Backyard Project: Garden Rooms

Gravel Bed Garden Room

This garden room came about because of the site conditions. Grass would not grow in this area of the back lawn. We found the reason why after the thin layer of topsoil was scraped away before the studio construction began. Bedrock was exposed. Thin soil exposed to 12 hours of sunshine and reflected heat from the house suited a hot dry garden bed.

Tom dug down around the bedrock to make a sunken 'U' shaped garden room. The 2 entrances to this room are accessed by flat rock steps.  

It has rock walls and grey/white washed gravel flooring. I laid out a length of yellow yarn to mark the path through the room.

I have started planting. I have gone around to other beds to find plants that would be happier in a place with full sun and free draining to dry soils - rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender.

Marking out the beginnings of another garden room.

The walls will be a hedge of pineapple guava (feijoa), fig trees and Callistemon (bottlebrush).

Another room is called Walter's Gorge. It is now bisected by the deer fence but still reads as a room because of the plantings - Japanese water irises, horsetail and a number of different ferns, as a start. The blackberry we cleared from this area a couple of years ago still tries to inhabit the gorge but doesn't take long to cut back now.

I am starting to develop the garden room next to the studio porch. The pink tulips, hyacinths, and alliums will be transferred to the Water Drop bed once they finish blooming and die back. To the left will be a hydrangea hedge. Cuttings have been planted and the whole bed mulched with straw. 

The floor of this room will be a meadow of native ground covers that can be walked on but doesn't need mowing. The soil is being built up before their planting.

Valerie Easton's book 'A Pattern Garden The Essential Elements of Garden Making' has been most helpful while designing these garden rooms. Her design philosophy is based on the Japanese concept wabi-sabi and the Pattern Language work of Christopher Alexander. She designs garden rooms using 14 of Christopher Alexander's patterns.

Day 2: The Gatherers Meet at the Edge of the Royal Roads University Forest

After Kerry Mason's talk, there was time for a quick lunch at the Habitat Cafe on the Royal Roads University campus before walking across the road to the edge of the forest.

Gaia College instructor, ecological landscape designer and consultant, Manon Tremblay (centre) took the first group upstream for their walk in the forest.

She led the Gatherers through a series of sensory exercises to help them explore the rain forest.

Meanwhile, Gaia College instructor, Ecological Landscape Designer and Master Gardener, Debbie Guedes (centre), took her group downstream to experience the shifting ecologies as they walked towards the ocean.

Debbie sharing her wealth of knowledge.

An excellent example of a wildlife tree seen from the track.

The Skunk Cabbages are in fine form.

At the same time, under the shade of the forest trees, I gave the third group a quick workshop on earth dyeing.

Here I am showing Jean Cockburn a dyed cloth while she massages earth into her cloth.

I use Bengala earth dyes. They are so simple to use I was able to set the workshop up under the trees for 40+ people.

Shamina Senaratne checks her cloth as it dries on a branch.

Debbie and Manon try their hand at earth dyeing.

I could not have run this workshop without my 2 excellent assistants - Sarah McLaren (in red) and Louise Slobodan (in green). For 2 hours, with cold wet hands, they helped people, reorganised the work table before the next group arrived and packed everything up at the end.

These 4 made this an event enjoyed by many. 

After each group had rotated through the 3 activities it was time to return to the hotel to freshen up before the next event.

The post-event survey results had comments from some Gatherers that they wanted a longer time out in the forest. We were lucky with the weather but if it had been any colder, windier or raining the 2 hours would have felt too long. The committee decided to take the risk and allowed 2 hours for the outside activities. We left time the next day for the Gatherers to return to the forest to experience more on their own.

Thanks again to Judi McLeod for the use of her excellent images.

Cutting Down Trees - a Safety Issue

We called in Evergreen Tree Service once  it was pointed out we had 2 leaning trees north and near the house. Their roots were being lifted out of the ground. They were a safety hazard.

This is Cam suiting up with his tree climbing gear and chainsaw.

And up he goes using his spurs to dig into the trunk.

You can see here the angle of one of the trees. It is rubbing on and probably being supported by the Maple tree beside it.

This is Tyler, the ground man. Here he is making sure Cam's belay line is not tangled in the branches that fall down after being cut.

This is Gord making the tree into a wildlife tree after cutting all but about 20 feet down. He has roughed up the top to allow rain to penetrate and accelerate the decay process.

Gord bucking the logs i.e. cutting the log into lengths that will fit in the fireplace. They will be split and stored for a couple of years before being burnt in the fireplace. Some of the logs will be cut into rounds to make paths around garden beds in the backyard.

Tyler has been on the job only a few weeks. Here he gets a lesson from Gord on how to buck.

Watching the tree felling was an exciting way to spend the morning. I learnt a new vocabulary. Now we will keep an eye on the remainder of the trunks to see if they get visited by the pileated woodpeckers who are the first bird species to open up a tree to other creatures.

Backyard Project: Hugelkultur Bed Construction

Here is Tom making soil to place in the garden beds. With the bucket, he scoops and fluffs up a mix of top soil planted with a green manure crop, compost, crushed rotten logs and shredded prunings.

Making Hugelkultur Beds

The Huglekultur Bed gardening concept was developed in the Austrian mountains by Sepp Holtzer.

This is how Tom makes them.

First he scrapes out a trough within the shape I have marked out with wool (see the centre bottom in above image). Then he fills the trough with logs (see the top in image above).

He covers the log pile with the growing medium he has mixed up.

Then he adds more logs on top.

He covers the logs with the soil mix and shapes it to the outline I laid out. 

Finally, he gently pats the soil in place with the excavator bucket so the raised bed holds its shape.

Tom made 3 Huglekultur beds this afternoon and in so doing transformed this area of the back yard.

Food Forest:Life in Syntropy

An inspirational video as we work on Phase 1 of the restoration of our property.

Backyard Project: Studio Garden Beds

Ron cuts a log to size with the chainsaw.

Tom places it to make the first side of the raised beds beside the studio porch.

He has also begun the foundation of the path leading to the studio.

He uses the hand-like attachment to nudge the log in place.

Tom selects another log from his sorted piles.

Ron cuts it to size.

Tom mixes up different materials to make a rich soil.

Two bucket scoops of soil and the bed is full.

In less than an hour, the 2 studio raised beds have been made.

Another hour later I had them all planted in pink, white and purple spring bulbs. I want to see some colour come spring. I will probably move the bulbs elsewhere later because spring bulbs alone don't make a self-supporting ecology of plants.

Ron is spreading foundation gravel for the path under the arcade.

It was an excellent morning's work on the Backyard Project.

Backyard Project: Rocks - Big Rocks and Little Rocks and Other Materials - Check

Tom ordered rocks - big rocks.

Tom checking to see what he has to work with.

Others materials needed to build a garden.

*Topsoil - Tom scraped off and piled up all of the top soil when clearing the site before studio construction began.

I planted the pile with green manure plants to protect the soil from rain erosion and to add biomass, nitrogen and other minerals to the soil.

The deer thought I had laid out a smorgasbord for them. Luckily they didn't like all 10 of the different seeds and some remained to grow.

*Rocks -Tom piled up the bigger rocks as he came across them while clearing the site but these weren't enough in amount or size which is why he ordered truckloads of huge rocks.

*Logs - to make a special kind of raised bed.

*Decayed Logs (shredded) - to add to the soil mix for the garden beds.

Tom has all the materials placed where they won't get in the way and where he can reach them when he needs them.

Now the Backyard Project construction can continue.

Backyard Project: Tom arrives with his excavator

Next on the Backyard Project schedule is the earthworks and garden bed building.

Tom Mann, Pioneer Excavating, arrived with his huge excavator.

Ron and I made up a flow chart to synchronise the order the jobs needed to be done. It was a useful exercise for us because we had to make lots of decisions and it clarified what needed to be done. We took Tom around the site to explain each of the tasks and that was all he needed. He knew the task order because he understands the capability and size of his machine so well and he has had a lot of experience with this type of project.

Task 1: Move the piles of wood.

I was amazed when Tom moved the 2 piles in 4 scoops after it had taken Ron and me many hours to collect up and stack the wood.

Task 2: Remove 2 Cryptomeria trees.

These trees would continue to grow much larger causing long shadows across the sunniest areas where we want to grow food. They are a Japanese mountain tree and don't fit within our ecosystem. According to permaculture philosophy, they are not multifunctional enough in this location.

Tom's machine made short work pulling them out and crunching them up (see the above image).

T

Task 3: Getting the logs out of the pile.

Tom's excavator has a hand-like attachment he manoeuvres with great skill and delicacy.

We didn't want compaction around the sensitive root areas of the trees. Tom's huge excavator has a very long reach so he didn't have to go far before he was able to reach in between the tree trunks and carefully pick up a number of logs.

Ron and Tom inspect what is left after the solid logs have been removed. The rotten pieces will be invaluable when added to topsoil to make the new garden beds. Tom went back in and cleared out most of this material as well, leaving some as food for the standing trees.