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The Garden and The Shed

It's been an incredibly busy few weeks at the garden. We got the rubble trench filled, the earth bags in place, and to-ups built in preparation for last weekend's workshop. Then our straw baling instructor, Mark Schueneman, came for an amazing Saturday and Sunday. He gave a really informative presentation covering the general best practices of straw baling, and then we stacked lots of bails. We are looking forward to part two, which will cover prepping the shed for, mixing, and applying plaster. That workshop will be the weekend of the 25th and 26th. 

In the mean time we have lots of work that needs to be done. Need to build the remaining box beams, stuff straw into gaps, and finish the last bit of stacking. We will definitely have a work day sometime soon. Yesterday, Richard and I got the tar paper on our roof and now we are researching the best approach for the finish it up. Here are some picture of the garden, and all the recent festivities.  

Fireworks from DGL

It's been a couple of weeks already, but we sure had a great time at our the 3rd of july party. This gave me an opportunity to test my time lapse rig. Here is a short video of the Glendale fireworks display as seen from DGL. I need to up the capture rate next time. I'm hoping to use this technique to document our straw bale workshops.

Progress So Far

The garden is starting to look great. The first section of plots is filled, and the crops are coming along. Below are some recent pics. We have a lot of fun stuff happening in July. I'll make a more detailed post soon, but these include our 3rd of July party, straw bale workshops, July's Salon for Urban Permaculture, and an evening of food fun and wine is in the works, lead by our very own gardener/sommelier. We hope to see you there. Warm regards from DGL.

Crops Are In

As of last weekend many of our crops are in. We've gone ahead and planted our warm season crops, perhaps a bit too early. Some of them are having a  challenging time due to temperature fluctuation and wind burn. Live and learn. Our cool season crops are all sprouting and doing wonderfully. We still have a good amount of plants available. Also check out the wonderful coverage one of our foodie gardeners is giving us in his blog the Green Apron. Keep an eye out for a new community section on Permaculture, Nature, and Humans coming soon. Here are a few pictures from this and last week.

DGL Drip System and Finished Beds

The garden's drip system is nearly complete. We are dealing with a few plumbing issues, which should be resolved shortly. We currently have a one zone system with a single in line timer. It's going to be a nicely efficient, simple set up.We are experimenting with depth and configuration. Thanks to David Braden for help setting up, and giving a good learning experience. After planting seedlings gardeners will not have to make weekly watering visits. The images below show our tall sheet mulch, and drip system on a few beds.