Hand Digging & Soil Amending The Tree Guild

Today, our human bobcat gardening lives changed FOREVER! We got the handles for the Broadfork and my gorgeous new blue garden tool is completed! It took a few weeks and a few emails and a phone call to a great small business – who have an amazing product much in demand and who are doing the best they can in this insane world!!

This project, I tell you the waiting is the hardest part! We have also had days of rain on the Tree Guild and our lowest point was about 3 inches higher than the rest, giving us a small pond!

We had about 30 feet to still scrape 3 inches of soil off and it is a muddy, sticky, clinging, HEAVY clay mess, a true mosh pit. Ha!

Overall, the drainage is working, this swath was not complete! It was three inches taller and you know what that means Super pleased that it did drain each time, Tennessee is the land of constant water management.

Waiting for the handles stopped work flow and who really wants to dig another 3 inches of clay 30×4 by 3 inches deep? No one! I keep thinking of the soil we are building and that it will ALL be worth it in the long term. Do it right once, work the soil and yirks, nutrition and EVERYTHING is so much better.

We finished an 1/2 an hour before the next storm is scheduled to pour on us for the next almost 24 hours. Wish we had the trees in, but alas, do it right!

Next up, when the rain ceases, use that gorgeous blue treadfork up and down the whole 70×4 Tree Guild to loosen the clay another few inches. Then, work in 35 bags of soil amendment, 15 bags of mushroom and horse manure, as many bags of topsoil as we need AND some beautiful tree mulch. We will add some organic amendments and BOOM, finally ready to plant the fruit trees AND the asparagus in the back, and Ozark strawberries in front! We will layer other herbs and veggies in, a multi pronged approach for a whole ecosystem! Lord willing, it will work and be BEAUTIFUL, practical and as the Bible says, produce much fruit!

Shout out to #TeamBaughn for ALL of our backbreaking labor – we have all been human Bobcats to work on these permaculture fruit guilds in training! I am telling you – it will rock by 2025!