Sky Garden

2^ndUse From a Father/Daughter Art Project to Thoughts of Divinity and Down Streaming

A view from my front porch

Water is amazing; it is the elixir of life. I can see, when looking at a sunset, why we often think of our gods as residing in the sky. And, through contingent thinking, we perceive rain as a gift from the deities. 

Living in an arid environment and working with horticulture has heightened my awareness of the stuff. It seems to me that after a big rain I can sit and watch the yard green up. For me, experiencing a good rain feels much the same as a good laugh or cry.

I have always known that water is infinitely renewable as it cycles over and over again from ground to sky. As example, my father used to revel in telling us that when we drank water we were actually drinking dinosaurs’ pee. But even though it is infinitely renewable, we all know that it is quite finite in supply.

My kitchen garden is in our front yard in an urban/suburban neighborhood. This being said, I need to expend some energy in my landscaping towards curb appeal. A monoculture agrology approach would not fly with my wife. The initial idea was to build some flower boxes for the tops of my new trellises. I wanted to plant flowers that were either edible or in some way beneficial to the garden whether they attracted predatory insects or repelled pests and for their color and interest. The way it worked out was the girls and I built these boxes to go on top of our trellises during a take-the-daughters-to-work day.

We talked about nature and what plants need, how big to make the planters, what we could plant in them, and of course themes for the decorations since they love to paint. The project was finished in a day. 

Picture of neighbor’s view, which receives the painted sides—gifts from my daughters Maddie and Maura

I like the simple esthetics of the raw materials and I chose the unpainted view from my kitchen window. The height of the trellises is nine feet and made of 2x4’s and 6”x6” wire lathe.

After I installed them I realized that, due to their height and daily watering needs of container growing in Colorado, they should be hooked up to the drip water system. It was also because of their height that they were titled ‘Sky Garden’; we felt God got the best view.

After planting came the first watering and I observed that there was a fair amount of water draining through the containers and dripping down to the lawn. 

So I to made flanges from left over roofing materials that directed the overflow into the garden trellis beds.

I planned on using the trellises for growing cucurbits, such as cucumbers, squashes, melons, and what ever else I could grow vertically.  

But I must admit that this bonus of extra water was not all pre-thought, but more a series of discoveries that led to my better understanding of the responsible use of water through down streaming and just the gratitude for the gift of water. 

The fruits truly seem to appreciate the extra water.

             

Dirt Makers

2^ndUse Decorative Containers To Soil

This project was inspired through my investigations in uses for straw. Living in Colorado this material is very available. Often you can find it for free either used for fall decorations or bedding that is slightly old and moldy. I have used it for mulch in my garden beds to help keep in water and slow weeds. One word of caution, straw is flammable so I never use it in beds around my house. I have also used it as carbon supply for composting and I have seen it used as a building material for hay bail houses.

Dirt Makers are straw bales used as a pedestal for containers to grow bedding plants. In my landscaping I use the Dirt Makers as an architectural element that acts as a divider or border between my driveway and front yard. My first experiment used flowering plants with the center being purple fountain grass. I thought it was an interesting mimetic play to have grass growing in grass.

The idea is that as the plants grow on top the roots will help break down the turning the straw in to compost. This means that there will be an element of entropy in the installation as the straw decomposes the Dirt Makers shrink and pitch. Eventually the straw will break down to compost that will be used perhaps as the soil in the next generation of dirt makers.

As an aside I like the idea that the straw bales hold water. This helps with keeping the soil in the containers moist, which is critical in the Colorado environment. It is like using mulch to hold the water, but up side down.

After making these I have heard that people grow tomatoes in straw bails, I would be afraid they would tip over in the wind. Perhaps an herb garden would be nice.

I made the containers for the soil out of found material in a metal scrap pile and my colleague Evan Blackstock, taught me the tools and techniques to make them.

I placed the structure on the bails on bails, added 3 inches of potting soil. Plan on using the soil created for the next generation of Dirt Makers.

Dirt Makers ready for planting with the metal containers and three inches of potting soil.

Dirt Makers when first planted in Mid Summer

Dirt Makers in Fall after one season

Dirt Makers In Fall, notice the tilt from decomposition and enjoy the wabi sabi.