Written by GregJellin on August 29th, 2010
Katia, Heather, Cooper, Cory and Greg spent a few weeks this summer contributing their muscles and brain juices to the Dragon Garden. Our first project was to open up the view looking up at our garden from the outdoor kitchen area. We achieved this by removing the fence, grass and Chinese Buckwheat that separated the Bee Garden from the Dragon Garden. This created a beautiful and peaceful lunchtime view and also created a lot of new space for future gardeners to make their planting dreams come true.
Cory and Katia preparing to plant
Our vision of the garden's future
Our next project was to build an archway to allow the heavy pumpkin vines to grow up and over the central path winding through the Dragon Garden. We harvested bamboo from our garden and excess materials lying around to create a functional and unique natural structure.
We built a Bamboo Archway to guide the pumpkins up and over the path
The pumpkins making the trek up the archway
During our short, yet intimate time with the garden we planted myriad edibles, soil builders and insectary plants. We also rearranged the lower vegetable bed to implement a space saving keyhole design. In the keyhole bed we created a guild consisting of Comfrey, Mexican Marigolds and Artichokes.
We had a wonderful summer spending long days in our beautiful garden. We made new friends, interacted with the community and learned a ton about Permaculture. It is a summer we won’t soon forget.
Posted in Dragon Garden | No Responses »
Written by Hoyt on July 10th, 2010
With the straw keeping the soil moist and insulated in the heat of the summer sun , we were able to plant native grasses, flowering herbs and salvias, and other native flowering plants. Our intention was to add color, define the pathways and stairs, reduce erosion, draw in beneficial insects and pollinators, and build up the fruit tree guilds.
Posted in Gate Keepers | No Responses »
Tags: food forest, fruit trees, Gatekeepers, swales
Written by Ford on July 8th, 2010
Posted in Uncategorized | No Responses »
Written by Austin Holey on July 8th, 2010
As many of you already know, and the rest will quickly discover, the Guacamole Guild has great potential and limitless possibilities. This large and beautiful section of the garden at the top of the hill challenged a wonderful group of individuals to achieve greatness. This summer we helped the future GG members achieve such a thing by beginning to develop the upper portions of the garden. To you we pass on the batton of garden mastery.
THE SQUAD.
From the beginning Miguel has provided the necessary oils to keep our engine running. He became to docile glue to keep us all together.
Hair blowing in the wind like the weeds stuck in chicken wire, Austin is strong.
Digging deep 1″ holes and hauling beans to the site these gals were the hardest workers in the group. Their bright cheery personalities will surely make our plants grow!
Lookin good workin hard Graham is down. With his “lets get it done” mentality he gave the team great initiative to tackle the daly projects.
David was a good team leader. With an optimistic outlook on life in the garden, he brought the vital tools of the trade.
SUMMER PROJECTS
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Posted in Uncategorized | No Responses »
Written by zander on July 8th, 2010
View through a carob tree.
Moving from a wild land, to a contemplative paradise – that has been the steady progress of the original garden this busy summer. Because this garden was originally the only site for the permaculture class, it was a thicketted jumble of plantings that we’ve hopefully ordered a bit.
Our focus was on cleaning up the section, implementing some guilding around our fruit trees to the right of the path, and evaluating what was and wasn’t working. We sheet mulched a ton of chinese buckwheat that had been added originally for fodder and compost, but was now just taking over everything….In a newly carved out section we planted some amaranth and quinoa (usually a cool season crop but we thought to experiment in the microclimate beneath the pepper tree).
Some of the new works
Here’s a section of the fruit tree guild. We added insectory plants (lavendar, ceanothus, rosemary), some oca for soil health and ground cover, bushy goji berry and pepinos, and perennial herbs. This was an adaption of guild ideas, and could probably use to be filled out in the future….we’re all curious how things will evolve over time in the garden.
Oka (with a tiny goji berry behind) and some pepinos (on the right is a pear tree)
Posted in Uncategorized | No Responses »
Written by Tarak on July 7th, 2010
Vineyard Area Plants:
Wild plum (non-fruiting) Grapes:
Native buckwheat
Coyote Brush Reliance
Ceanothus griseus var horizontalis Eastern Concord
Variegated Coffee Berry Longon
Fennel Fuji
Blackberry Pearl de csaba
Vetch Isabella
African Sumac Bokay seedless
Incense Cedar Interlaken
Carob Fantasy
Live oak Delight
Acacia Vitis californica
Matija Poppy Perlette
Lavender Himrod
Fava Beans Giendra
Coulter Pine Heavenly Blue
Pistachio Venus
Wild lettuce Swenson’s Red
Chickweed Black Mannukah
Burr Chervil Canadice
Salvia Suffolk Red
Rye grass annual Early Muscat
Bindweed
Elderberry
Pomegranate
Apricot
Cherry
Mulberry
Chamomile
Collard
Peruvian Gooseberry
Mustard
Tree collard
Poison oak
Salvia
Fig
Dandelion
Apple
Winter Squash
Native buckwheat
Posted in Citrus / Viticulture, Merritt Garden, Uncategorized, Vineyard and Cedar Terrace | No Responses »
Tags: berries, fruit, grapes, Original Garden, permaculture, sector, terraces, vineyard, Vineyard and Cedar Terrace, wine, zone
Written by babado on July 7th, 2010
With a ‘Public Works Permaculture’ collective effort to build a swale below the Outdoor Kitchen area, our group was given a blank canvas. Where once there was only thistle, poison oak and nasty thorn-covered vines, and where others had suggested corn, we imagined something perennial, sweet and tasty. Observation and assessment of the swale and terrace on the SW-facing slope combined with the proximity to the Kitchen lead us first to a name: Smoothie Slope. We let the visioning, conceptual and action phases stack and tumble over each other as we considered and confirmed appropriate and available berries and fruits to enjoy fresh picked or, in theory, in a smoothie. Goji berries, Gooseberries, Cape Gooseberries, Tayberry, Loganberry, Olallaberry, White Blackberry, Pepino Dulce, Chilean Guava, Pineapple Guava, as well as Passionfruit below both swale and terrace, planted to grow up the perimeter fence. The berries on the swale and berm are all bush or tree shaped, accessible from above or below. The berries on the lower terrace are mostly vining, to be trellised later, or they can grow down the steep slope, accessible from the path above or below.
Posted in Kitchen, Merritt Garden | No Responses »
Tags: berries, Kitchen, smoothie slope, swale
Written by Zachary Matthews on July 6th, 2010
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Posted in Class Notes | No Responses »
Written by zmatthews on July 6th, 2010
Posted in Guacamole Guild, Merritt Garden | No Responses »
Tags: Nsoah
