Difference between revisions of "Community Garden"

Revision as of 09:30, 22 April 2010

Overview

We are planning to put a community garden up on the premises around the shop for members to grow plants.

Calendar

• April 24, 2010, 9am: Gardening w/ Alii & Seed Bomb Experiment

Future Actions/To Dos

• 4/24/10 - Gardening w/ Alii & Seed Bomb Experiment
  • Haul horse poop w/ Dave's truck.
  • Prune the low-hanging tree branches to give the garden more light. Want to do it before the seedlings come up to avoid damaging them. Already get enough shade from the untrimmed treeline.
  • Make and test a seed bomb.
  • Beware, it's predicted to be a 60% chance of rain.
• Jake Polatty - Said he has some leaves and will bag them and bring them by the weekend.
• Dickie - His neighbors have leaves about.
• Build cucumber/grapevine trellis - Have rebar, chicken wire and pinewood beam. Can start when the seedlings for the cucumbers and grapes are planted.
• Plant/Grow seeds and seedlings - Currently have them in a seed box to sprout them. Will plan them when they come up.
• Pick up the following seeds - Marigold, Maize, Tepary Beans, Common Beans, foxglove, garden cosmos, oxeye daisy, sunflower and statice (aka sea lavender).
• Get pots and potting soil for the herb plants - When the seedlings come up.
• Need to figure out how to keep off unwanted pickers.
• Planting & Building of a Beneficial Organisms Habitat (Spacefelix):
  • Look Into:
    • Have plants that attract bugs that prey on pest bugs, but what about pollinators? And bees and butterflies?
    • What beneficial birds and other animals do we want to attract to our garden? And how do we do it (birdhouse, plants, etc.)? And what of those we want to keep away?
  • Build:
    • Beneficial Bughouse <- Something to attract beneficial bugs; pest predators and pollinators. Butterfly house, etc.
    • Birdhouse & Birdfeeder (for the fall). Hummingbird feeder, seed bell, etc.
• Build a Compost Tumbler or Compost Pile.
  • Ask members and neighbors to donate compostables for our efforts. Since this item will have to sit outside the garden, it will need board approval. However, if it is a mobile 55-gallon barrel, will it not need approval? Also, it will be important to maintain the 30:1 carbon-nitrogen ratio to avoid smelling wherever it will be moved.
• Build a Rain Barrel feeding off the shop's roof.
  • Will need board approval since the shop does not appear to have any rain gutters or chutes. They will need to be installed. Also, barrel will need to be protected from animals falling in and mosquitoes breeding.
• Take pictures of our gardening sessions and post them to the blog on our website.

Status

• 4/22/10 - AliiCat brought 9 bags of dirt to the shop. They are now cooking off at the shop's South wall to kill the weeds. It will be ready by the weekend.
• 4/20/10 - Added another layer to the lasagna garden; horse manure, two bags of grass, two bags of leaves. Put black plastic bags and a dark camo tarp down to cook the pile.
• 4/17/10 - Completed garden plans. Have tilled the main garden and set up a seed coop to sprout seeds. Planted squash and cucumbers in the main garden. All the herb seeds are in the seed coop sprouting. Trellis for cucumbers and grapes can built using rebar and chicken wire. Have also found some pine beam to build garden stakes. To support the other plants, we can make tubular stands from rolled chicken wire and stakes. Have decided to put the herb plants in pots that will be lined up on the border of the garden. Mixed in a 1" layer of fresh lawn clippings into the lasagna garden since it was carbon rich (~45:1 Carbon-to-Nitrogen ratio). Also, added another 1" layer of fresh lawn clippings and covered with two bags of leaves. Current Carbon-to-Nitrogen ratio is back to the 35:1 ratio previously used. Digging in to the pile again, looks like the first layer is completely decomposed. None of the original leaves and grass can be recognized and have turned into rich dark humus with an earthy smell. This establishes a 2-week breakdown for each layer after it is laid. cherryblossom gave some advice with the lasagna garden; if you cover it with black tarp to heat the pile, it can halve the time of decomposition. Also, it should cook out any weeds' seeds. Just beware, some may survive.
• 4/14/10 - Tiller has arrived at the shop. Plan is to use it to help us break up the gravel layer (estimated to be 6" deep) and prepare the garden bed. Spread two bags of grass on the last layer with kitchen scraps, grass clippings and horse manure. Covered with two bags of leaves and then made another layer by stacking on the last bag of grass, fresh grass clippings. Mulched with two bags of leaves. Current lasagna garden is ~1' high. One more foot to go. Will need to build it up quickly since planting is going to be either this weekend or next.
• 4/13/10 - JimShoe said he has some popcorn corn seeds he'd like to plant. Spacefelix said they can go right in the Three Sisters planting.
• 4/12/10 - Dickie brought in three bags of grass. Three more are on the way. Spacefelix formed a layer from two bags of grass, a thin layer of grass clippings, kitchen scraps and horse manure. It was mulched with two more bags of leaves. The pile needs watering every two days to keep the upper layers moist, but the lower layers are composting well and have an earthy smell. The near 30:1 Carbon-to-Nitrogen ratio is paying off. Hanyan brought in a biodegradable plastic bag. Stuck it in the pile to see how well it degrades.
• 4/10/10 - Alii spread some horse manure and leaves over the garden.
• 4/6/10 - Picked up some horse manure and spread it and some grass clippings on the lasagna garden. Mulched with 2 bags of leaves (1 bag per layer is too thin to keep it moist). There are two layers and it is ~6" deep. Need about 2' deep. Checked the Carbon-to-Nitrogen ratio of the pile. Typically, need 30:1 by mass to ensure the pile decomposes quickly and does not smell. Right now, the pile is at 35:1. Not perfect, but close enough.
• 4/5/10 - Lasagna garden dried out since there is only one layer. Watered it down and added the second layer of leaves to mulch the pile and keep it moist. Spacefelix will pick up more horse manure and gather the grass cuttings from Saturday's mowing to complete the second and third layers. AliiCat brought up an idea that the compost pile could be an above-ground 55-gallon trash can. That way it can be moved and will not require the same permissions process the garden needed. The only issue would be venting it, keeping it warm and dealing with the smell.
• 4/3/10 - Started lasagna garden with first layer (wet cardboard, 1/2" of browns, 1/2" of greens, 1" of a mix of composted manure and topsoil, will need to repeat this eleven more times to get the desired 2' thick bed; 1 layer took one trash bag of leaves, grass clippings from about 200 ft^2 of lawn, 2 ft^3 of composted manure and 2 ft^3 of topsoil). Alii spread composted horse manure on the rest of the garden (she picked it up from a local farmer), needs to be tilled into the ground. AliiCat also tested the soil, high alkalinity. Will need compost and horse manure to adjust soil chemistry to be more ideal. Spacefelix & Hanyan discussed putting up a compost pile. Will need board permission since it is not covered by the board permissions to establish a garden. For now, the lasagna garden will act as the compost pile.
• 4/2/10 - Vote was made by board to go ahead and garden! Wahoo! Also, picked up a whole bunch of browns from Dickie (about 15 trash bags). They are now outside by the roll-up door awaiting disposal to the lasagna garden or compost pile.
• 4/1/10
  • Spacefelix got some advice from Benalene about the habitat; beware companion planting! Not all plants are compatible. There will have to be some thought and research put behind making a viable habitat in the garden. Also, since this is a crop garden, we will want every plant to have a use when harvested.
• 3/31/10
  • Preaux has volunteered to pick up seeds from a coop near his home, we need a complete list of the seeds we would like him to grab by Friday (4/2/10)
    • Benalene intends to plant: Tomatoes, Onions, Marigold (Calendula), Carrot, Parsley, Rosemary, Mint. Maybe Nasturtium. It is a trap plant, it attracts the bad pests to itself, so the bad pests leave the other plants alone. You can also eat them. Might plant some around the outside of my plot.
    • Spacefelix will plant Maize, Tepary Beans and Common Beans.
    • Alii would like, Bell Pepper, Cayenne pepper, Butterneck and Yellow squash, and Mint seeds in the smallest available quantities.
  • Alii will test the PH of the soil and if appropriate pick up some horse poop to fertilize the garden plot with.
  • Alii intends to plant: Cucumbers (on a trellis on the western edge), Peppers, Butterneck and/or Yellow Squash, Mint, Rosemarry and maybe Lavender.
• 3/30/10
  • Spacefelix checked on beneficial bugs that prey on pests and plants that attract them that are common in Alabama (permaculture-related method). Found the following:
    • Amaranth
    • Angelica
    • Bindweed
    • Common Mullein
    • Fernleaf Yarrow
    • Firethorn
    • Forsythia
    • Foxglove
    • Garden Cosmos
    • Lupin
    • Oxeye Daisy
    • Queen Anne's Lace - Invasive Weed! Beware!
    • Statice/Sea Lavender
    • Sunflowers
    • Tansey
  • Craigslist posting has been made for horse manure.
  • Requested maize and Tepary Bean or Common Bean seed from Preauxphoto.
• 3/27/10
  • We have checked with Alabama 1 call to determine where the utility lines are and plotted a proposed location for the garden by the trees on the south west side.
  • 8'x20' plot marked on East side of Western tree line (towards the shop). Gives 10, 8'x2' rows.
• 3/23/10
  • AliiCat had the property utility lines marked. Will be getting board approval to start the garden.
  • Cherryblossom mentioned the lasagna gardening method (a.k.a. sheet composting, permaculture-related method).
  • AliiCat and Spacefelix discussed what to plant. Garden will be divided into 10, 2'x8' East-West rows (two each for the five gardeners on board). Spacefelix, for his two rows, decided on a variation of the Three Sisters (permaculture-related method) using maize (popcorn!), bell peppers, climbing beans, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers. Will also add plants and habitats that attract beneficial bugs (pollinators and pest predators) and a compost pile. AliiCat and the other gardeners will be doing a traditional garden on the remaining rows. If we produce enough from the garden, we can function as a CSA unit and help with fundraising.
• Gregabyte mentioned wanting to do Maker Salsa
• 3/3/10
  • Have determined property lines that we must be within - Within the sidewalks of Brown Street (East Border) and Hall Avenue (South Border), from the North-South tree line to the Southwest of the shop to the western wall of the shop (West Border) and the northern wall of the shop (North Border).
  • Have decided to grow cucumbers.
    • How about some popcorn?

Current Garden Plans

8'x20' plot with 10, 8'x2' Rows. Currently, per Alii, with five people planting, everyone gets two rows. The plot is on east side of the west treeline on the property, towards the shop. Being used as follows: Each cell of the following table is a 2'x2' square on the plot starting from the Northwestern corner:

• Herbs, Onions & Carrots will be placed in pots that will border the garden.

Info On What We Are Planting

• Key
  • Light - High = 12 hrs/day or full sun, Medium = 8 hrs/day or partial shade, Low = 4 hrs/day or full shade
  • Water - High = Water Daily, Medium = Water Weekly, Low = Local rainfall conditions suffice, no additional watering needed.
  • Soil - High = Loose soil with high humus content, low sand and clay, Medium = Even mix of humus, sand and clay, Low = Rocky soil with low humus content and lots of sand and clay.

Preparation Steps

1. Till the area.
2. Prepare the ground
   1. We need to fertilize the ground somehow, it has been suggested we till some dog food into it.
3. Plant
4. Weed

• Preparation steps based on lasagna gardening method (Spacefelix):

1. Lay down & wet cardboard or five layers of overlapping newspaper
2. Layer on browns and then greens in ~1" layers
   • Browns - Fall leaves, shredded newspaper, peat and pine needles.
   • Greens - Vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings.
   • ASK MEMBERS AND NEIGHBORS TO PLEASE DONATE BROWNS AND GREENS. This method requires quite a bit of them.
3. Repeat steps one and two until you get a 2' tall layered bed.
   • For spring or summertime planting, you will want to add more soil-like materials (compost, peat, or topsoil) to each layer and finish it off with 3-4" of topsoil or compost. Otherwise for the fall, carry on.
4. Plant and mulch when the time comes.

• Planting of Three Sisters (Spacefelix):

1. Form 2'x2' mounds about 1' high.
2. Plant several maize and popcorn seeds close together in the center of each mound.
3. When the maize grows to be 6" tall, plant the beans in a close ring around the corn and the squash in a ring on the outer edge of the beans.
   • For the experimental three sisters, the core will be composed of maize, popcorn and sunflowers, the beans will be interspersed with tomatoes and cucumbers and the squash will have peppers and onions among them in the outer areas.

Available Materials

• Small Shovel
• Leaf Rake
• Soil Rake
• Large Shovel on loan from Alii.
• Manual Rotary Mower
• Small motorized tiller from OffBitz.
• Large motorized tiller from brimstone.
• Chicken Wire, metal rebar and pine beam for building plant cages, stakes and trellises.
• For compost:
  • Mog and cherryblossom can provide kitchen waste (~One 20 gallon trash can full a week)
  • Dickie can provide grass and lawn clippings (~four trash bags a week)
  • Grass clippings and leaves can also be had from the shop's lawn and treeline.
  • Horse Manure available for pickup from a local farmer.
    • Steel Prize Stables at 125 Christopher Drive, Madison, AL. Off the North side of Highway 72, between Jeffe Road and Nance Road. Drive up Chris drive, bear right at the traffic circle and follow the road to top of a hill. You will see the gate to the ranch. If the gate is closed, press button to activate. Hours for pickup are 8am to 4pm, weekdays and Saturdays. However, some staff are around the barn after hours to 7pm. You'd be able to come in after hours for pickup. Just be quick about it and don't keep them waiting. Call ahead before you come by for pickup. Owner is Bill ((256)837-5474).
    • What about the horse farms on the East side of Slaughter Road?
• Seeds
  • Can be had from WalMart or C.T. Garvin Seed & Feed (open 7am-5pm, weekdays and 7am-3pm Saturdays) near the shop (2215 Holmes Ave NW, Huntsville).
  • See plant listing above for seed availability.

Potential Materials

• For compost:
  • Ratmandu mentioned that you can find bags of leaves around neighborhoods. Just look for the piles of black lawn bags. Also, there is a huge leaf dump behind the botanical gardens.
  • Preauxphoto also stated that cotton mills have tons of leftover leaves from processing cotton. Can run by and see what's up. (korc alternate)
  • Horse manure - Craigslist posting has been made for horse manure.
• Seeds - Preauxphoto lives near a food coop that sells certified seeds. Can request seeds from him.
• Tools - Need other common gardening tools.

Who wants to be involved?

• Alii
• benalene
• cherryblossom
• DraesDraco
• Gregabyte
• Hanyan
• Spacefelix
• Jimshoe

Notes

• Due to the western treeline on the garden, we will only get half-sun. It would benefit us, if possible, to plant next year's garden on a south-facing wall or treeline so that it's south face is always exposed to sun. The current garden then can be used as a shade garden.
• Compost piles need a 30:1 Carbon-to-Nitrogen by weight ratio to compost quickly without smelling bad (a good pile has an earthy smell to it). It also provides a good nutrient balance to the soil. Too much carbon and the pile decomposes slowly, too much Nitrogen and it smells. Information on the carbon-to-nitrogen ratios of compostables can be found here.

Links

• Permaculture Info
• permaculture.com
• Lasagna Gardening Method
• More on Lasagna Gardening Method
• Attracting Beneficial Bugs
• Companion Planting: Basic Concept and Resources
• Companion Planting
• More on Companion Planting
• Composting
• Living Walls - A way to fit a garden within limited space.
• USDA Plant Database
• Xerces Society