This is their second year in the garden tour and they hope to demonstrate some small scale permaculture applications.
The focus of the garden is on edibles and perennial plants, interspersed with ornamentals as bird and insect attractors. Since moving to this rented house just over two years ago, they have done most of the work of transforming the garden from an overgrown succulent garden into a very productive permaculture garden. They have photographs of the various stages – the main features in the first year were;
• creation of raised beds around a central ‘keyhole’ rain garden for catching and
keeping rain water on the site. They used rocks that were already in the garden.
• addition of guttering to the roof, with rainwater collection system, simply
comprising 2 plastic rain barrels
• a simple grey water system for collecting water from the laundry into a barrel and
then slow dispersal onto the garden
• planting small Anna apple tree and grape vine
• setting up a simple compost system and vermiculture bin
• adding compost to the parkway at the front of the house and planting artichokes
which were very productive in the first year.
• they mainly planted vegetables and harvested excess tomatoes, zucchini, peppers,
egg plant, fava beans, brassicas and peas.
In the second year they improved the water catchment system by adding a diverter on the downspout and also put in a french drain to drain water away from the house and into the rain garden. This work was supervised by a landscape architect, John Tikotsky, who will be available on the afternoon of the tour to discuss this and other features of the garden. This year they have planted fewer tomatoes! One section of the garden has been designated for the 3 sisters guild (corn, beans and squash). All this is intermixed with flowering plants because the landlord wants it to look attractive! They have photos of the development of the garden over the second year as well.
Watering is done by hand with the beds being mulched to save evaporation.
The garden attracts a lot of people who walk past and stop to talk about what’s growing, and it’s fun to advise them and encourage them to ‘have a go’!
