April 9, 2011

Date Of Service: April 9, 2011
Total Time Before: 20 Hours
Total Time Spent: 5 Hours (Double Digging = Double Hours) 10 Hours after the end of the day
Total Time: 30 Hours


Actions Performed: Double Digging

Next Action: Unknown

How Am I Doing: I have completed my 30 hours! But that does not mean I will stop there. I will be back for more hours. Double digging was very intense. Double digging is a gardening technique used to increase soil drainage and aeration. It involves the loosening of two layers of soil, and the addition of organic matter. We had to dig 12 inches down first. Everyone had to double dig for their own garden bed. Then, once all the soil is dug out, we place the soil back where the trench was. After that, we placed a little compost on the top of the bed. Double digging was harder than I imagined. I now understand why we were rewarded double hours. Double digging is not an easy task.

I had to use a pickaxe for getting rocks out of the soil

Raking the soil back on top

Covering the beds at the end of the day

April 2, 2011

Date of Service: April 2, 2011
Time Spent: 4 hours
Total Time: 20 hours



Actions Performed: -Cleaned garden bed


Next Action: "Big Dig" Event. Double digging and use of other methods to dig out garden beds.

How am I doing: I am on task with all my hours. I did a lot of digging today. Digging out and pulling weeds is not as easy at it seems. Some root are very thick and hard to pull out. This requires hard digging with a fork. What hurt the most was getting cut and scratched by nettles on the ground. Very painful to get cut by those. Gardening is fun because you make the garden clean and you get some muscle work from it. I can't wait for the "big dig" event because it will take a lot of muscle work. Hopefully I get a little stronger from all this gardening.

Poisonous plant known as hemlock

The end of the bed's weeds

A little of the beginning of the bed