CASA Community Garden meets the "Ripper"

**"Jim Call" j*@casagarden.com**

Adam and All:
Our Alabama garden experienced its worst production output on record.
Depending on Saturday's harvesting
of greens, it will end up being the worst or 2nd worst.  We hope to break
5,000 lbs this Saturday (.4 acre garden).  Last year's production was over
19,400 lbs (1/3 acre).

This spring, our garden was relocated to a new site (next to our Botanical
Garden) and the soil was tremendously compacted which caused poor drainage
(we were even located on a slight hill).  This compaction was due to dump
trucks and bulldozers transporting our old site's soil and levelling it.
Basically, we created a massive brick, then planted a garden on it. We knew
we had a problem right before Plant Day, so we used a "turning" plow to
break it up.  A few weeks after it was planted,  we realized it wasn't
enough.  So do we rip up the entire garden or deal with the existing
situation?  We went with the latter.

If you view our garden's vegetables at their peak, overall, they look good,
but the harvest was poor.
Click on http://www.casagarden.com/newsite/grow.html  to view various
vegetables.

As soon as the garden dries out, we're going to introduce it to the
"Ripper".  Yes folks, some you have Mantis tillers, front and rear tine
tillers, maybe a few of you have small tractor mounted attachments to break
up the soil.  But how many of you have the "Ripper"?  I created a special
page on my site to show those interested in how we are going to break up
this compaction.

Please see the machine at...   http://www.casagarden.com/ripper.html

Our local Naval Reserve Seabees unit has volunteered to use this machine
(actually they have 3 of them) to rip our garden up.  Afterward, we may use
their Grader/Tractor (12" tines) to level it.  I plan to videotape and shoot
pictures of this event and put it on the site as well.  It should be
interesting.  Soon after this process, the city will be installing
additional drainage tiles and pipes.

Next year will be better.  Its all one big learning process and you have to
go with flow.

Best regards,

Jim Call,  CASA Community Garden Volunteer Director
               www.casagarden.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Honigman, Adam" <Adam.Honigman@Bowne.com>
To: <community_garden@mallorn.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 9:44 AM
Subject: [cg] How Are We Gardening In The South & Texas?

> So friends,
>
> How are your gardens growing south of the Mason Dixon line?  What new
things
> did you learn last summer about people, plants and community?
>
> Please let us know.
>
> Best wishes,
> Adam Honigman
>
> ______________________________________________________
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>
>
> To post an e-mail to the list:  community_garden@mallorn.com
>
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>
>

______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org

To post an e-mail to the list:  community_garden@mallorn.com

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden