La Traversine – Filling of the trays

The construction of the beds is finished, they must now be filled!

The first step is to cover the inside of the beds with a waterproof plastic sheet. For this, we used the bags of potted soil, recycling what could have been thrown. This plastic sheet protects the wood from moisture and thus avoids the rapid deterioration of the beds.

We also made galvanized steel bins to form a bottom in each bed. These are filled with clay balls, which will store excess water in case of rain. These beds are not too deep, so as not to store too much water that would put weight to the structures.

We then used a thick geotextile, which covers the clay balls and the side walls of the beds and we filled the beds with a mixture of straw and leaves gathered in the school yard, which, once covered with soil, will settle down to form a few-centimeters thick layer of low density.

Last step: filling the bins with a mixture of soil and compost.
We are now ready to plant !