Since the last entry, more than a
month has passed with temperatures and building activities at low
levels. For photography nevertheless a fruitful period of which here
some samples. More pictures in the
photo gallery.
Looking north.
Photograph taken on 21 Dec '08 11:03
The form of the grass leaves is repeated in the
ice patterns on the lower pond.
Photograph taken on 5 Jan '09 9:05
The future vegetable plot.
Looking east.
Photograph taken on 7 Jan '09 8:52
___________
This weekend I almost finished the wooden structure of the roof.
With a pencil attached to a string, I draw a quarter circle on the OSB boards of the
roof overhang that best fitted in and cut it out with an electric
jigsaw. Then I screwed 10 cm high boards (5 cm wide) on the border that will
hold the soil and vegetation on the roof.
The southern face of the garden house.
Sunday 13:17
Looking south from the roof with the 10 cm high border.
Sunday 13:21
The shadow of the roof slightly
touches the window at midday.
Sunday 13:24
______________
Work continued on the straw bale screen of the future vegetable
garden, which main function is to create a favourable microclimate,
which might increase yields up to 50% according to some authors. In
addition this wall will give nice support for the vines I plant to
plant there. With four bales
it is about 1.5 m high.
The holes in the structure make the screen strangely enough more
effective: a completely closed surface causes undesirable turbulence
on the lee side. They also help to evacuate cold air
pockets that might otherwise accumulate on this sloping terrace. For
the same reason, the course of the wall is chosen so as to help cold
air flow downhill along the wall. If you build such a wall
perpendicular to the slope of a hill you are asking for trouble:
during the night descending
cold air will get obstructed and accumulate right in your vegetable
garden. This and other very practical knowledge I get from the
'bible' of permaculture: The Earth Care Manual by Patick
Whitfield. Less comprehensive but even more inspiring is Gaia's
Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway.
To prolong the life expectancy of the bales, they have to be protected
from the humidity from the soil below and from precipitation above.
Lateral protection is not essential as the sides are well exposed
to wind and sun and can easily dry. The bales are placed on
salvaged wooden boards and for rain protection I used the PE sheets
that were not longer used for the garden house. There is one mayor
problem for me here: the sheets make a very poor aesthetic sight. In
time they will mostly get covered by the vines but glimpses of the ugly plastic will always be visible
this way. Perhaps in the meantime I will stumble on an aesthetically
more satisfying solution.
By the way, aesthetics
seems
not to be on the priority list of many permaculture projects in
particular and the whole bio-construction and ecology movement in
general. At best it reaches the level of a 'Hobbit' kind
of organic aesthetics. Personally I see it as a kind of challenge to
come up with something less stale, fresher and more minimalist, but
I must admit that it is not always easy.
Perhaps I
will also make use of chicken wire, for 3 or 4 reasons (in line with
one of the key elements in permaculture tradition: multifunctionality): to defend the garden against
'predators', to stabilize the wall, to give support for climbing
vines and to fix the PE sheets in a decent way.
The vegetable garden received about 35
strawbales for a mulch layer of about 20 cm.
Monday 11:10
The open garden wall seen from
the north.
Monday 11:13
A second use for the ill-fated PE sheets; again
not very satisfactory.
Monday 12:43
______________
Some
bales were quite wet and decayed (and terribly heavy); an ideal
environment for fungi. This one on the right was a very nice
specimen, as big as an apple. I haven't identified it definitely,
but I think it is an Auricularia species, perhaps
Auriculariaauricula-judae (Judas's ear).
In fact it seems that straw bales are often used as a substrate for
the commercial growing of fungi. Yet another use of this extremely
versatile material.
Auricularia species on a
rotting strawbale.
Monday 9:54
______________
Two plants that stay remarkably green in mid-winter are Menthapulegium (Pennyroyal) in the pond and Achilleatomentosa (Wooly yarrow) in the rock garden. The first
is creeping all over the shallowest parts of the pond and will send
its flowering stalks up in mid-summer. The leaves exhibit a very
strong mint fragrance when crushed. I introduced this species last
year with some plants I collected at the
Sotonera dam.
Green Mentha pulegium in the higher pond
with the flower stems of last year.
Sunday 9:38
Achilleatomentosain the rock garden. A prominent contender for the roof vegetation
of the garden house.
Sunday 9:54
