Starting with a depleted soil piece of ground and wishing to get a nice yield of Sweet potato we will need to build the soil fertility up. With the Bio-digester Chicken Compost being very productive this is a great opportunity to utilize the product available.
Opening up the soil to prepare for the new sweet potato beds.
The starting process of opening up the soil and removing some stones that were 100 – 150 mm down. Dug through again and then adding three wheel barrows of compost and turning it in.
The soil with three wheel barrows of compost turned through.
I then added another four wheel barrow loads of compost and left it on top.
The bed now fully composted up.
The compost I am using is the out flow from the bio-digester that has sawdust added and then processed by chooks.
The Bio-digester Chicken Compost area.
I have added a lot of compost to the garden bed however I am not necessarily expecting a bumper crop. The yield that I am wanting is a reasonable harvest of sweet potatoes and a left over soil that is on its way to becoming deep and fertile. I can be extravagant with the compost because I have set up a system that produces a good sized wheel barrow load per day. And I have to use it or I will end up with a “pollution” of compost. A great system I think.
Mulched and planted with sweet potato cuttings.
Then with a nice thick layer, five wheel barrow loads of mulch, I planted in the sweet potato cuttings.
One of my most favorite gardening jobs, building up garden beds!!
Tom
©2016 Tom Kendall; permeco.org, incorporating Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast, simplicity, permaculture, self reliance and homesteading, composting ,sweet potato garden bed.
Author: Tom Kendall
Tom is a lifelong agriculturalist and co-founder of the Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast Inc. His site "Maungaraeeda" is a Permaculture Demonstration and Education Site. He is a Permaculture Educator and Consultant, and has a wealth of knowledge about how to be truly sustainable. Water management strategies, alternative fuel generation, animal systems and numerous other Permaculture Designed Solutions are his speciality.