How can we transform a gravel lot into arable, productive soil?

Freedom gardens at the Fairgrounds has inherited a piece of land that most would write-off as a weedy, gravelly, parking lot.   We want to grow vegetables, flowers, and fruit here, and YOU can help us - read on!

Our mission includes the demonstration of simple technologies that can be deployed to create abundance out of neglect.

We have 3 acres of space allotted to use at the Fairgrounds.  So far, we have 450 built square feet of cold frames, where we are growing food 8 months out of the year.  We have constructed a gravity drip irrigation system, have de-constructed a greenhouse, are re-modeling a horse barn and digging out of an epic blizzard.

This summer, we are taking on a project to drastically expand our growing space, but we need help to plan it.

We will transform 1200 ft^2 of former gravel parking lot into food, flower, and fruit gardens.

We will accomplish this task using low-input and replicable techniques.

We will reclaim four, 100 x 3 ft sections of parking lot, using four different techniques (because unlike politicos, we cannot claim to know the right answer before taking action)

Each technology tested will adhere to the principles:
1) Technology can be replicated with equipment or supplies available in a typical suburbanite community
2) Technology will depend upon the activity of organisms such as bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, vertebrates whenever possible, and not upon geologically fossilized lifeforms, typically sold as gasoline, diesel or natural gas. 

We are committed to learning something and sharing what we learn, so we will try four different ways of doing this, all of which we think have a good chance of working.

We also hope to involve a lot of people in our endeavors, intellectually and physically. Here is your chance to contribute intellectually.

In this blog post, I will propose four ideas to transform a 3 foot by 100 foot section of gravel parking lot into a soil capable of sustaining a vigorous vegetable garden in one years time.

Do you have a better idea?  Let us know!

After getting your feedback, we will modify our plan, and keep you updated on the progress and our findings.  Think of it as citizen science, except other organisms do the heavy lifting.

See our proposal below to help us out!

Late Summer, 2012 View of the Missoula County Fairgrounds. Freedom Farms is located within the dark polygon at the bottom.  2013 installed drip irrigation tanks and cold frames are not shown.  Project area discussed in this blog is located along fence in under text reading "Project Area"

The site (see photo):  Missoula's first airport. Unirrigated corner of largest contiguous publicly owned parcel in Missoula, bogged down in a re-development plan.  Parking spot for duelies and horse-trailers when the rodeo is in town.  Former grassland.  Compacted as a *&^%#$.  Annual weeds, sparse sod, and compacted gravelly dirt to contend with.

Hurdles: Soil compaction, soil organic content, nitrogen levels, low biological activity

Tools: Seeds.  Worms.  Woodchips.  Compost.  Drip irrigation.  Volunteers with spade forks.  (equipment or supplies available in a typical suburbanite community)

Goals:  Within one year, use beds as vegetable and flower beds.  Limit required labor, inputs.

Proposed treatments, for four 30 x 1 m rows:

1) Name: "Roots dig deep"
Soil treatment:   Plot receives weeding, surface hoeing.
Seeding regime:  Plot seeded with mix of daikon radishes and clover.
Water: Watered weekly with drip irrigation.

3) Name: "Humans help roots dig"
Soil treatment:    Plot receives human spade-fork turn-over down to 8"
Seeding regime: Plot seeded with mix of daikon radishes and clover.
Water: Watered weekly with drip irrigation.

3) Name: "Fungi and bacteria party down"
Soil treatment:    Plot receives weeding, surface hoeing.
Seeding regime  After soil treatment, plot is covered with lasagna compost piles, left in place all summer.
Water: Watered weekly with drip irrigation.

4) Name: "Humans help microbes party"
Soil treatment:    Plot receives human spade-fork turn-over down to 8"
Seeding regime: After soil treatment, plot is covered with lasagna compost piles, left in place all summer
Water: Watered weekly with drip irrigation.

and because we can't resist
5) Name: "Let the weeds grow tall"
Soil treatment:   Give it a good hoe.  Throw some shallow amounts of compost over mulch after plants are established.
Seeding regime:  Have you ever thought that weeds grow in parking lots because they are the proper plants to restore the ecosystem?  We will seed with common mullein, skeleton mustard and?
Water: Watered weekly with drip irigation.


If you are still with us, we decided to try the power of daikon radishes and root crops to create a deep, tilthy soil in part from reports from corn-country in the mid-west.  Industrialized corn systems there are alternating corn with daikon radishes in year 1, and then trading the place of corn and radish crops in year 2, in order to exploit radish's nitrogen storage and soil tillage.

Thanks for your support of Freedom Gardens at the Fairgrounds.  Intellectual or not, we would love your help this summer!