Natural Building in the Greenhouse

Natural Builder Eli Adadow, coordinated a group of youth from the Alternatives-to-Detention work crew, and some fellow natural builders, in filling in the gaps in the greenhouse. These gaps were between the recycled windows used to rebuild the greenhouse walls. Great for ventilation in the summer…not so great in the winter!

First we made up clay slip, and then mixed soil, sand and clay together in a wheelbarrow til it had the right consistency. In the summer, we might do this on a tarp with our bare feet, but it was cold and windy outside this November day!

Then sifted straw was added to the mix, to make a cob that was a sculpting cob, rather than a coarser kind for construction.

The spaces between the windows and studs were filled with the cob, and packed in.

It was easy, fun and quick!

We used recycling cedar shakes from the old sauna roof to cover over the exposed outside surface of the wall. The cob will dry, and the greenhouse is one step closer to being draft-free!

The garden close-up

We were working in the garden on a beautiful October day. Garden volunteer, Susan Burgers, is also an artist, and brought her artistic vision to the vegetables and berries we were harvesting.

In the chard forest….

The fall raspberries were divine!

The garden not only grows food, it abounds in beauty.

Youth growing in the garden

From this…..                                                to this!

To the light and heat of the sun, add water, soil, seeds, and the energy of youth, and the garden grows! Youth from the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, the LEAF (Service Learning) program at Edmonds Community College, and the Alternatives-to-Detention program of Island County Juvenile Court have been growing the Westgarden this season.

Prepping the soil and adding compost and fertilizer… learning about soil tilth and fertility, how compost improves the soil, and how to make compost with worms.  Though the newly terraced beds had been sheet mulched, they still needed turning over and weeding. We added composted alpaca manure and worm compost.
http://learningfromtheland.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/compost-layer-cake/
http://learningfromtheland.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/worm-compost/

Planting… kale, lettuce, beets, basil, pumpkins, turnips, chard, radishes, beans, potatoes, onions, and lots more! Taking care that the spacing between seeds is correct so as not to overplant, and covering with just the right amount of soil.

Weeding…. learning about the different kinds of plants and pulling the right ones!

And growing! Great flavors, great smells, great textures, great food. Experiencing first-hand the nourishment of the earth and the richness of the natural world.

In addition to the fresh salads for our shared picnic lunches under the apple tree, we walk the produce up the hill to the Whidbey Institute kitchen, and also bring it to the Good Cheer Food Bank.

The next generation is growing the garden, and the garden is helping them grow!

Whidbey Island Garden Tour- a glorious day!

It was a glorious day for the Garden Tour! Perfect sky, perfect temperature, the garden just glowing. The garden tour pledged $1800 to replace the greenhouse roof, and install a rainwater catchment system, so we were extra-motivated hosts.

But to get ready, we had quite the list of tasks to complete. The area around the greenhouse was a bit of a mess from the roof replacement, and piles of irrigation and water supplies needed organizing.

Kale needed to be harvested for the lunch, and there was lots of weeding everywhere!

Bit by bit,  we crossed off everything on the list. So that on the day of….

Everything was spectacular! Many thanks to Waldorf school 3rd grade students for weeding, and also Shawn, Mike and Christian for weeding, clean-up, and harvesting the day before, and then being docents during the tour.

Whidbey Island Garden Tour

The Whidbey Island Garden Tour is funding the new greenhouse roof and rainwater catchment system in the Westgarden! The tour is on Saturday, June 27th, from 10 am – 4 pm. Go to http://www.wigt.org/ to order tickets, and to reserve a lunch at the Whidbey Institute. There will also be a lovely display of art and sculpture in the Whidbey Institute gardens that day, all of which will be supplied by member artists from the Whidbey Open Studio Tour. Tickets may be available on the day of the tour at Bayview Farm and Garden.

Upcoming posts

It’s been a very busy season on the land! Two posts are in the works, so stay tuned!

Natural Building class, with how to make an earthbag wall.

Edmonds Community College service-learning in the Westgarden.

Small Space and Container Gardening

You can grow vegetables in leaky horse troughs, in planting pots, in 4 x 4 beds. In a Learning from the Land class held at the Good Cheer Food Bank garden, Kathleen Rauch shared soil mixture, placement, watering and planting tips for growing in containers. Stay tuned to see how the Square Foot gardens grow!

Making liquid soap

On a blissful May day in the Westgarden, Karen Wilson shared her recipes and experience making liquid soap.

The soap base, made of organic coconut oil, organic olive oil and wildcrafted shea butter was mixed together and warmed up. The more “hard oils” like coconut, the more bubbles for cleaning; the more soft oils like olive, almond, sunflower, the gentler it is for your skin. The one we made in class is somewhere in the middle.

Karen demonstrated how to carefully add the lye to the water, and then carefully, slowly, add the lye to the warmed oils, and mix with a stick blender.

The mixture goes through a few stages….first watery, then becoming thin, and then suddenly thickening into a thick pudding-like paste. The paste is then cooked for a few hours. It continues to thicken to the point that it cannot be stirred and when it becomes transluscent, it has completed the chemical process of saponification. Then it is diluted with water and herbal infusions, neutralized, and ready for essential oils, herbal extracts and bottling.

Essential oils were combined to create just the right fragrance, and added to soap that had already gone through the full process. Now it’s ready for to be used as a hand soap, dish and home soap, bodywash or pet shampoo. If very diluted, it can be used to wash aphids off plants!

Natural building

Eli Adadow opened up a whole new world of building with natural materials that are locally available .

Eli explains the characteristics of sand, straw and clay.

And how you evaluate your materials with the simple “soil plus water, shake, and watch it settle” test.

Subsoil is mixed with the clay and sand, and water added. Footwork combined with some fancy dancing with the tarp blends the materials together.

The “listening to the grittiness of sand” test, and the “make a golf ball-sized clump, drop it and see if it splats” test help determine if you have the right consistency.

Once you can see your footprints clearly, it’s time for the straw.

Mixing the straw in, and then doing the “see if you can pull it apart” test.

Everyone has a try at making their own batch!

Then we wheelbarrowed it down to the Westgarden, and made cobs (the little balls of the mixture) which were used to create a heat-retaining wall in the greenhouse.

The greenhouse wall was sprayed with clay slip to create a good surface to adhere to, and the cob then packed on.

We also made bricks.

Eli demonstrates how to make a straw and clay slip mixture.

We used this material to fill in gaps in the new greenhouse walls,

And to make more bricks!

An energetic and energizing day learning about how to build with such simple materials!

Worm compost

The worms had been working away for months, and it was time to harvest a bin. We shoveled the vermicompost out and put it on a tarp in the sun.

After a while, the worms wriggle down to the bottom of the pile to avoid the light, and you can harvest the worm-free compost. Scrape it off until you find the worms. Then pile up the remaining compost, and repeat the process.

After doing this a few times, there will be quite the ball of worms at the bottom of the pile! Now you can use your worm-free compost in the garden, and use the worms to start up a fresh worm bin.

Add leaves and shredded paper. Mix it all up.

Add your food scraps and mix it all up.

Water it in – not too wet, and not too dry.

Done!

Just keep adding food, keep it from getting gooey by adding paper and leaves as needed, and the worms will do the rest.
We mix our food in every time, other people just pile it on top. Different approaches work!

Thank you to Rico Espinoza and Maylee Vo for their help!