Preparing the Soil

This is a greenhouse.

Many plants that you see at the Student Farm start here. They are planted in seed flats or plug trays here in the greenhouse during the winter and transplanted into the garden in spring.

This is a plug tray in the green house.

Can you guess what is growing here?


Before the field can be planted, it must be fertilized. At the student farm, they use compost to fertilize the fields. The compost is made from manure, straw, and kitchen waste.

This is the straw used to make compost.

This is the straw, manure, and kitchen waste mixed together. Beneficial bacteria eat the waste and turn it into compost.

This compost is almost ready to be used as fertilizer. As the bacteria turn the waste into compost, they produce lots of heat. Student farmers use temperature probes to measure the compost temperature and tell when it is ready.

This compost is ready to be put on the field. It looks just like dirt.

This is a front loader.

It lifts compost into the spreader when it is time to fertilize the field. It is also used for many other jobs on the farm.

This is the spreader. It spreads the compost on top the field.

This is a cultivating tractor.

It is light and fast. It pulls the spreader and other tools the student farmers use to prepare the field for planting.

This is an offset disk.

It is the pulled by a tractor. It breaks up hard and dry soil to prepare it for planting.

Activity 2