Urban Sustainable Living

Hi, I’m Patti Moreno of the Garden Girl and it’s time for me to prep my raised beds for planting. They’ve been fallowed all winter so the soil is really compacted.

So the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to take my fork here and I’m going to loosen up all of the soil by just putting it in and just wobbling it around.

All right, so I am done loosening up the soil in this raised bed and now I’m going to turn the soil. I’m going to grab my shovel over here and with this shovel I’m just go down all the way as deep as I can in the bed and turn the soil. So, I want to bring the soil from the bottom up to the top.

Now, you can see that I’ve got you know, leaves in here and that’s okay. I’m just turning it into the soil. That’s just going to help give the soil a little bit more fluffiness and it’s also just going to compost down in and it’s going to be good for the plants that I’m going to put in here.

All right, now before I finish turning the whole bed, what I’m going to do is I’m going to add some rabbit manure. Now, this rabbit manure is just going to add nutrients to my soil. It’s really a good idea that when you’re prepping your bed, you add compost or like me, rabbit manure and turn it into the soil and that’s going to distribute fertilizer to the plants that I’m going to plant in here beautifully.

Now, I’m taking the rabbit manure and I am just turning it into my raised bed. You know rabbit manure is a great fertilizer and it’s a fertilizer that doesn’t need to be composted. I think I am done turning this bed and now I’m just going to rake it over and make all the soil in this raised bed level.

I think I’m done raking and this bed is ready for planting. A year before, I used to plant they’re corn and they’re beans and they’re squash together because they thought that those plants were the sustainers of life. They called it the three sisters’ method of gardening.

In this bed, I’m going to plant my corn and my beans and my squash together. Now, the corn takes nitrogen out of the soil whereas the beans, they put the nitrogen back into the soil and our squash complements both the corn and the beans because what it does it is shades the soil.

I’ve gone through and I’ve made little amounts there one by one and I’ve made eight of them here in this raised bed. The first thing I need to do is I need to plant my corn. I’ve got some corn. I already started here and I am going to plant four corns at the top of this mound. Alright, so I’ve got my corn in and the next thing I need to do is I need to plant my beans and I’m going to plant four bean plants, 3 inches away from the corn.

Alright, those are in and the last thing I need to do is just plant my squash. There you have it. That’s the three sisters’ method.

So, I’m going through and I’m heavily watering my three sisters’ raised bed and I’m so excited to watch it grow. Also excited about harvesting all these amazing vegetables that I’m going to have later on this year and you know what I’m also honoring native American tradition.

I’m Patti Moreno of the Garden Girl. Thanks for watching.

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