We have been gifted a truck and trailer load of horse manure! This soil building gem will help us greatly in the school garden. We plan to use it in sheet mulching the school garden area and begin the soil building process. We will be using cardboard as barrier to kill weeds. The manure along with straw, leaves, and wood mulch to add soil to garden in a cost-effective way. Soil creation will happen over time as the ingredients break down. We will begin sheet mulching in some areas as soon as we have ample wood mulch available. The wood mulch will be used mainly for perennial areas as well as walking paths. For annuals, we will use straw and leaves. The newly created/revived garden beds will need to sit for a few months (over winter) before they are ready to use.

The Whippoorwill Festival in Berea was great. I attended many amazing site tours demonstrating sustainability and sustainable agriculture. I’m very excited to give some of those ideas and designs a try in our school garden. The Salamander Springs farm tour was especially awesome. The farm ran a no till low irrigation system for growing corn that was very impressive and required little technology.