This farm was molten lava 1500 to 3000 years ago. Trees grew in the cracks as it cooled; there is no soil but their rotted roots and leaves. The Hawaiians pulled up rocks to make pits into which they pushed leaves and duff, to make growing space for taro. We do something similar, with heavier tools.
The tool is called an o'o bar. The Hawaiians made them out of wood. This one is steel - it's a six-foot-long pry bar, and is our basic digging tool. It's a modern tool, but doesn't seem to have a good English name, so we use the Hawaiian one.
Here's a bed, mostly dug, and a wonderful pile of rock we will use to build walls with.
Expanding a bed - the "soil" here is made from compost and a truckload of volcanic cinder. We have stopped trucking in stuff for our more recent beds, and just use native rock, rotted wood, and compost.
No such thing as extending a bed with a shovel - we pick up rocks and carry them away in a bucket to some building project elsewhere.
Someday, this hole will be a pond. The ground here doesn't hold water at all - there are no ponds, not even any streams, within twenty or thirty miles of us. We'll line it with plastic when the hole is chipped out big enough.
More work on the pond pit
This was an avocado tree about thirty feet tall, that we uprooted to make the pond pit. Notice how shallow the roots were - less than a foot deep! We dug it out by hand, and here I'm cutting off roots to make it light enough to roll out of the way. We do all our work by hand - it's quieter, cheaper, doesn't smell bad, and keeps us in shape!
Someday, the pond will be stocked with the nitrogen-fixing azolle fern, which will help us build up soil.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SocialCO Media, LLC or True NudistsThe tool is called an o'o bar. The Hawaiians made them out of wood. This one is steel - it's a six-foot-long pry bar, and is our basic digging tool. It's a modern tool, but doesn't seem to have a good English name, so we use the Hawaiian one.
Here's a bed, mostly dug, and a wonderful pile of rock we will use to build walls with.
Expanding a bed - the "soil" here is made from compost and a truckload of volcanic cinder. We have stopped trucking in stuff for our more recent beds, and just use native rock, rotted wood, and compost.
No such thing as extending a bed with a shovel - we pick up rocks and carry them away in a bucket to some building project elsewhere.
Someday, this hole will be a pond. The ground here doesn't hold water at all - there are no ponds, not even any streams, within twenty or thirty miles of us. We'll line it with plastic when the hole is chipped out big enough.
More work on the pond pit
This was an avocado tree about thirty feet tall, that we uprooted to make the pond pit. Notice how shallow the roots were - less than a foot deep! We dug it out by hand, and here I'm cutting off roots to make it light enough to roll out of the way. We do all our work by hand - it's quieter, cheaper, doesn't smell bad, and keeps us in shape!
Someday, the pond will be stocked with the nitrogen-fixing azolle fern, which will help us build up soil.
