Thursday, January 10, 2013

Waterless Garden Project

This project is an ongoing project begun at 'Summerfest' 2012.

Lincon and Philippa had a desire to create a garden more in harmony with love. They began with a whole heap of ideas. We offered them some land to experiment on and they have since grown their ideas, thoughts, knowledge and have begun a 'food forest' based on various principles and ideas gathered from varying sources. One being principles of Divine Truth as consulted with by Jesus in how to bring everything they are doing into harmony with God's definition of love, waterless gardening techniques, Geoff Lawton's food forest ideas, and adding the fibonacci spiral (amongst other things).

They are conducting a series of experiments and putting ideas to the test.

Lincon and Philippa have regular days in the garden where anyone with the desire to learn and love the land and people are welcome to come along and volunteer their time. Check out the Events static page for the next meeting time or contact them via email for more information.

(more will be added to this blog page over the next while)

Lincon and Philippa

The Waterless Garden Before beginning
Garden plan

Fibonacci spiral laid out - each little ring is a different system or experiment
that will be put in place.
Volunteers putting down newspaper and mulching
Nov/Dec 2012
Volunteers in the garden creating systems
Nov/Dec 2012
creating the garden with volunteers from 'summerfest'
Nov/Dec 2012
Lincon with a scoop mound system
Nov/Dec 2012

The garden in progress (Dec 2012)
Components in the Waterless Garden:
Scoop mound with above ground Living System



Rock Garden creating habitat

Components for above ground Living System (drawing), Above ground Living System
made in the garden - using available resources with a pallet for creature holes and habitat.


Components for Waterless garden plastic lined with rocks recommended to add a pipe to
fill with water /when if required see Living Systems post for more detailed information

Components for waterless garden with logs - a plastic pipe would be helpful to be added to
fill up with water if needed (see waterless nursery project for images and information)

produce from the waterless Garden
Waterless Garden with plants growing
beautifully. You can just see the pallet in the
fore-ground that creates the waterless Garden
beneath.
Swales and Contours:
Check out Cushnie Learning Centre images of Contours doing a
beautiful job holding water on
Mary.divinetruth.com 'And then the Ants told us...'
Swale (side view) - for water management








Components for hot spots
How to make a circular below ground living system:

Hot Spot - idea being that it creates thermal mass and holds heat effectively
making a warm area for plants to grow. Creating a micro climate to
hold heat for plants that do not tolerate frost and cold that well. This is
experimental and over winter will see how it works. Will keep you
posted when we know.
Hot Spot/rockery garden


Components for condensation collection
Condensation collection - The idea being that dew will gather on the rocks which are angled so that any moisture runs down onto the earth below.
How To make a below Ground Living System (to create fertility):

Components for below ground Living System
check out Living Systems post on this blog for more detailed information about
what, how, why...
1. Dig a hole and put all sorts of delicious food stuff (for creatures) in it
step 1. Below Ground Living System
2. Line surrounding area with newspaper to prevent weeds/etc growing up and taking over (if in a garden situation, not needed in a paddock or large scale situation as much)
step 2. Below Ground Living System
 3. mulch, woodchip/hay what ever you have the area (the newspaper is left exposed so when the next area of garden is done Philippa and Lincon can overlap newspaper for the next sections.)

step 3. Below Ground Living System


 4. place some logs/matter on top of the system for other creatures to come and enjoy and set up homes in if desired. You could also just leave it so that it is almost un-noticable in your garden. There are many possibilities!
step 4. Below Ground Living System
some little seeds beginning to germinate. Another aim of the Garden is to set it up with the intention that like a forest it will eventually self seed and there will really be very little 'work' and maintenance if it is set up properly. We are noticing how much work we create for ourselves and realising that if we set it up well, lovingly and 'correctly' (as God would) in the first place we do not need to return with great efforts in the future. When it is not done well in the first place and care is not taken that is when things create much more work!

The 'One Tree' Forest is an idea that incorporates a Living System top, mid and under stories which eventually will join up and create one larger forest over the whole area of the waterless garden. It will have a self supporting mound to feel all the primary regeneration organisms and then it will eventually support a tree (maybe big, maybe 6ft, what ever the plan for the garden/forest is will depend on tree selection) Then it will have a mid story and a lower story so each little 'forest' is self supporting and self sustaining. Legumes are important to feed the plants and create top soil. These little forests will end up joining up and creating one big forest eventually.

The 'forest' will eventually self seed, self mulch (might need a bit of help in the beginning with pruning of the prunable legumes/plants) and may need the odd prune to create mulch every now and again, but the amount of 'work' is significantly reduced when a garden is set up well with love, thought and loving intention as God would create. Really this is a food forest rather than a garden and as such it will maintain itself as God's forests and food forests do independently from human intervention, pretty exciting we reckon!!!
One Living System and tree at a time to make a forest

If setting up a worm breeding centre, these are an idea and recommendation of layering options for optimum breeding. Don't over feed the worms, keep an eye on how much they are eating and feed them when they need it. See Creating Loving Worm farms for more information. Worms are essential for soil production, you want to have as many as can be lovingly sustained in your garden. With worms you really don't need to do anything for them when they live in the garden, they are super intelligent in and experts in their field so let the little soil warriors do what they do best and give them some mulch, plenty of food, somewhere to go when it is wet, and they will flourish.

optimum worm breeding layers








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