Written by Ann Liska | 08 September 2010

Hayes Valley Farm Permaculture Bootcamp graduate and San Francisco resident Ann Liska decided to "grow her own" and "build her own" ... soil that is. Watch the slideshow below to see how she "sheetmulches" by bringing layers together to build soil and grow food in her own San Francisco backyard.

Are you building soil? Are you growing your own food?
Please OH please tell us your story by adding a comment to this article.

Written by Chris Burley | 05 September 2010

On Thursday, a Hayes Valley Farm volunteer and Permaculture Bootcamp graduate turned their passion into productive power. Wes Frey, in a matter of hours converted trash destined pallets into a beautiful throne which will comfort and provide a relaxing resting space for many members to come. 

Want to get inspired to make your own furniture from pallets? Check out our pallet construction pictures and other inspiring pictures.

Got an idea for how to turn garbage into gold? Come on out to our site and let us know during one of our volunteer days every Thursday or Sunday!

Written by Ron Stanford | 23 August 2010

As we look forward to our inaugural Dusker this Friday, August 27, we thought it might be good to talk a little about how the greenhouse and its setting attempt to reach beyond the basic 'performance' metrics of the job description 'Greenhouse'  and suggest a potential evolution in the contemporary models of both 'public space' and 'urban farm'.  To keep it short here, we can invoke the Philadelphian Louis Kahn and his concept of the 'three publics'.   Urban design, Architecture, and even the more current disciplinary rubric of 'Landscape Urbanism', each remain distinct from Art, per se, in that they have an explicit obligation to serve more than just the sensibilities of the artist.  Kahn's argument is that there are in fact three 'publics' that one ought to consider.

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Written by Alex Lampert | 14 August 2010

Preserve, pickle, jam, can, put up, ferment, jar.  These words have been occupying my thoughts for over a year now.  I have a great fascination with learning methods to make lasting supplies of food.  While this passion tends to fuel jokes about me from my friends, I know I am not alone.  A few months ago, I got together with some friends from the farm to learn how to preserve lemons.  Nearing the end of lemon season, we harvested an abundance of fruit from a friend’s Meyer lemon tree.  I was so excited to see the amount of what we had gleaned, an old recycling container half-full of fresh Meyer lemons that we would enjoy through the next coming months!  This is how we stack functions: through harvesting what would have been a surplus of fruit, we turned the fruit into lasting food instead of allowing it to go into the waste stream, and we reduced the possibility for pests to be attracted to the fallen fruit.  We also learned self-reliance by using an ancient and timeless method for preserving lemons through a memorable experience.   It was so easy; the lemons can be preserved for several months in their own juice with the addition of salt.

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Written by Chris Burley | 08 August 2010

Photo by Booka Alon, June 19, 2010

Sheetmulching is an example of biomimicry. What is biomimicry? ... It is the examination of nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems sustainably ("Biomimicry", Wikipedia, 2010). After observing how nature (mainly forests) have built soil for the past 55 million years, we decided to mimic the soil building strategy. This begins the explanation of sheetmulching.

So why build soil? ... Well, currently humans are using an estimated 83 billion tons of soil per year. That's about 2500 TONS of soil per second. Which you can imagine as filling a football stadium parking lot with trucks, all full of soil. Then having those all disappear every SINGLE second. In short, we've got a lot of work to do in order to get to "sustainable" agriculture stage. However, if each one of us did just a little bit, built just a few yards of soil each year, we'd be back to an abundant and fertile planet in no time.

Look at the above picture, you'll notice multiple layers right? Well, that's exactly what were doing, combining multiple layers together in order for them to decompose into a rich, healthy and bacterial diverse soil.

General Recipe

• Top Layer - Finer wood chips, mulch or dried leaves, - 2 - 6 inches, woodchips are free from Bay View Green Waste in SF
• 2nd Layer - Green matter - 2 - 6 inches, manure, grass, veggie wastes
• 1st Layer - Cardboard / newspaper - 2 inch to 6 inches deep
• Bottom Layer - The Ground, if it's compacted maybe use a digging fork to loosen it up a bit for moisture penetration 

Sheet-mulching is a technique to build new, fertile soil. Cardboard is laid down to cover ivy and weeds and suppress their growth. It also prevents soil disturbance, absorbs water, and retains moisture. We then add layers of manure and mulch 3 or 4 feet high. Lastly, we plant fava beans and clover to fix nitrogen in the soil, to balance out the carbon-rich cardboard and mulch. As the manure and mulch transform into new soil, the cardboard and breaks down. 

Hayes Valley Farm Soil Building Stage 1

During the first 3-6 months we have began the soil building strategy with this formula... it may vary depending on your local climate, available waste resources and soil type.

• Nitrogen Fixing Legumes - Fava Beans, Pigeon Peas, and other leguminous plants, plant directly after sheet mulching after coating them with rhizobium bacteria.
• Nitrogen Fixing Ground Cover - New Zealand White Clover
• Sheet Mulching - read above recipe
• Ground - usually covered with ivy, or heavily compacted soil

Turn in beans before they start fruiting for maximum nitrogen fixation and after 6-12 months and soil will be fully composted. Best time to sheetmulch is in the fall before the rains(in mediterranean climates), or in the spring (in climates that freeze).

Hayes Valley Farm Soil Building Stage 2 ... coming soon