Soil rehabilitation and land recovery
Site & brief
A strip of ground beside the property and next to the fruit orchard that had not been worked in years. Grass over compacted soil, stone through it, and nothing being grown on it.
On the left, the ground as we found it. On the right, the same ground after the tractor.
Approach
Running the rotavator to break up compacted ground and turn the top layer over. Lifting out the stone the tiller brings up — and on this island the tiller always brings up stone. Repeating until the ground is workable rather than merely disturbed.
It is not complicated work. It is heavy, and it is the difference between land that can grow something and land that cannot.
Why it is worth doing
Ground that has been opened up and cleared of stone holds water instead of shedding it, roots go down instead of sideways, and what you plant afterwards needs less help to survive its first summer.
