Planting Day Photos

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's taken so long for me to upload pictures! Here they are at last!!!

I don't have time to detail everything out right now but if anyone has questions about what we did, please feel free to ask. I will fill in information when my schedule eases up a bit.

Here is a link to another project that I'm involved in at the Inter-American Magnet School. We planted a 30 fruit trees for an orchard donated by the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. I worked with the 5th grade class to design a stack-effect orchard. Hopefully we will be able to continue these lessons as the trees grow to create a permaculture orchard just east of Wrigley Field!

I'd love to hear from all of you!!

Planting Time!!!

Hi! I just wanted to post about our upcoming planting event this Saturday 5/31 at 10:30am until we finish!

I'm really excited and will be posting again with pictures of our planting day!!

It's been a while since my last post, but as we are upon growing season I'm sure that I will be posting more frequently!

A while back, Phaedra picked up several dormant rose bushes for the center. They have been planted to create a keyhole garden. It should be a nice spot once the bushes fill in.
Here's a picture shortly after they were planted.


Last Saturday, Vishnu and I went to a farm in McHenry County to pick up 9 straw bales so we could begin the soil preparation. Swami Narayanananda had previous placed the black tarps to try to stifle the crop of perennial weeds that inundate the area. We are using cardboard/newspaper under straw mulching technique. Swami had previously stated that the weeds are very tenacious, so we are doing our best to keep them at bay this growing season.

Here is a picture before we started the mulching.


As of Saturday, the porch was about 95% complete; it seems as if they only needed to complete the railings on the stairs.
Here's a picture before we mulched.


Here is a picture of the vegetable garden area after Vishnu and I finished mulching.


Here is Vishnu mulching the flower garden.


Here is the flower garden mulched.

Earth Hour

Saturday is Earth Hour!

Earth Hour is a global initiative that demonstrates the need that action against global warming. It's simple, on Saturday 3/29/08 at 8pm (in your local time) turn your lights out for an hour.

I hope everyone will participate!! Follow the link above in the title to read more about it!

Solarium

Immediately after the Feb. 16th meeting Erin and I (Milton) met with Narayana to discuss the solarium.

We decided to start small with three 8"-10"shelves in the center panel of the bay window upstairs. If that is successful we can expand with shelves in the side windows and then perhaps a freestanding shelf in front of the window in the office. In the future a cabinet could be built into the bay window.

We also decided that we should attach the brackets directly into the walls as opposed to using a standard. We'll have to pay attention to the weight rating of the shelves; if we fill them up with dirt it could get pretty heavy.

On Feb. 26 Narayana put up the shelves:


They look great!

So next some questions:

There is a selection of empty pots outside. What do we have that is suitable?

Where do we get the dirt? Does it need to be processed in any way to prevent pests or diseases? Are we bringing dirt in for the other parts of the garden and can that dirt provide for us too or do we need to get our own? I assume the compost is not ready yet. Will there be an indoor worm bin to provide fresh compost in the winter?

What will we plant? We can start seedlings but we'll need trays or some other pot for them. What are the needs for the other groups? I have successfully grown lettuce, micro-greens, herbs, and bush beans indoors. What other plants would fit in this environment? Would there be a rotation of crops with the seasons? What seeds do we already have?

February meeting

Hello everyone!

I'm finally getting around to writing again and I have a ton to write about.

Just a brief summary of what's happened since I last wrote:

• January 13 - Andrea, Scott and myself met to come up with some design ideas

• January 23 - Bill gave his Introductory seminar at the yoga center

• February 16 - We had a progress meeting at the yoga center

Wow! I have a lot to write!! Here goes...

January 13

The three of us met at my place, we started off with a brief summary of the project. After redefining the elements as follows:

• Full Sun Garden - Primary space to grow vegetables and flowers
• Shade Garden - The area to have shade tolerant plants, including as many edibles as possible. It is understood the amount of edibles may be limited in this area.
• Labyrinth - This was Andrea's idea I believe. Over the past month, I've realized that I have been envisioning it a different way from Andrea, so I've asked Andrea to fill in information about this piece.
• Pond - Thaddeus (Mamut) has written extensively about this aspect.We also decided that we would allow for an area for this component and allow the team to develop the plans firther.
• Front Garden - We didn't do any planning for this area at this meeting.

After revisiting the program, we came up with three schemes: (A) Amoeboid, (B) Angular, and (C) Branchy. From our sketches, I've drawn up my interpretations. What I want you all to realize when you look at the drawings is that I am not used to doing such free form drawings, I do architectural drawings, everything is very regular and linear. If it isn't linear, maybe an arc or something, it's very regulated so that it can be built to my specifications. This I have to say was one of my biggest challenges up until now. I still haven't gotten it quite right, I think the problem is that I may not have the proper software for the task and that I don't have any training. So I'm making it up as I go along. I might end up taking some landscape drawing classes soon. So here goes...
Plan A

This plan is the amoeboid plan, the theme is interconnectivity. The connection of the main cultivating spaces is important to make the garden user-friendly and easy to collect veggies.

Plan B
This plan is the angular plan. Creating a clear concise linear pattern to cultivate the garden.
Plan C
This plan is the branchy plan. The difference between this plan and the amoeboid plan is that there isn't the interconnectivity.


January 23

Bill's talk about permaculture created a lot of enthusiasm for the backyard project. We had a lot more people join our group!

February 16

This meeting was to introduce the new members with the existing members and the project. We have some good news: The porch permit has been issued! So the back porch construction will begin as soon as the ground begins to thaw and will hopefully be done by the end of March!

Throughout the course of the meeting we've come up with some new groups. Here goes:

• Full Sun Garden - Scott and Phaedra
  
• Shade Garden - Lynda and Phaedra
  
• Labyrinth - Andrea
  
• "Butterfly" Garden - Scott and Chandranatha - This is the new name for the Front Garden, Scott has come up with the idea to attract Butterflies and insects to this front area using specific plants.
  
• Pond - Thaddeus, Lynda and Rachel
  
• Solarium - Milton, Erin and Mira - Milton suggested that we use the windows in the front rooms to start seeds. Milton, maybe you could embellish upon this as the ideas develop.
• Compost - Erin, Rahda, Mira, and Jody - This seems to be a big issue at the yoga center, with the new members who live at the yoga center this is becoming more of an issue. We will be meeting on Thursday after Rahda's morning class, around noon to discuss this further.
• Installation/Maintenance - This group was created for those who don't necessarily want to get involved in one specific area but in all areas. We are all considered members of this group.

Whew, I'm done! Please feel free to make any comments or additions if I've left anything out.

Design Meeting

We are having our first design meeting this Sunday! Unfortunately only three of us (Andrea, Scott and myself) are able to make it. :( Despite this, I am looking forward to it!!