Hot Tub Wicking Bed

After renting the concrete saw for the THIRD time (pity our neighbours!) we finally unearthed all of the blocks from the 4th bed. There was no better sound than the last block being lifted out!

Here is the 4th bed dug out:

After lining the bed with the bed with pond liner, I tried to convince Tim to fill the bed with water and make it into a hot tub instead of a garden bed. At 14' long and wide enough for 2 people, I thought it was a great idea.

Tim won this debate, and we began finishing the bed. Here is the weeping tile being laid:

A total of 200' of weeping tile was used in the 4 beds and garden swales. Next we added chunks of concrete, larger rocks and rock debris from a neighbours pile in the alley to hold the tile in place and to create the overflow area seen towards the bottom of the pic (above).

After weeping tile came the landscape fabric and 1 cubic meter of soil.

After MANY, MANY months of work, our four beds are done!!!

Summer garden update pics are to follow soon!

Spiraled Herbs

As we were digging out the 3 beds thus far, we dug through and sifted 8" of compacted gravel and sand. During this part of the adventure, we broke a hoe and spent many hours digging around some rocks larger than softballs. After unearthing them, we piled them in a corner of the concrete jungle while figuring out what to do with them (see bottom right of below pic). Now what to do with these large rocks, some of which were quite beautiful? Build an herb spiral!

Using some free bricks, the stones that we unearthed, some large rocks that my neighbour was getting rid of last year, and 1 meter of soil from our last delivery, I built the spiral in a couple of hours on July 8, 2011. The reason for planting herbs in a spiral is to condense the planting area and create many microclimates for the plants to grow in. The dry, heat lovers are planted at the top and the cool, moist lovers towards the bottom. Many of the plants that I used were discount plants at the end of season, some that I grew from seed, and others divided from friends. Planted from top to bottom of the spiral is: pineapple sage, rosemary, lemon balm, oregano, basil, flat leaf parsley, summer savory, fennel, cilantro, tarragon, chives, echinacea, and chamomile.

After 1 1/2 months of growth, here it is! The spiral size is about 1.5 meters wide by just over 0.5 meters tall. We have harvested and dried lots of the herbs that were grown this year.

Will the perennial herbs survive the winter? Only time will tell!

Bring in the soil

Since we did not want to wait for a year or more to build and make soil, we decided it would be best to bring in 4 yards of compost/loam mix from Western Canada Compost. They have a great mix of organic matter, no bio solids (municipal sewage), and maintains good water retention.

Finally by June 10th we were able to plant our seedlings in the garden, now with our swale system in place and slowly filling in with gravel as more was dug out of the beds. In the background you can see the black buckets and tires where we were trying to grow potatoes for the first time.

While the swales were filling in with gravel, I sprinkled this product (which is really just clover seeds) around the edges of the swale to aid in holding the soil in place and fixing nitrogen at the same time. Some of it grew, but much of it was washed away in the heavy rains in June. Additionally, we broadcasted daikon radish seeds as a cover crop to help us deal with the compaction of our mainly clay soil.

Up next: How we built the wicking beds!

Cover crops

We learned of permaculture for the first time from our friend, Teresa. Frankly, I am surprised that we did not learn about it sooner when we were living in Oregon for three years. The moment that we learned the basics of permaculture it just seemed to make sense and fit our goals perfectly. Organically growing your own food, designing your landscape so it needs minimum human input, and caring for the environment all at the same time resonated deeply with us.

Any time that there was a speaker giving a talk for low or no cost regarding permaculture, we went to listen. Rob from Verge Permaculture and Adrian from Big Sky Permaculture spoke often about breaking our dependance on industrial food systems, earth repair, building community, and supporting local economy. Every time we heard Rob and Adrain talk, we learned something new. One night in spring of 2010, at a talk by Adrian, he talked about the importance of planting cover crops and mulching your garden to retain moisture and nutrients in the soil. With this new knowledge, we planted a cover crop of field peas in the spring after the snow had melted.

As the cover crop grows, you should "chop and drop" the plant to release the nitrogen into the soil and provide biomass to the soil. We planted so many peas that were coming up all over the garden, that we had to chop quite frequently and some peas got a bit out of hand. From the tangled mass of peas that were growing up through the strawberry netting, we harvested lots of beautiful purple flowers, tendrils and peas which made an impressive salad for parties.

This year, we noticed a fair number of dandelions in the garden which indicates compacted soil. Knowing this, we planted daikon radish seeds for a cover crop this year instead of the peas. Sadly, the daikon greens are not nearly as tasty as the peas were though!

This just in from Verge!