Week 13 - Building a Burm

Time in: 8:30am
Time out: 4pm


More rows of citrus have been planted which frames the front area of the Ranch quite nicely. This row will continue much further, but for now I was assigned to build a burm for these trees. This task had 3 steps:

Step 1) After digging the holes for the citrus trees (which also included surrounding the trees with an underground cage to prevent gophers from root chewing), I filled in the area in between the trees with an even level of dirt.

Step 2) I then covered the dirt with about 1 1/2 inches of compost and watered it in.

Step 3) I covered the compost with a layer of mulch and watered that in.


Last week, we tilled in a very thick layer of compost into the vegetable beds. This week, I am happy to see that several our tomato seedlings have been planted into the ground!

Week 12 - First Trees

Tuesday:
Time in: 8:30am
Time out: 4pm


Today, I watched as a new volunteer and the head coordinator, Scott, put in the first citrus trees in the front area of the Ranch. There are many more to come, but it is fun to watch as the area becomes more defined.

Other duties of the day included:

• Transplanting more vegetables into the shaded coldframes
• Helping to unload a very large truck of plants for the upcoming plant sale
• Continue to mulch the Orchard
• Compost the vegetable beds

Thursday
Time in: 8:30am
Time out: 4pm


Most of the day included continuing the same tasks that Tuesday provided. The last couple hours of the day, however, I was assigned to pulling the unknown weed (pictured above) in the food forest. This weed has has very sharp-ended seeds that easily stick to skin and clothing.