The weather was rough! Really, it was! A high of 47 degrees and wind off the river like you couldn’t believe. It felt like February, and to tell you the truth, it left me a bit dispirited! (it was too cold to really be able to listen to the speakers and definitely too cold to work- we stopped work early for the day!)
Ok…so now that I’ve got all my whining out of the way!!! We had SO many people show up!!! People from all over Pittsburgh, including residents of my neighborhood Hazelwood, came out to learn and work in the food forest. It was amazing to see so many people battling the cold weather, working hard and engaging with the presenters. We had Jim McCue (Hazelwood resident, compost expert) speak about composting; Joe McCarthy (PS Extension) speak about raised beds, and Ed Orris (DEP) speak about the importance of organic matter and vacant lot remediation. Lunch was generously donated by Atrias Itailian Restaurant.
We are using a technique called bio-remediation to deal with the moderate lead levels found on the site. Three inches of compost was added to a corner of the site. This hardly made a dent in the three large piles (70 cubic yards!!!) of compost that we have. The compost was worked into the soil so that it can bind with any lead that usually hangs out in the top three inches of topsoil. (Mixing the topsoil with compost will cause the lead to bind with the compost- making it less bio-available to humans and plants….or something like that! Michelle is the researcher, I just write the blogs!) This topsoil/ compost mix was then covered with a layer of cardboard, to supress weeds, and held down with bricks from the stie! Soon, we will be removing the bricks and wetting and covering the cardboard with leaf mulch. Unfortunately, we do not have the money to add more layers to our sheet mulch, Toby Hemenway style, but alas….we work with what we’ve got! A portion of the site will be planted to cover crops instead of sheet mulched (more on this later).
Even with over 30 people working….there is still SO much to do! It is hard for me not to feel completely overwhelmed….
Its nice to have so many people interested in the project and willing to help out. I look forward to next week’s workshops where we will be focusing in on Permaculture. I am hoping for a warm, sunny day! :)