very obvious that the soil quality increases. The soil has changed colour drasticaly from a red to brown. The texture is more loose and a little less sticky than it was originaly. It gets less packed when dry and less boggy when wet. I now that the charcoal was a necesity. We didn´t put charcoal into one of the beds, and although it had chicken manure the plants on it showed signs of iron deficiency and/or toxicity, and the earth remained red. It was quite a drastic difference actualy.
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