I took the footage below yesterday while checking in on the courtyard at Jasper Place High School. Things are still coming along; getting bigger and greener! The following video is a real quick walk around the beds and a look at a few of the individual plant varieties. I hope you enjoy it!
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Life creates conditions conducive to life!
Well, summer is here and the garden is flying solo; I find it amazing how every time I check on it the courtyard looks greener, bigger, and more lush. Also reassuring is the noticeable increase in biodiversity; it feels like every time I peek in I see a new variety of mushroom, bird, or insect. The pictures below are of the same courtyard bed a few weeks apart!
Above: June 15th (left) – July 8th (right) As expected, the cardboard layer of the sheet-mulch has been doing an excellent job at preventing the original grass from growing up thought the mulch.Though I have noticed the odd “weed” (I’d prefer to call them volunteers… most likely from seed present within the straw/hay layer of the mulch) their presence is far less than what one might expect to find in a regular vegetable garden or flower bed. In great abundance, and to my surprise, are thousands of tiny American Elm trees! Mostly isolated towards the edges and in low spots, it appears as though seeds from the local Elm trees (located around the school) have found their way into the courtyard… in mass! Though an addition source of labour, the slow growing trees would take a long time to take over the courtyard and considering that they have likely been trying to populate the courtyard for more than half a century, their ability to do so now speaks well to the inmproved health of the courtyard.
Above: Life creates conditions conducive to life! With improved soil, teaming with life, and a surge in biodiversity, American Elm tree seeds germinate where once they couldn’t A JP Student Reference
In addition to building healthy, resilient systems capable of providing for both humans and the natural world (let us not forget that we are really the same) we must not forget the important educational role that a program such as JP Permaculture can provide; it is only because of student interest and involvement that any project was possible at all. Though planning and implementing whole system designs based on ecology, students are able to articulate that good design functions to serve and protect all living things. The following is a reference written by a member of the JP Permaculture Club. For reasons associated with the Freedom of Information and Privacy (F.O.I.P), the students name has been omitted.
Perennial & Biennial Plant List or Keeping Plant Records In an effort to keep a good record of each plant variety we’ve grown, the student and I have been quite meticulous at labelling and recording each plant variety. In addition, each perennial and biennial plant has been given a succession number of format ##-###, where the first two digits indicate the year in which the plant material was acquired; in our case, each succession number starts with 10 to indicate the year 2010. The last three remaining digits are simply a value given to distinguish between each plant grown/acquired that year; in our case, we arranged each plant alphabetically by family and than numbered them off in ascending order. By assigning succession numbers and keeping very detailed records of each plant, where it was first acquired, how old it is, etc we may, one day, be able to create an index seminum (fancy name for seed catalog) to trade with botanic gardens all around the world, rapidly increasing the networking and plant material collecting abilities of the program.
The Cost of a Permaculture Project (So Far) I thought that I would take a small moment to talk about the cost of the JP Permaculture program to date. Before I can continue, however, I need to extend a huge that you to Jasper Place High School for taking interest in the project from the beginning; I’m aware that there is a perception out there that new projects can be a bit of a risk and I think that it says a lot about the incredible nature of the administration and the amazing learning environment at Jasper Place. I must also extend a huge thank you to the Alberta EcoTrust Foundation for granting (Y.E.S Grant) the Jasper Place Permaculture project $5000 in recognition of its value. Virtually all cost to the permaculture program (outside of my personal teaching wage; provided by Jasper Place High School) have come from this funding.
JP Permaculture Y.E.S Grant Application
Now… a break down of how much has been spend thus far.
Above: A break down of the JP Permaculture project’s costs by category. Biodiversity Returns to the Courtyard As mentioned in a previous post, the key to the success and resiliency of any ecosystem is the number of relationships between the living and none living elements within it. Of course, a good measure of the number of connections that are being make is the biodiversity found within a particular system; the more elements, the more potential connections. Perhaps the most exciting this for me, is witnessing the migration of life into the courtyard. Since planting, I have noticed a huge increase in the number of insects (bees, ladybugs, centipedes, beetles, etc) and the birds. In fact, the first time I saw a bird enter the garden it nearly threw me as, since I’ve been working on the project, I had never once seen a bird fly into the courtyard. In addition to incest and birds, we have seen multiple types of mushrooms!
Above: An out of focus ladybug sits on a Kenikir (Cosmos sulphureus ) plant and groups of fungi pop-up though the mulch.
Above: Mushrooms sprout as mycelium run through the upper layers of the mulch gathering nutrients and water to trade with plants in exchange for carbohydrates. Design with the Resilience of Natural Systems
To create resiliency, each element in an ecosystems gets its various needs met from a variety of sources; the more numerous and diverse these sources are, the more resilient the system. As an example, animals with a generalist diet (humans… we’ll eat almost anything) are less reliant on a specific food source than animals with specific diets (giant pandas… nothing against pandas, they’re just more at risk if the bamboo stops flowing). It’s like ’they’ say, diversify! If your economy is reliant on one resource, you’re at risk should that resource disappear. This principle can be applied to an infinite number of situations, from ecosystem to stock portfolios. Why create a system dependent on a single resource? Or, in our case, why create a garden that’s dependent on a single caretaker? One of the most common questions asked to me is “What happens over the summer?” Well, what happens to a forest over the summer? The truth is that because a forest is such a rich and diverse system, with layers and layers of connections, it’s able to survive just fine all on its own. Permaculture uses nature’s principles to create systems (garden’s, houses, schools, economies, etc) with the resilience of natural ecosystems. In this way, it was our goal to create a garden capable of mimicking a natural ecosystem and thus, reducing its dependance on the gardener. One could say that the goal of the design is to acquire all the benefits of having a garden (beauty, enjoyment of nature, food, fibre, etc) while removing the need for the gardener. With less depending on human intervention, we are freed to tweak, add, subtract, expand, and plan other systems. In theory, we should be able to walk away from an ecosystem, and by extension, a well designed permaculture garden for decades (30 year old food forest), centuries (300 year old food forest), or millennia (2000 year old food forest) ; though, as in nature, it takes time to reach this point of resilience. Below is a list of ways in which the JP Permaculture garden acquires and retains water; it is important to note that the longer the list is, the less reliant on a single water source, or watering, the garden will be. With any luck, items seven and eight won’t be needed at all. 1 – Rain directly falling on the garden A Drip-Line Irrigation System: Added insurance
As the garden is still very young, I thought it best to add a little extra insurance to the gardens first year. Though, I don’t expect to have to use it on a regular basis, a drip-line irrigation system is an excellent way to water young plants. To reduce evaporation, we’ve decided to use a 1/4” soaker hose that can be installed under the top bark mulch layer (to reduce evaporation). Once the system is more established, the drip-line can be removed and used on other future projects.
Above: Diagram of header hose placement and length calculation. We have chosen to go with a 5/8” hose, rather than a 1/2”, in order to ensure adequate water flow.
Above: The whole drip-line system in eight easy roles; each roll containing 100’ of hose, header hose on the left and soaker hoses on the right. A 1/4” soaker hose runs the length of the hallway and is cut into four equal lengths of 25’.
Above: Backflow preventer and T- filter attach directly to the faucet before attaching to the header hose. Students from the JP Permaculture Club install the drip-line system and string soaker 25’ lengths of soaker hose across the width of the bed.
Above: Each bed consists of fourteen 25’ long soaker hoses that connect at both ends to a header hose for a total of 350 square feel of coverage. Though the irrigation system will have the ability to add 140 gallons of water per hour to the beds, this volume of water will rarely, if ever, be needed. With so many water harvesting, and retaining, systems in place, the need for extra water will be minimal. In fact, it is my belief that the system would likely be fine without any irrigation and won’t need it at all in the future.
Above: Lengths of soaker hose drape across the beds. Though, each hose is only 1/4” in diameter it will soak 6” to either side. Below: A students and I test the soaker hose. From Waste to Resource: Pallet Compost Bins While disassembling the pallets, we noticed that though the pallets might vary in length they maintained a standard width. One student suggested using this to our advantage and to make the height, width, and length of the compost bin reflect this standard; in doing so we were able to minimize the number of cuts we’d have to make and ensure the availability of replacement pieces should any part of our bin need fixing.
Above: The standard pallet width compost bin. With length, width, and height equal to that of a standard pallet width. With some excess straw, hay, manure, and leaves and grass clippings (old and fresh) students and I have began adding to the compost bins in layers; alternating browns (high carbon) and greens (high nitrogen). After each layer we liberally applied water to moisten the pile. The secret to a great compost pile is to provide an ideal environment for microbial life; to do this you’ll want: -A balance of compost and nitrogen (C:N ~ 30:1) If a compost pile is working properly, it won’t have an unpleasant odour. Odour is usually due to a lack of oxygen which causes an increase in anaerobic microbes (who give off methane). If oxygen is present, you’ll have the good, aerobic ones that don’t give off any smell. Planting the Courtyard! After many long months of preparation, starting seeds in the greenhouse, repotting, prepping the courtyard, we’re ready to plant! With the help of students, plants from the greenhouse were carefully taken to the courtyard. Guild in hand, we transplanted each plant according to moisture and sun needs (keeping the overall expected height and width of each plant in mind). Before actually transplanting, each plant was submerged into the MycoGrow inoculate; exposing it’s roots to billions of mycorrhizal fungi spores and beneficial bacterium. To transplant, the top layer of compost is moved aside and a pocket is made in the straw/hay layer below, a few handfuls of fresh vermicompost (compost from worms) is added to the hole before adding the plant’s root ball and the whole this is covering up again with the the top layer that had initially been pushed aside.
The Fourth Layer: Compost With our organic layer (stray, hay, leaves, sawdust, dry lawn clippings) done, passive water harvesting system in place, and compost donated and delivered, we’re ready for our fourth sheet mulch layer; compost! In addition to providing nutrients and a medium for planting, the compost will help retain the moisture contained within the organic layer beneath and provide some essential soil life to the mulch; around an inch and a half to two inches deep, the compost layer covers both beds entirely.
Waste Management in Edmonton I’d love to extend a huge thank you to the City of Edmonton’s Waste Management Branch for all of the great work that they have been doing; Edmonton is a world leader in waste management and through, recycling, reusing, and composting (Edmonton has North America’s Largest Composting Facility), currently diverts more that 60% off all solid waste from the landfill. By 2011, Edmonton is expecting to divert as much as 90% of it’s waste with the completion of its Biofuel Plant. City Of Edmonton Donates 4 Cubic Yards (108 cubic feet) of Compost! Having taken the City’s Master Composter Recycler Program I’m aware of many of the initiatives that the WM branch has undertaken and their focus on educating Edmontonians about why and how to compost; this is why, I was so happy to have the city donate 4 cubic yards of compost to the JP Permaculture project! Though, we have been making a lot of our own compost at the school, we still required about 4 cubic yards for the 4th layer of our sheet mulch. Thanks to the city’s waste management branch, we’ll have the compost necessary! Composting Process in Edmonton
Source: Waste Facts: Edmonton Composting Facility.pdf A Letter to Edmonton’s Waste Management Branch
The Passive Water Harvesting Trench
Mulching Over the Trench Once the cardboard layer was completed to the weeping-tile and the drainage rocks were set in place, the whole sheet mulch layer is continued to the edge of the beds (covering the trench beneath).
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