Garden Update

We made our first produce sell from the Garden of Happiness- two bags of “greens” and a bag of micro mustard greens totally about $4! Hardly a dent on the water bill, but it is a start. Next week should be better! We have access to arugula while ours continues to grow and with this rain the kale, chard, and spinach should be ready to go.

Update on Berto’s and Alice’s gardens. (from Jaime)

Hopefully we have some seedlings going at the Dept of juvenile Corrections. Tami definitely has some as well, or we can plant from seed, but it is going to limit what we plant.  At Berto’s we have a few potato tires planted, and the bathtub full of prepared soil. We put some iris bulbs in the ground around the tub.  We have a piece of fencing half buried and erect to use as a trellis.  We would like to add one or two more raised beds with the wattles.  The earth below where the wattles will go has been dug down into and loosened up so we just need the wattles and probably some fill.  We have some manure and compost that we can amend it with.  Potentially we can take the fill from another part of the property but I am not entirely certain. The wattle beds will be oblong and I really don’t have dimensions but this 1-2m wide at most, preferably about a foot up off the ground – just that much should make things easier for Berto. We don’t have irrigation installed- we need more supplies in order for that to happen.

At Alice’s we wanted to start with a keyhole garden bed at ground level in the mid-back of her yard, and a more visible raised bed along the north side and part of the front of her yard.  Along that side of her yard there is a chain link fence, and the water line runs from the street to her house through there.  Now, technically, if we were careful of our depth we could dig down to plant there, but I have no faith that the line is at proper depth, and our wonderful volunteers have been known to dig over vigorously.  I don’t want to touch it except maybe to just use a claw or something to break up the surface.  Options for raising that side would be to use wattles, pavers of some sort, or to build boxes.  I have never built boxes for planting before but I can get dimensional lumber usually, I have some screws and nails, Nicholas has awesome power tools, I have a skillsaw and a totally weak drill, 3-4 hammers, etc.  Wattles still might be our best bet though. Digging the keyhole shape garden will take all of about 15 minutes for these kids so we will need to plan more than just that.  The boxes are a bigger project but with more potential for learning.

We are collecting donated, burlap bags from Cartel Coffee, which can be cut and sewn together and stuffed to make wattles.  I know burlap is cheap but I want these kids to start thinking about what resources are available to them absolutely free and this is a good example.

www.workingforgreen.net garden day

http://azhomegrownsolutions.ning.com/video/garden-of-happiness
Working for Green (www.workingforgreen.net) came to film about the work we are doing in Nuestro Barrio today. Our volunteers from DJC were there (what a blast getting to joke around with them!) along with Nicholas and Aurturo from the community and Tami Stass. The first group of young men that showed up got a sunflower to give to someone and learned where sunflower seeds come from and how to grow them. They helped with cleaning up the community garden and the property. The interviews went well. Can’t wait to see their video!

Interview with Nicholas about Designing for Peace

http://azhomegrownsolutions.ning.com/video/designing-for-peace-nicholass-1

Residential Gardens

In January we had three residents agree to install a garden that could be used to teach the community different styles of gardening in arid drylands. Tami and Jaime from AZHS agreed to head the project, Designing for Peace.

January 20
(From Jaime)
We spent about 2 hours at Albertos house and had a few joiners – Ben, Denise Quick, and her son Artie. Nicholas also joined us.
We have pictures, measurements, a lot of info from Berto and his wife Esperanza, and a soil sample that I am going to mess around with later today.

By a little after noon we were at Nicholas’s house and everyone else had had to get going, so we took our time, got lunch and went through the questionnaire, took measurements, soil samples, pictures, etc. We talked a lot about what he would like to see happening there.

He had collected a bunch of compost material, and I mentioned I had a lidded bucket from work in the back of my car. So we decided to install a buried compost bucket. He knows it probably won’t be big enough to take all the compost he can generate for very long, but we thought it would be a good demonstration of one way to manage compost in a small area, so he is excited to show his neighbors.

NEXT STEPS…
Alberto’s place – I think we should try to do a raised bed of some sort because of alberto’s physical condition and because there are a bunch of children there all the time that will be helping him. He has an area pretty much picked out, not in his front yard but in his back. If we can build planting boxes tall enough to make it easier on him he will be able to do a lot more. The back area that he would like to use has a lot of materials around, and I have been scrapping a bunch this week too. That back area is visible to the school, which is great, but the immediate gravel yard behind is sometimes used as overflow parking, which creates a lot of dust and noise. So, we can either appreciate that it is visible and work to make people stop parking there (they aren’t supposed to) or we can plant something like string beans, bougainvillea, loofah, or something along that fence to be a noise and dust barrier. I should mention that the area he has picked out was used as a cooking area for a while so there is a lot of charcoal mixed into the soil – I am not sure how big of a problem that might be.

Nicholas’s place – in ground, along fence, starting in front and working eventually to the back. Visibility will be great because adjacent lot is open, but that also means there is no shade and the heat island effect from the gravel will be something to deal with. we may need a lot of shade cloth at least at first. We talked about doing heartier, tallish stuff up along the fence to provide shade for the rest of the veggies. He is ready to get going and i think you pretty much have it right there. Irrigation to the veggie plots is something we could discuss. I have a feeling Nicholas would take the irrigation installation idea and run with it, he is good with stuff like that he might be able to coordinate irrigation at other sites by himself in the future, the technical skills and tools are pretty much there.

Alice has a lot going on in her front yard but wants help. We want to start with a lifted bed along the front and side of her front yard, which will be very visible. The dead space in her yard unfortunately coincides with the water line along that side, so we could prep the soil underneath only so deep, and then build it up on top. A second area closer to her house we could either line or not, but we should put a semicircular bed in. There is a curving path through her yard. We want to do curves and keyholes, so brick seems the logical way to go given her aesthetic as of right now. No neat straight rows of veggies for her. If anyone can do biointensive, succession, or companion planting it will be her. If we set up the beds I have confidence that she will fill them in and experiment with them and make them gorgeous. She likes flowers and has some sunflowers growing, so maybe some bouquet flowers in addition to the veggies? She would enjoy that, while for the other two I think they are excited to eat, eat, eat.

February 18
(From Tami)
We have been working with the kids from Juvenile Corrections to remove the rocks from the side front yard of Nichloas’ house. This task is pretty much accomplished. In the area where the rocks are removed, horse manure has been added to amend the soil, the beds have been raked out and a drip irrigation system has been installed, all with the help from the kids.
We started planting on Thursday the 18th. Tomatoes, basil, cilantro, radishes, and tomitillos have all been planted. We are waiting on the starts from the seeds the kids took and planted. These include chilies, squash, melons, and much more. These will probably go in the ground in the next week or so.
Nicholas has also gotten six chicks to raise and keeps for eggs in his backyard.

community video

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