Edible Garden design idea: Community Boat garden overlooking Sydney harbour

Cecilia Macaulay in Veg Out garden St. Kilda

Running into George this morning, as we turned soil and dreamed good dreams, we got a new vision for the Community Garden bed renovation: a flotilla of boat gardens. 

Dawn's garden Annandale

The boats can hold the soil as we make it, they can fit benches for us to sit on and chat, a hand's reach away from the things we are growing, guarding and eating. 

They can hold our dreams that one day something amazing will happen.

Maybe we will make it happen.

Boat chicken coop shelves from Rainbow Valley Farm

Itinerant Letterbox, to send love letters, requests and acknowledgments to each other

Here is the plan: we will start off with a Mediteranian sea garden, of basil and thyme and all the things that go with greek lamb, my favourite.  The patron saint will be St. George

Beautiful family of plastic

If you are coming to our garden party next Sunday 26th, give us a call to book yourself in:
0412 474 282

Bring for yourself:
Bento-box lunch, maybe something healthy to share.
Picnic rug
Gloves
Camera

and bring for the flotilla:
Seeds, seedlings,
Old potting mix or expired potplant soil
Compost, kitchen scraps cut small for our compost
Chainsaw and the skill to use it.
Timber. We will make it shiver.
Natural Rope

This garden has a Style Guide, so check that what you bring fits: natural materials, subdude colors.
No milk-crates, plastic string, coat-hanger wire.
Just because its there doesn't mean you have to use it.


Garden Play Dates: 

Thursday July 4th - United States Independence Day

Tending the New World Garden, of corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, sunflowers, chilli, amaranth. And if we find a turkey, she is welcome to free range.



Monday July 15 - Japanese Ocean Day

Planting and harvesting Japanese Herbs: myoga, shiso, mitsuba, daikon, japanese white beets, and if we are lucky, edamame, so when summer hits, we can pretend to be salarymen snacking on edamame and sapporo beer after work.

Marc Lepage the WonderWWOOFer, with Galligher
at Cecilia's Permaculture House Melbourne

Thurs Sept 19th Talk like a Pirate Day -
We dig for treasure, bring our parrots, see what happens.



Now we need to find our Boat Garden Allies. The fun begins.

Clever water for Bellevue Hill Edible Garden. Creation Party: Sun 26th May 2013

Wicking bed by Cecilia Macaulay

If a garden doesn't have an on-hand or self-managing water source, its predictably goes into a downward spiral. The lettuces get bitter, our favourite trees die. 

We get bitter, and say "Im not loving a garden again!'

But her at Belvue Hill Community garden, the residents are resourceful, we have grant money for water. 

Here is their GardenWiki

And Here are three versions of what I would do to bring water to this garden.

Simple version: 

Squeezy bucket pond network

Decide on a color theme, and buy up a batch of squeezy bucket ponds, about $17 each. 

Fill them with Goldfish, Lotus, watercress, and link them together for freshness and downhill flow.

The fish keep the mossies at bay, and keep someone visiting every day to feed them, and while they are there, scoop some water onto the garden.

Don't forget mesh to keep the fish from migrating. 

Hey, maybe it would be fun for them.

Water comes from a hose, from the mains. But this makes the garden dependent.

For independence, a $900 tank attached to the down pipe works well. 

This system runs on 'People Energy". People spending time dreaming and sunning themselves, and dishing water out of the ponds, into the garden, as they sit and chat. 

Refill the ponds once a week or so.

Benches and lounging spots are essential.

Deluxe Version:

Wicking bed

A wicking bed holds the rain in an underground rock bed, releasing it slowly when needed.

In water emergencies, say, a month without rain, there is a top-up tube for a hose. 

Not totally self-sufficiant, but close enough.

Wicking bed designed for a Thai Orphanage by Cecilia

For inspiration, visit Ecolicious . They make eco beautiful, they are resourceful, and they might be our friends. 

Made from recycled materials

Spin-out version: 

Passive watering with buried terracotta pots

Gravity fed, from our imaginary tank.  2000 year old desert watering technology.
I used them successfully on my balcony garden.
$180 for a set of ten.

Actually, I wouldn't use them in such a big area.
But they will inspire the patio-dwellers.

Wetpots

Wetpots on Cecilia's passively watered balcony garden

We will have fun with this.

Start asking friends for Plants, timber, mirrors, soil, benches... 

Thanks for the salad, George!

International Permaculture Day, Sydney: The How and Why of Beautifying a Community Garden

I usually don't design or invest in ownerless 'community' gardens, but this one was an exception.

What won me over ?

The pavers: someone who cares about beauty is committed to this

The resourcefulness: they had horse-stable sawdust, and were trying to make soil

The secluded spot: only people who live here would know it exists

The popularity: overlooking apartments provide a hoard of potential fans and supporters.

Its sunny, and I want to eat from it, because this is where I live. 

Yes,  up there in those trees.


Here is my re-design.
Now I just have to find the friends to bring the materials, ideas and love-energy

My priorities:

Benches: to get people sitting here, blinking in the sun as they eat their cereal, and notice what is blooming

Curves: to slow people down as they walk though, and get involved, to make the garden 3D

Different wood: these salvaged bits don't match each other, and are seeped in chemical preservatives.

Ponds: I love ponds and on-hand water, so will the garden and its creatures.

Blackboard and chalk: I've got them! Ive been years now without my own house and garden, so I make talking gardens near wherever I find myself living. 

Its not proper for me to do the work myself. 

Is that because I like to be a lady of leisure? 

Its to activate the passers-by to make it 'their' garden. If I don't make it self-maintaing (eliciting people-power), when I dissapear, so does the garden, and thats discouraging. 

"Please water my sawdust-blend so it will decompose"
"Please eat my spring onions'

Garden 

 

Here is one vision, for a more 3D garden

I did a big tidy-up, so a wider range of people would start to love the garden. I discovered a few treasures, including...

... George the Greek.
He told me of the buckets of food he has been growing from this sandy spot, the last 2 years, and what a rubbish dump it first was.

He instructed me to take this and that, and how to cook it, drink it.

Spring onions and mint went in my riccotta zucchini flowers

They were delicious.

Permaculture Beautifying

Here is what you do:

1. Discard useless and unbeautiful things. 

An unused resource is pollution, it repels people from becoming friends with the garden. Decide what materials you use, try to keep them less than three 'familes' of materials, for peaceful supportive infrastructure.

2. Make patterns, even of your rubbish.

If things are disorderly, you eyes dim their perception, so your brain doesn't get scrambled. But then you don't see the beauty, the possibilities, or things calling 'eat me!' 

So I made some patterns.

I put the bricks and wood into square angles. Then I realised, we could use the rubble inside a herb spiral.

3. Make the materials comfortable

I layed the cardboard down flat, so it can go 'off duty' and have a rest. When I look at it, I can feel 'rest'.

People are naturally sympathetic. When we see the objects around us having a good time, we catch their good feeling.

I wanted to put the plastic in the bin, but i have to leave it to the garden bosses, whoever they are. 

Here is a garden boss! Damian came out, told me about what a rubbish dump it once was, and how delicious it has been ever since. 

Catch! He picked the capsicum for me. This is going straight to my thai coconut curry.

Seven years adventuring in one dear sweater. Who can knit me my next beloved jumper-friend?

 

Jumper at Heide Musuem of art 2007

To my dear Jumper:

You kept me warm in rough and glamorous times, you freed me up to go and do what I love.

You stayed in perfect shape the whole time we were together. 

For seven years I never had to worry about what to wear.

You have been like a husband to me.

Nobody really complained that I wore you most of the time.

Just like I never minded that my cat wears the same fur all the time, it suits him so perfectly.

Now there are too many holes to darn. 

What will I do without you?

Tea Ceremony Roppongi 2007

Windy place Mols Denmark

Yes I can rock climb Denmark

Jumper on a battleship, 2006

Jumper photographed by a Taiwanese artist, Williamstown 2006

Jumper for Breakfast, Hawksbury river, after sleeping the night in my car 2012

Jumper on the tram, BYO chair 2006

Jumper designing a community garden in Japan 2010

Beach Nap Denmark

Jumper having lunch in Jiyugaoka  2009

Tired jumper on Tatami,  Kanazawa Bunko 2013
making Permaculture Gardens

Please pass this post on to a knitter who can knit me my next jumper to love. 

Im hoping to meet someone who will let me donate the knitting cost to charity, 

someone who will knit it full of love. 

0412 474 282

Nozwawa: Like Venice, in hot water. Ski, onsen, marvel

Not a film set, its real.

The ski town of Nozawa is extraordinary. Something about it makes people playful and creative. 

Here are the traditional town goddess and god, watching over the place.

I saw this poster as I clumped up the stairs in my ski boots. 

Gazing down from the poster is the alluring face, quite familiar. 

Wait, isn't that the guy who just now clipped the boots on for me?  

Yes, it was.  

Mate!

This is a special place,  a town that produces batches of olympians every year, people who have something to do every day that makes them happy.

The colours don't look much like Tokyo.  

Same people, but exuberant. 

This isn't surfing. If you don't live here, you have to pay for snow. 

The contrast between hours of earning and spending probably makes the brightness brighter

Like Venice, in hot Water

In the background, a shinto shrine creeps up the mountain. In for foreground...

A villager cooks her winter greens in 'the cauldron', the public hotspring cooking pot, 95°.

Dont jump in. 

Shy man, with freshly-cooked eggs

The roof of the Local's public bath. There were very pink naked ladies under this roof, if you scroll down. 

Its a 3D town, which wends and adventures along. 

So much of people's character comes from their topography. People don't think straight here.

Balcony garden planters, working with what comes to hand in a skiing village. 

This HotPot elephant was holding some planted plant in its trunk. It will again, come spring, I'm sure.

Snowy menu

Janus SnowCat. Evil cat

SweetieCat

The lake doesn't freeze because the snow insulates it. Animals know this by instinct. Drunk snow party people don't, so don't go there. 

Tottoro

This is such a charming way to decline

Someone bothered to place a red berry in this entrance font.  

These boys are happy. On the way out, they scolded their companion for leaving the blue-lidded empty bottle on the table. Thats how thoroughly manners are policed in this country. There aren't really rubbish bins on the street. He will bring it back to his hotel.

Free public laundry, with hot water always ready.

Here is Akira. He owns and runs the best hotels in the town, no wonder he looks so triumphant.

The Sakaya onsen left me enchanted. 

It was small, handcrafted with love and skill, every centimeter.  Free from any design imperfection that would break the spell. 

Sitting in the water reminded me of the sea train in Sen To Chihiro. 

I go all still just recalling it.