Irrigation work Party

Thank you so much to everyone who made it out to our work party on May 7th. We had a great day and got a lot done.

Special Thanks to Jose de Jesus Leal, who arrived with a huge amount of irrigation materials which he donated to the Algarden and he helped us get started with the irrigation process.

The water for the Algarden, as I have mentioned before, comes from Giancarlo's house next door. One of the first projects at the Algarden was rerouting the water line and installing 3 hose-bibs. We used one of those to set the irrigation line.

Alex and Megan were amazing helpers in digging the irrigation trench

At one point Alex, in his usual inquisitive skeptical self, asked if adding all that plastic tubbing for the irrigation was congruent with permaculture principles. Giancarlo who was walking by and heard the question jumped in to answer with a big YES, because having that irrigation was going to free us from having to spend 3 hours everyday watering the garden, and that is a huge energy saving. I also added that drip irrigation is a lot more water efficient and we do not loose any water to evaporation. I think he was satisfied with the answer.

We also worked on building another raised planter bed. We are doing this because we have a pretty bad slug infestation which makes it impossible for us to get plants started from seed, the slugs just eat them away. So Giancarlo's brilliant solution to this is having a cooper edge on the wood and that way the slugs can not enter the planting beds and eat our starts.

Almudena and Lisa did a great job at pruning the fruit trees

Jaime was the sheet mulching star! 

The garden is looking great and it is thanks to all of your help. Thank you so much for helping us keep this garden going!

You never leave empty handed when you visit the Algarden.