Surveying The Soil at the Brighton Permaculture Trust Plot
After months of discussion, debate, silence, inertia and propulsion we have developed an outline for a land and invisible structure design for the plot. I am going to be working on it with Nick from Nurture through Nature, and as a result we have mapped the different stages of the design onto the volunteer days that they run at the plot (multi-functional implementation, I hear you cry, why yes!!).
Today was the first day of our plot design. Where did we start? Surveying of course. The plan was to do soil testing. There were a few simple tools that we were going to use like the digging up some soil and putting it into a jar, adding water, letting it settle and seeing the different layers in the water. The second one was to try and make different shapes from the soil as a quick test for the composition. Pretty straight forward really.
However, when we got there it was pouring with rain and the polytunnel was a real state. So we decided that we would do a bit of maintenance first, have a little lunch from the plot, and then go out and do the soil testing.
The polytunnel started off looking like this
The aim was to sort the resources out and collate them into one place. We then dismantled the rotten wooden tops. This meant we would have enough space to meet as a group in here. We will be re-instating the propagation beds, even if it is for the short run, just to have some seedlings going for the winter. We were really pleased with our progress. After about an hour of tidying and clearing it looked like this:
It was even better when we finished, which apparently I don’t have a photo of. Time for lunch, we thought. Lunch was a delight. I brought some couscous and some dressing, and then went out for a forage. Look what I found!
Buckler leaf sorrel, thyme, sage, nasturtium leaves and flowers. Then all went in and produced a tasty lunch and some lemon balm tea.
It was now time for the real task to begin. We identified where we wanted to do soil tests: in areas that were currently cultivated and other areas that were like to come into production. We then numbered the base map
We then got together jars and labelled them with stickers and permanent marker (that doesn’t run) with the number, name of the area (so it correlated with the base map) and the date. And set off into the plot with our newly-found trug, jars, hand tools, papers and pens, and spades.
Each time we tool a soil sample, we wrote up our findings for ourselves and also wrote a big label that we put back in the ground. 
It was fascinating to do the test on the plot. The area isn’t big, and the base rock doesn’t change across the site. It is chalky and pretty close to the surface, if not visible on the surface. The profile of the soil does vary across the sites, as well as the depth of top soil, the number of worms and roots, and how compact the soil is.
Everywhere was loamy sand. The forest garden bed had the most top soil. The old orchard was the most compacted and had the least top soil. There were definitely more worms in the forest garden and forest garden island beds, which were predictable but reassuring results.
This really is the basis of the design, without understanding our soil, we really won’t be able to make the necessary improvements or think about the placement of elements in the system. It was really quick, and everyone has the time to do the tests. Although you can do home tests for pH and NPK tests we are to send off the samples for testing to find out more about pH, micro and macro nutrients.
All in all, it was a really productive day. Next week we are going to be doing some tree identification and mapping with Bryn. If you want to come along, do. We would love to have more people help out.
