Petals is a retail nursery and farm, owned and operated by Jason & Shelly Powell. We specialize in old fashioned perennials, antique roses, herbs, heirloom vegetables, and fruit trees and shrubs. I have a great opportunity to work with extremely knowledgeable people, whom I learn so much from everyday.
I approached Jason earlier this year with an idea to add an addition to our educational display gardens. To create a sustainable garden area applying permaculture principles. This would enable us to not only apply sustainable garden practices but also to teach our customers alternative ways to garden and experiment and learn ourselves!
Jason was excited about the idea and we began making plans!
The very first principle in Permaculture is to observe and Interact, which means observing the land, figuring out what is naturally taking place, observing how nature is working around us and how we can work with nature instead of against it.
Around mid September we began making trips down to the area we wanted to develop at different times throughout the day. We observed the sun, shade and wind exposures, the wildlife activity, slopes and water movement after heavy rains. We took soil samples. We took note of what was growing and thriving in the area, good and invasive.
After observing and brainstorming for a few months, we narrowed down our ideas to a few sustainable elements to implement that we thought would be beneficial for our primary customer, the home gardener.
The already present agricultural terraces and natural movement of water determined the design for our main swales and berms. (look for a future post explaining berms and swales)
The swales capture the rain water and allow it to slowly permeate into the soil and move into the berms. This will help in keeping the soil and the roots of the plant material planted in the berms moist. The soil that is removed to create the swale is used to build the berm.
The berms then created an opportunity for us to include perennial borders planted on the berms.
The perennial borders will serve many purposes for us as a retail nursery; this is an another permaculture principle, stacking functions. They will give us an opportunity to showcase perennials we do not presently have in our display gardens. We will be able to take cuttings from the perennials and propagate them to sale the plant material. We will be able to use it as a cut flower source for our arrangements that we create for all of our events, seminars, and functions. The perennials will be attractants for pollinators and beneficial wildlife. It will also present another beautiful style of gardening. Perennial borders are longer than wide plantings of mixed perennials. The well known designer Gertude Jeckyll implemented this style in many of her beautiful gardens.
As of December 8, 2013, we have constructed our berms and swales. Several heavy rains has allowed us to observe some adjustments we need to make and we are working on them. The first step in designing a sustainable garden is to get the water right. We will then began adding amended soil from our retail nursery operation to the berms and work it into the soil. Then we will cover the entire berms with newspaper and cardboard we have been collecting for months. The newspaper and cardboard will suppress the weeds and hold in moisture. Our goal is to began planting the perennial border this winter.
During our observation we noticed a natural depression in an area between two of our existing peach trees. Rainwater naturally flowed off the stone fruit berm and collected in this natural depression. We determined this was a great opportunity to create a rain garden. To give the home gardener ideas of what they could do with these type areas they may have in their yards. Usually the solution to these problem spots is to dig a drainage trench and divert the water to their neighbors yard. Why not harvest this natural resource and use it to our advantage? We will also showcase plants that will thrive in these wet areas.
As of December 8, 2013 We have dug out our rain garden bed. After several heavy rains it is full of water and we are observing how long it takes for the water to permeate into the soil. We will then incorporate our recipe for drainage, which will include a layer of gravel, about 50% sand and good composted soil. Then we will choose plants that like wet conditions and plant our rain garden.
(A really great resource on rain gardens is at aces.edu, rain garden design for home owners)
We have been cleaning up our woods and had an area we were piling debris. We decided this would be a great place to create a hugelculture bed. Hugelculture is a German word. It is a method used for gardening in much of central Europe. Used a lot for planting potatoes mounds.
It is a method of piling up branches or brush in a mound, piling up grass clippings, sod, leaves, straw, etc. on top of the wood pile. Adding good compost and soil and then planting on top of the mound. Rotting wood holds a lot of moisture and becomes like a huge sponge that is sunk into the ground. The roots of the plants absorb this moisture. The rotting wood also creates a habitat for microorganisms and incredible soil life.
It is basically a concept of creating a giant compost pile and planting on top of it.
(look for a future post explaining hugelculture in more depth)
As of December 8, 2013 We decided to dig a deep trench and have a smaller mound rather than a large mounded hugelculture garden. We have dug a 25' diameter circle about 4' deep. We used the soil dug from the hole to create the perennial border berms. We are filling the hole with logs, limbs, and fallen tree debris. We are then adding leaves we have been raking up all over the nursery. We are adding rotten fruit, recycled soil amendments from our nursery retail operation. Some of our employees are contributing and bringing their kitchen scraps and chicken manure. When we get the hole full we will add a thick layer of good composted soil and plant.
All along the wood line we definitely wanted to incorporate an edible forest. This would enable us to create a garden mimicking the forest. It will include layers of plant materials that are edible & useful for humans and that will attract beneficial wildlife. (look for a future post explaining an edible forest)
As of December 8, 2013 we have outlined our area fro the edible forest. We slightly disk the soil and planted a cover crop of elbin rye. We will chop and drop the cover crop in the spring and allow it to decompose and then we will plant a summer cover crop of sun hemp. These cover crops will build the nitrogen in the soil. We will chop and drop the sun hemp and began adding compost and amendments to the soil. We plan to apply sheet mulching in part of this area.
During this winter, spring, and summer, we are observing the water movement throughout the edible forest area which will help us in designing the swale system for this area. We will also be observing the areas that get the most sun and shade exposure. We will also be choosing all our plant materials and designing the edible forest to be a complete healthy ecosystem which will be sustainable.
Our goal is to plant the edible forest Fall of 2014.
We would love for you to come and visit us and check out our sustainable garden project!
We will keep you updated as we progress!
Before (September 2013)
Swales and Berms being constructed
Rain Garden under construction
Hugelculture
Edible Forest
lightly disking and planting elbin rye
