Today we went to a fair called the “Hobby Farmer” and found a young woman, originally from Holland, talking about permaculture and synergetic gardening. She lives in an ecovillage in Marche (a region close by), and she spoke about how to plant a garden in a synergetic way: not tilling the land and not compacting it, keeping the surface covered with straw, not using any kind of fertilizer, planting many different varieties within the same bed. It may take a few years to put the field back in good shape without using heavy machinery, but it’s worth it. We’re interested in trying! This intentional community is called La Citta’ della Luce and we’re definitely interested in visiting soon.

Since experimenting is the word of the season for us, we have also built a double-use frame with bamboo to hold the new seeds in the green house on top of the bed. The idea is that, when we water the top layer, there’ll be water even under it. And adding a stacking function, we’ll use the frame as a trellis for tomatoes and peas. Let’s wait and see…