This is my last day working full time on the garden! It has been such a journey and it’s incredible to see how far we’ve come from the beginning. The past few weeks have mainly been spent putting in the final touches: spreading bark chip mulch, constructing trellises, doing the rest of the planting, and we are now finally starting to see fruits growing and obtain a yield (another permaculture principle)! Finally seeing the garden coming together after envisioning it and working on it for so long is extremely rewarding.
Purple tomatoes!
As the summer comes to an end and I pass the project on, I thought I would share some of the main things I've learned throughout the process of creating the garden:
Be Patient
On my first day working on this project, Chris, Audrey and I sat down to start to build a timeline of the steps we would take. We planned to spread compost on Monday, cardboard on Tuesday, Dig the swale Wednesday, and finish the sheet mulch on Thursday. This one week stretched into the entire summer. As discussed in previous blog posts, each step took so much longer than we predicted. It was at times very frustrating to feel like nothing was being accomplished because the progress wasn’t immediately visible. At times, we were worried we wouldn’t even be able to complete it in time. Trusting in the process and in the permaculture principle “Use Small and Slow Solutions” made me appreciate the value of each step and make sure it was done properly and not rushed through. Mistakes are made and further problems are caused when things aren’t done carefully, and I wanted to make sure that each step was completed well and in its own time.
Chris and Olivia cardboarding the field
People/ Self Care
People Care is one of the three ethics of permaculture. It encompasses everything from social justice to caring for your own mental and physical health. Looking back at the garden building process, I picture it as a seemingly never-ending sequence of huge piles of materials that we had to move. From the 100 cubic meter compost pile, to the stacks of cardboard, to the truckloads of soil and mulch that would get dumped on the site as soon as we had gotten to the bottom of the last one. This was hard on us both physically and mentally; it felt like we were literally moving mountains. In these instances, taking breaks or switching tasks for a while was important to staying motivated. Equally important was asking for help! I am so indebted to everyone who volunteered with us and helped make these arduous tasks so much faster and more enjoyable. Everyone brings a new outlook and different skills and I really enjoyed learning from everyone who participated.
The never-ending compost pile
Chloe and Morgen helping to spread bark chip mulch
Leave room to be creative
Some of my favourite moments working on this project were during the design process. It was like a puzzle where I was given a list of plants and using permaculture theory and all of the gardening wisdom I could find, had to organize them together in a space. I would invent these designs that sometimes I would even doubt would work, but then gleefully decide to try them out anyways. The results were sometimes messy, and often didn’t come out exactly as planned, but they still bring me great joy and, I hope, can start to redefine what a garden can look like. Not all of it will work, but that’s just a part of the process.
I think that the experimental nature of the garden is what makes it so unique and important as a project and educational space. If we can give students a place to try new things without the pressures of having to produce large amounts of food for people, I think that will be very valuable. Growing things is fun! Designing unconventional, diverse, colourful gardens and watching them come to life is fun! Removing the stress and leaving room for playful, uninhibited experimentation is what is needed to change the way we think about agriculture and creating spaces. Producing food is an added bonus!
Tomatoes surrounded by companion plants
I’m very proud of what the garden has become and am so excited to see how it will continue to grow and evolve. I hope that what I have helped create can serve as a starting point for further discussion and investigation into permaculture. The space still has so much potential and room for improvement. Thank you for following along on this endeavour and stay tuned to see what it becomes!
