Front garden growing

The leafy greens have come up fast, while the camomile and english daisies are taking their sweet time.  All the flowers in this portion are edible or used for teas!  The camomile runs along the stepping stones while the english daisies (little red powder puff flowers) are planted around the bird bath.

The biggest show of work, however, is the front yard down towards the street.  Being respectful neighbors, we’re taking care to keep up curb appeal (even if that appeal is based on classist standard that came from 18th century French nobility and was most widely spread in the U.S. in the 1950′s…).  So, yes, we’ve given in to sod.  But still with permaculture in mind!  Rather than kill of the existing weeds with chemicals, we’re sheet mulching with cardboard and compost.  We you see below is the product of free cardboard from local stores and five pickup truck loads of free compost from our county.

Prepared for sod

We’ve scheduled three pallets of zoysia to be delivered next Saturday.  We’re still short compost though, because we’re planning on sodding the other side of the driveway as well.  Just goes to show, you can never have too much compost.

Aside from that, we’ve put some flowers here and there to liven up the yard.  When I saw the calla lilies at the hardware store, I had a Katharine Hepburn moment and couldn’t resist!

Flowers at the mail box. Asiatic lillies and some other flower I can't remember.

The calla lilies are in bloom again....

Join us next time for “The grass is always greener when you lay the sod right-side up.”

After a great deal of research and watching lots of how-to videos, we felt confident enough to tackle this.  I’m sure there are some of our fellow permaculturists out there asking why we chose to use pre-fab bricks instead of recycled objects like tires or timbers.  Well, here’s the rub.  When you know you’re going to live in a house (or Abbey) for a long, long time, you may feel free to be as resourceful as you’d like.  Unfortunately, as this house is not permanent for us and will be sold down the road, we have to keep yard appeal and resale value in mind.  When we have 20+ acres for gardening for the Abbey, then I promise you there will be tires as backfill and rocks as facing.  There will be reclaimed timbers and bamboo screens.  There will be adobe hermitages and straw bale chapels.  Until then, we have to keep the status quo in mind and be curteous to our neighbors view of our yard.  While I and many other like minded individuals think tires can be beautiful, we must accomodate.  We will take the middle road and use permaculture principals with excepted landscaping design.  The middle road.  It’s what monks are good at. 

Back to the terracing.  After the hill was cleared, we marked out the lines for the walls with marking paint.  Anyone who is going to try to design their own landscape should, by all means, mark out the whole design on the ground first before starting.  This will give you a far better feel for the spacial requirements and layout.  At this point, fixing something means marking a new line.  Fixing something after you’ve already put four walls in is something entirely different.  We marked out the walls, the lines for the porch, the path and the patios.  Sure enough, once it was all on the ground, we had to make adjustments and balance space.  But once it was all marked, we were ready to go.

For our hills, it was only 8 ft in height, which means four terraces covering that space would only have to be 2 ft. a piece if lined edge to edge from bottom to top.  Ours overlap a bit, so they would be just over 2ft.  This is important because if your terracing is going to be any higher then you have to build a foundation or sink the bricks into the dirt for stability.  The stones we found at the hardware store have lips on the back so that the bricks slope backwards and lock onto each other, so our short walls would be very secure. 

Beginning with the lowest point of the wall (ours would step up and dig into the hills as they curved), we dug horizontally into the hill and moved out from there.  The whole process, while strenuous, was fairly straight forward.  The only trick is to be sure that each brick is level and even as you sink them in.  We opted for a simple design using two colors of bricks that would alternate harlequin fashion from wall to wall. 

Here's the first terrace at the top of the hill. Easier to start there and work down.

The second terrace around the tree.

Third and half of fourth and final terrace. (we ran out of bricks)

 

We managed about one wall per Sunday, with the third and fourth this past Sunday. Had we not run out of bricks then we could have capped it all off before dinner (though some people seem to like the turrets). With each wall, it was important to back fill with gravel. Luckily the awful steps from earlier in our story finally came in handy. We were able to rake the gravel out of the clay and use that. This is very important as it will help with drainage from one terrace to the next.

 

The final step will be to put landscaping cloth along the inside edge and fill in with compost. We’ll also finish the walls with caps along the top edge. These will have to be cut to fit and cemented down, but it will give a nice finished look to the whole project.

 

Speaking of compost, Br. Addison was busy in the front yard prepping additional garden space. The area along the walk way leading to the front door was a nice open and flat spot. It is in fact one of the few flat spots we have. Using the sheet mulch technique, he laid down cardboard and covered it with the two truck loads of free compost that our postulant Jamie and I had gotten earlier the week. For those of you looking for compost, check with your city/county to see if they have free compost sites. Ours does, and I’d hate to think how much all that compost would have cost had we gotten it retail.

 

By laying down the cardboad, this will smother the grass, weeds, and moss underneath without having to use chemicals or tilling. Eventually, the cardboard with biodegrate and mix in with the soil. The compost layer on top gives us a rich, ready layer for planting.

 

As luck would have it, in our excavation of the back yard, we discovered a fair number of hexagonal stepping stones. These we laid down to create a path into the garden so we can create key hole beds radiating out from the center. Around the bird bath we’ll have potted herds and such. The space outlined by the rough stone (also salvaged from the back yard) will provide space for a bench and lounging. 

 

On the other side of the walkway we have a steep slope which Br. Addison has started to sheet mulch and plant sweet potatoes.  Still keeping curb appeal in mind, this will give a lush green cover to the hill as the slips start to vine and the flowers of the sweet potato look like morning glories.  Awesome, non?    

Walkway, birdbath, and compost. What a beautiful sight.

 Tune in next time for “Paths a plenty and compost ahoy!”   God’s Peace. 

Oh, and then there’s the monkey grass…  Monkey grass is one of the only few plants (along with kudzu) that can compete with ivy. 

All that is to say that the first step in our new gardening adventure was to take out the ivy.  Of course, being permaculture-minded, the ubiquitous suggestion of Round-Up was not an option.  It amazed me how many people suggested Round-Up. And when I would tell them we can’t use chemicals, I inevitably got a look of such befuddlement as though I were suggesting balancing the national budget with a six year old’s weekly allowance.  Nonetheless, we are monks that find God in the monotonous, so we rolled up our sleeves and went to work.  It may have taken us more effort in physical exertion, but in the end, the ivy’s gone and the ground isn’t poisonous. 

The slope next to the solarium. Imagine this hill before with LOTS of ivy.Lower slope

After the ivy was pulled out, we made sure to lay down cardboard to prevent our yard from washing into our neighbor’s.  Cardboard is free, bio degradable, and did I mention it’s free?  When you’re a monk, living a life of simplicity, you learn to be happy with what you can get. 

The last bit of prep for the hill was taking out the steps.  These were made of gravel, timber, rebar, and paving stones.  The wood was rotten, the gravel overgrown, the pavers buried and the step simply dangerous overall. 

With the slope cleared after three Sundays of hard work, we were finally read for the terraforming. 

Tune in next time for “Stay away Joshua.  We don’t need these walls tumblin’ down.”

 The top left is the solarium/greenhouse.  It will open out onto a wrap-around porch.  From there, you can follow a path down the hill to two patio areas that will look up at four terraces dedicated to the permaculture gardens.  There will be a water feature in the bottom terrace for water chestnuts and cattails (yum!).  One of the patio areas will also have  a fire pit so we can finally host our own all night Easter Vigils.  The patios and porch will give us space for reading, dining, prayer and meditation, and teaching.  With this space, we can begin offering mini-retreats as well. 

In total, the entire relandscaping project will cost $7,000 in materials while we and friends of the Order will provide all the labor.  We’ve raise around $1,800 so far, but that leaves quite a bit.  Hopefully, members of the greater Church community will be able to help us out.  What a great reminder that we are all dependant on one another as the Body of Christ!

So, with this space available for a new Alleluia Garden, it’s time to dig back in and explore more of this experiement of sustainable urban agriculture that we call PERMACULTURE!  God’s Peace!

Sexy, non?

Granted, we only had two large tomatoes that were ripe, but the cherry tomatoes were happy to join in for the meal.

These cherry tomatoes are soooo sweet.

Add to that a selection of peppers and you get a gorgeous array.  Abby, showing off her mad up and coming food stylist skills took the family photo for the evening.

First harvest

Elsewhere in the garden, things are happily moving along.  When we went to pick the cherry peppers, I nearly wet myself with excitement when I saw a principle of permaculture at work!  As you may recall, rather than using pesticides in the garden, we interspersed fragrant herbs (basil in this instance) to separate the veggies.  By doing this, if a bug finds one plant, it may munch away at it, but it won’t be able to smell the other like veggies near by.  To that end, I found one pair of cherry peppers that was all but devoured but some little bug, while not two feet away, just past the basil plant, there was a pristine cherry pepper just begging to be picked.

Cherry Pepper SAVE!

In addition to the fragrant herbs, we also have some new residents that are proving a great help to curbing the bugs.  Since Martha Stewart ruled out chickens, it would appear Mama Nature was happy to provide a reasonable substitute.  I found this guy happily perched on a tomato plant pecking away at some unwanted intruders while leaving the tomatoes well enough alone.

Avian Insecticide

Our new bug catcher isn’t the only new resident.  Just before dusk, I was amazed to look up and see the darting form of a hummingbird flitting about the verge. 

Center of the pic - it's the spot hovering on its own

A third neighbor to move into this newest suburb gives me a little more concern.  Well up one of the oaks I saw a mass of branches which turned out to be a squirrel nest.  Granted, RePete is ecstatic.  All he sees are furry little chew toys.  All I see is potential trouble.  Though, the idea behind permaculture is to grow enough that you have plenty even after such natural loss.  So we’ll just have to wait an see how greedy these new neighbors are. 

Squirrel nest

And still, more veggies are coming along…

Happy cucumber, though it resembles only a partially inflated ballon right now.

Beans!

These snow peas will go really well with some cocktail shrimp dipped in a safflower/soy sauce mix.

Checking on the leeks

And last but not least, after only a little over a week since the BBLT adventure, we found even more cherry tomatoes just begging to be picked!  These vines are the gift that keep on giving.

Happiness

Next post: What happens when you eagerly get three more truck loads of compost but are too excited to plan ahead?  Find out next time on “Creating Something Called Alleluia.”

Some good did come of my searching though, so it was not entirely fruitless.  I came across a fantastic site called Plant Answers.  They have a wonderful site dedicated to farming and resources on how to go any number of vegetables (except sweet potatoes of course, because such knowledge is forbidden).  They have a nifty section on growing irish potatoes.  It was quite captivating, for one because it had pictures, and two it gave a good indication of what variables in soil, light, etc. can have on the potatoes.  I did discover by trail, and unfortunately error, that as my potato spouts grow unevenly (one shoot growing faster than another), if I put on the next tire before all the shoots are ready, the shortest will wither.  I think I lost two if not three, but since each tire was averaging 6 to 8 shoots, there’s room for loss. 

Elsewhere in the garden, I finally got a chance to have a ripe cherry tomato!  Not living by the garden means that Abby and Syd tend to get first pick, but as luck would have it, they were occupied elsewhere (Athens, to be precise) the other day for the birth of Camden Wesley Masland.  With the house unattended, and Abby and Syd tending to a ripening fruit of an entirely different sort, I plundered the garden and disovered a splash of red in amongst all the green. 

Every garden needs a splash of color!

With a pinch off one of the basil bushes, I enjoyed a delightful snack fresh from the garden. Tasty indeed!

Babel, eat your heart out.

So now we’re up to three tires for the red potatoes and we still haven’t torn out the other bushes to make room for the white potatoes (which was still rooting in my dark pantry).  As you can see, the shoots were tall enough to come jus to the top edge of the new tire layer.  Once this gets filled in with compost, I’ll probably leave them all at this leave but for one just to see how tall I it will go.  This garden is, after all, all about experiment and discovery. 

Elsewhere in the garden, other plants are flowering and fruiting.  The sweet potatoes are doing well, though neither Abby nor I have looked up exactly how they are suppose to grow.  At this point we may just let them go and find out by surprise.  The pepper are fruiting all over the place that I seen three that have been attacked by bugs.  The red cherry peppers are looking quite nice, though!

Peering through the jungle

I have to admit, as the garden starts to grow out and the plants fill in, it’s a neat feeling peeking through the tomatoes to find all the other vegetables.  The basils have bushed out and the strawberries are sprawling.  To sit down in the narrow foot path and look around at ground level, I feel immersed in green!  It really is like looking through a mini jungle.  And this jungle is teaming with life.  I watched yesterday as a Georgia Brown Thrasher made use of the overturned compost where I had been digging to find a big juicy worm.  I’ve found at least two different kinds of worms in the soil.  There are grubs that are becoming beetles.  Then there are squash beetles that I have to flick off all the leafs.  I tried a raw cabbage leaf yesterday and found it quite tasty.  All the while, RePete has become quite the watchdog, keeping an eye out for all those squirrels that might think to come into the garden.

Squirrel???

However, he still needs a little more training in the over all watchdog area. 

Our watchdog has ADD.

With the potatoes tended, the next venture was our leafy greens.  Unfortunately, we did not act quickly enough and some of our seedlings bit the dust in the GA sun.  So, salvaging what we could, I managed to get the lettuces, radishes, kale, one other leafy thing whose name escapes me right now, and the leeks into the ground. 

Looks like tiny little rabbit food to me. We'll just have to wait and see how these do.

The little scraggly green things in front of the beans would be the leeks. My hopes for vichyssoise are looking dim.

Unfortunately, the leeks haven’t done well even in the ground, and it looks like only three are still growing.  Thankfully we have a ton more seeds and peat pellets, so we’ll have a second go at those and the spinach.

After a long afternoon in the garden, as dark was quickly descending, RePete and I both decided enough had been done for the day and it was time to call it quits and rest for the evening.

YAWN!!!!

Having let about six red potatoes go to root in my pantry this past winter, they’ve been happily sprouting like deranged chia-pets for the past 5 months.  Drawing from Bill’s earlier suggestion of tires for potato planting, Papa Hos got us 12 used tires for our latest experiment.  After tearing out the failed decorative bushes that were lining the back fence, tires went down which we then filled with compost.  Each potato was shooting off a number of sprouts, so we were able to cut each in half and bury them right in the compost.  After a little water, all we had left to do was wait.  It did not take long before shoots and leaves were poking up through the soil.

Tis a wee little sprout

 It didn’t take long for these shoots to become fairly sizable.  About two weeks at most.  Once they reached about 7 to 8 in., it was time to add on another tire. 

Reaching up to the sky.

As each tire is added, compost is filled in around the potato plant.  You must be careful not to break the shoot when heaping on the soil, but carefully fill in until just the top of the shoot is showing.

Burying the new shoots.

Bit by bit, the stacks will grow and each layer of tire will be a new bunch of potatoes.  Here’s hoping this works! 

Stacks, 2 tires high.

In other news in the garden, we’ve dug out and lined a path with salvaged stone from elsewhere in the yard.  (And this path didn’t even require a shrubbery.)  Keep in mind, when making paths in a permaculture garden, the more space devoted to the path is less space available to grow food.  We’re not building major thoroughfares after all.  Having the path cut into the landscape rather than right on top also let us use that amount of compost elsewhere in the garden.  When every bit of soil you’re initially using has to be shoveled in, you learn how to conserve it where you can.

A path!

And as you can see surrounding our path, we have some very happy tomatoes which have quickly outgrown their original wooden stakes. 

Pretty tomato.

Next post: “Now eat your leafy greens Timmy.” “But I have to grow them first!”

What we have: ubiquitous chain link fence. 

It was a match made in heaven.  Using our cinder block technique and salvaged (remember, reusing is a good thing) pond liner plastic to go against the fence, we’ve created a long bed that will do well for our beans, peas, cucumber, and zucchini.  Granted, cucumbers and tomatoes pair well as the vine grows up the same stake, but we have well more cucumbers than tomato plants.  Again with the layering, at the base of the vine plants will be okra, cabbage, lettuces, broccoli and then onions (red and yellow), radished and carrots for the root later.  Saving money by going with seeds, Abby started many of these inside in a plastic greenhouse box. 

Once these grow, the chainlink fence will become a wall of green. Far more atractive in my opinion.

Happy seedlings that were started indoors.

In addition to the fence beds, I also acquired some flowers for Syd, because as Martha Stewart would attest, that are a very good thing.  So for Syd, we did potted arrangements for the patio.  Of course, in the midst of these pretty things are pepper plants as well that will grow above the flowers thus still utilizing all growing space for food.

In the middle of the arrangements are banana and cayene peppers.

In other news, the strawberries are growing very well.  As it turns out, these are a creeping variety, not a bush variety.  So these happy plants were sending out tendrils all over the place with a buds along them that were trying to root in the cardboard.  To help them out, we added another layer of compost on top of the cardboard and have directed the tendrils to fill in all the space along the retaining wall. 

Each bud along these tendrils will take root and become a distinct strawberry plant.

Next post: Thar be potatoes in them tires!

Oh so many cinder blocks.

In amongst our cinder blocks i discovered two of Abby’s cat lawn decorations that she acquired at a local flea market.  I must admit I agreed with her reasoning when she explained, “They were so creepy I just had to!  And they were only $2.00!” 

Creepy cats

Then came the tires…lots of tires.  As Abby’s permanent patio furniture hindered the cart we were using, we did manage to discover a fun way of getting them across the yard, however. It’s like a stange game of bowling. 

Step 1: Start with tire behind the back.

Step 2: Role tire up over the back.

Step 3: Hurl that tire with all your might and watch it role off into the sunset.

I expect to see this new sport at the next Highland Games.  It’s right up there with sheaf tossing in my opinion. 

Next post: the new fence bed!