Spring work party and making compost tea

 We had a beautiful spring day work party at the Algarden. 

The event was great and one amazing thing happened, none of my friends were there. I say that not because I don't want my friends to be there, I love my friend there! But because at the begging of this Algarden adventure, almost 5 years ago, my friends were the only people there. Now, the Algarden has kind off a life of its own and new people show up, friends of friends and the community grows around the garden. It is beautiful to witness. 

Lots of maintenance was needed, weeding, pruning...

...and harvesting!!!

The bees are looking good. They made it through the winter and now they are building up their hives.

We are hoping to avoid swarming this year.

 The amazing garden fairy Aya, made us lemonade with the abundant Mayer lemon tree and honey

Such an abundance of year round lemons

 The compost is looking great. Filled with bugs!

Colan helped us to turned it and sifted it to get it ready to put on the beds.

Lots of weeding

 Check out the white butterfly against the wall

The chickens were out roaming arround

 Got some starts on the ground

Its a good sign when your friends bring their parents, who are visiting from far away, to see the garden. There are so many sights in the bay area, I'm honored the picked the Algarden as a stop.

Friends of friends, making new friends

With the nice fresh stirred compost Giancarlo showed us how to make compost tea.

Start out with  a ball of compost in an old piece of  fabric

That gets tied up and placed in a large container which gets filled with water

In addition to our compost, Giancarlo added a few more things to the mix.

Beneficial bacteria such as Trichoderma and mycorrhizae

He also added some of this  formula of complex carbohydrates and soy protein extracts to encourage plant vigor, reduce stress, accelerate growth and increase yield

Add molasses for the bacteria to reproduce

And an aerator to accelerate the process and your result is the best organic fertilizer ever!

Some of the benefits of using Compost tea in your garden:

• Increases plant growth
• Provides nutrients to plants and soil
• Provides beneficial organisms to the soil
• But mostly it helps to suppress diseases on the plants and the soil. It can be applied directly to the leafs of infected plants
• Overall it makes your plants and your soil stronger