Thanks to all of the attendees and volunteers who came out on Saturday to support the Mighty Mississippians, as well as our fellow Land Labbers and the Old North House & Community Tour. The neighborhood was bustling with activity and the day was a great success!
Mayor Francis Slay attended the official kick-off ceremonies (rescheduled from rained out date in April) for the Sustainable Land Lab projects and presented the winning team with recognition trophies. Rachel and Natasha accepted on behalf of the Mighty Mississippians.
Our trophy now sits in the Christner office (in good company with our LEED Gold award from last year).
The Mayor, attendees, neighbors, and volunteers visited all of the Land Lab lots for a tour and description of implementation at each site.
After the Mayor’s ceremony and visit, it was time to get to work.
We had lots of beans and corn to be transplanted to our site. We used sheet mulching, a gardening technique that requires no digging into the ground, and imitates a natural process in the forest.
(Go Laurel!)
We layered cardboard over the existing ground to prevent weeds from growing up through our beds and layered a raised bed planting mix from St. Louis Compost over the cardboard.
Once the cardboard and soil was laid, the planting began. Rows of corn were planted with 2-3 bean plants around each corn stalk. The corn will act as a pole for the beans and later, squash will be planted to serve as ground cover. These three plants will have a symbiotic (mutually dependent) relationship.
After planting the corn, we installed wire cages not only to protect the corn, but also to provide a temporary climbing structure until the corn is tall enough to climb on. After that we planted the beans.
Once everything was planted, we layered a few sheets of newspaper over the soil to help keep back any weeds that may have potentially snuck into the planting mix, and then covered with mulch to help retain moisture. (We used Natural Mulch from St. Louis Compost.)
We had lots of visitors from the Old North House & Community Tour throughout the day.
Emily planted red amaranth around our sign. It’s very small right now, but can grow up to 4-5 ft tall!
A huge thank you to our partner Tarlton, who donated tools, equipment, and of course, a helping hand!
The rest of our site is making progress as well.
Thanks again to all of our dedicated partners and volunteers who came out and helped, as well as those who have contributed along the way. We are making great progress and looking forward to the continued transformation! It’s exciting to be part of such a revitalizing and rewarding project!
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