Nature in the Alley
The alley behind our house is like many others. The people pass through it, but not one of the neighbours seems to take interest in it and therefore nature is let free to do it's thing.
The dried leaves, fallen in autumn, are gathered on the side.They're held in place by the plants that have taken root in the soil. The soil that has been created by the worms and other living organisms that dwell under the bedding provided by the fallen leaves.
Some of the leaves I have gathered to provide for bedding material for the several vermicompost systems I will start up in the next month.
A little piece of no man's land
And in the middle of the alley, is a small piece of open pavement.
It used to be part of the neighbours garden, but the new owners of the house have moved the fence inward and closed it off, so that this half m2 is left unattended.
It happens to be so that exactly this piece of the alley gets a nice bit of sun, and that gave me the idea to try and grow some veggies there.
The earth is of poor quality, there is a lot of sand mixed into it. Therefore the first thing I will do is to mix some vermicompost through the soil.
The vermicompost I have taken from my stackbin.
To harvest the compost from the stackbin without taking too many worms I have come up with a simple solution.
It's not very fast, but the worms do all the work, and therefore just requires some patience.
Bokashi
Because there is so much sand mixed into the soil there, and because I still have a bunch of bokashi, that needs to further decompose in the open air, I decide to mix some through the soil. On top I make a fine cover of leaves. Using the ones I collected earlier today in the alley.
In that way the worms will have a nice cover of bedding. In the wormcompost that I added were a few worms that stayed behind. It will also likely, that some worm-eggs and cocoons have come along.The worms will do their fine job and continue to enrich the soil. They will eat the bokashi and the wormcastings will be food for the new plants.
Urban Farming in the alley
Good nutrient rich soil and plant-planning for food production
Now that I have added the vermicompost and have mixed it through the soil, I can start thinking about the plants I want to grow there. I would like to try to make it as diverse as possible And get alot of food from this small piece. Having added the rich worm compost should help, but planning the right mixture of plants should really do the trick.Next week I will start with the Permaculture course of 'Puur Permacultuur', given by Martijn Ballemans. I think I will get some good ideas there.
