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About Us

Peter Fleury, a professional landscaper and yoga teacher, farms a community supported agriculture project called Oasis Gardens, 9 acres of pesticide- and chemical-free land with an average soil depth of 12 feet (yes, feet). When he speaks about the dirt at the east Austin farm, he sounds like he's describing something wonderful and delicious.

"When I spade it, the soil's fluffy. I sink down a few inches," he says of the land, which has been in production off and on since the 1800s. "This part of Austin was called the 'Spinach Capital of the World,' and Del Walker's old cannery's just down the end of this road (Delwau). They used to load the cans right onto the trains that ran next to the cannery." A railroad trestle still stands opposite the farm entrance.

Fleury managed to dig up some more valuable information on the history on this patch of ground. "In the '30s they grew corn here, with an old Buick to pump the irrigation water from Boggy Creek." The land then lay fallow from the 1930s to the present, used only as pasture for dairy cows before Nature reclaimed it as a kind of Texas jungle.

Now cleared and planted, the Oasis Gardens grows two seasons of crops, which in Austin is just about year-round work. Crops are rotated, and composted manure is used to enrich the soil. An Italian spader is attached to the farm's tractor, "Bela" (the tractor came from Belarus).

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Other farmers and folks have come to watch the spader, an unfamiliar tool here in Texas, but an implement of choice used primarily by European farmers. The spader digs to a depth of 12 inches. This keeps the natural channels in the dirt, keeps the soil friable, and is gentle to the naturally occurring desireable microbes that live in symbiosis with plants and their root systems. "A tiller makes hardpan," Fleury points out. Hardpan is a condition where a shallow layer of friable soil sits on top of a relatively dense, poorly-draining layer of compacted dirt.

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This is serious homework. Fleury invites us to admire the attention to detail at the farm. "Make sure to tell them that we use a flail mower, which cuts up our cover crops very finely, and that we then spray using 'EM' (effective micro-organisms)." These microbes inoculate the soil, fostering a whole community of beneficial critters. Drip irrigation is also used, which in the hot Texas climate means more water for the plants and less lost to evaporation. Oasis Gardens members plan, budget, sow, plant, weed, harvest, and do battle with the undesireable bugs.

Fleury, whose family must be very understanding indeed, seems happy and not too tired for a man who has enough work for three people. He seems like a man on a mission--maybe sometimes a tough mission. Last week, while he was doing yoga at home, his daughters managed to count 83 fire ant bites on his legs.

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Marysol Valle, the friendly on-site farmer, first learned to farm in Ithaca, New York. She has since worked on farms both internationally in Turkey, El Slavador and Mexico, and also within the United States. She joined Oasis Gardens a year ago, moving to the farm with her son and two dogs to help work the land. For Marysol farming is a process that nurtures the farmers as well as the plants. Each day she spends most of her time out in the fields and greenhouse: mixing soil, starting seedlings, weeding, harvesting fruits and vegetables, and carefully observing the progress and health of the plants and soil. She is constantly learning and growing as a farmer and is grateful for the opportunity that Oasis Gardens presents.

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