Planning a Garden Space (or any space)

I am going to start with two assumptions. You already know where your growing space is. You want to make the best use of that space in the shortest amount of time.

Maybe you have been gardening for years, and you want to make the space more efficient. Maybe you have a space and you want to try your hand at a new skill. Maybe you just have space for a few containers. No matter what space you are working with, from a half acre to a few containers in an RV, there are a few tricks to making the best use of your time and space. This exercise is one of those tricks that can jump start your ability to create results that you will love. (This is the technique that I use every time I need to plan out a space.)

Right now, in February, is the time to do this planning where I am near the shores of Lake Erie. We are well ahead of the growing season here, but the willow and poplar buds are starting to swell. This exercise of mapping out the garden is the perfect way to relieve the winter blahs. I’m ancient, I do this exercise on paper, but the right program on a computer works, too.

All you need is pen and/or pencil, paper, measuring tools, and scissors. (and a cup of coffee or tea.

The Process

1) Do a rough sketch of your space with as much detail as you can. Just do this by eye. It does not need to be in accurate dimensions at this point, just good enough to show the space and what is in the space that cannot be moved, or that you don’t want to move. Make this large enough to make notes on and small enough to carry.

2) Go measure. Measure every dimension, distance, placement, depth, height, and feature that you can and in as much detail as you can. Note each measurement on your rough sketch with enough detail that you know what you have when you are not looking at the space.

3) Redraw your map. Sit down in a comfortable and pleasant place and use the measurements and notes to draw an accurate map that is to scale. My garden space is 20 feet long and 12 feet wide. My paper is 8.5 inches by 11 inches, so divide 20 by 11 to get 1.8. 12 divided by 8 is 1.5. I will use a scale of 2 feet of garden per inch of map. That gives me a map of 10 inches long by 6 inches wide. Set this aside in a safe place

4) On a separate piece of paper, draw out your elements. This includes beds, benches, mature size of the plants, tables, tools, storage, and size and shape of your harvest equipment. Note or sketch a figure representing your safe and comfortable reach. Draw out everything that you can think of to the same scale as you space map. Label every piece.

5) Cut out the elements and store them in an envelope or zip lock bag.

6) In a safe place, (wind and curious kittens are not your friend in this) place your map on the table. Arrange the paper cut out elements onto the map in the way that you think you want them to be. Keep in mind that paths should accommodate you and your tools comfortably. Stay aware of your safe and comfortable reach. Keep moving the elements until you are happy. Snap a picture to record your ideas and put everything away.

7) Is there anything that you can do to make the space more efficient or easier to manage? Trellis? Fence? Arch? Anything else?

8)In a few days, do step 6 and 7 again. Repeat this several times, then choose the result that you like the best.

9) When you can, mock up a life size space with cardboard or old newspaper cut outs. Move about the designated space. If you are still happy, YEAH! You are ready to do the real work. If you find challenges, congratulations, you found them before digging ground. Go back to step 6. Again, congratulations! If you follow these steps, you should be able to save yourself from a number of frustrations.

PRO TIPS:

I grew up with a conventional row garden that we tilled between the rows. The system was inefficient in space, time, fertility, water, and productivity. When I started my own garden, I switched to a mulched bed system and achieved more than 4 times the productivity for the space and with less work.

If you have never gardened before, or you are setting up a new space, start small and have patience.

Experiments

Last fall, my friend was offered a generous gift. I guess that I have been too strong of an influence on her recently. She said yes without looking at the gift. What showed up at her door was two large SUV full loads of (probably) split ash for basketry. What a beautiful abundance of resources the neither of us knew how to use. It is now split between her storage room (almost out of the way), and my storage unit (definitely in the way). Oh what abundance, and I have been consuming basketry videos and scheming since it was dropped off.

I guess this is where I should take a step back a few years, as this is just the last example of the way that I live most of my life, and how I create abundance in my life. I start with the assumption that everything around me is a resource and what I need is available if I am creative and persistent. The hides from butchering became leather, then artwork. The grape vine choking the trees became baskets. The willow in the swamp became building material. Sounds simple, right. Well - not as simple as I am making it sound.

Each time, and each resource, required a learning curve. I always start with research. This is the intellectual knowledge of possibility, the theory. Next comes the application. Then comes the successful results. Again, easy, right. Except that the middle step, the application, involves a lot of trial and error, adjustments, and lessons. In the end, a communication develops between me (the artist) and the materials (the Earth). This takes a tolerance for the learning curve, no matter how long it takes, and burning through some resources.

This abundance of basketry material has been a perfect example of this philosophy and process. We start with a beautiful abundance of material being dropped off at the doorstep. I have done basketry before, but not with this material, so we stored it just enough in the way to be a nuisance.

Next, I started the research process. How do others make baskets with this? What skills do I already have? What tools do I have? What other resources do I have that I can bring into this?

With the research under my belt and all of the questions answered, I chose a plan that would be likely be very forgiving.

This twined basket was my first attempt. This basket contains a lot of lessons about the materials and the technique.

This black and red basket is my second attempt. A third attempt should actually get me a result that I am happy with.

So what are the lessons here?

1) Resources are available if you train yourself to see them, see the potential, and say yes.

2) Abundance and resiliency are skills. It is a skill set requires time, trials, and experimenting. Each skill builds on the last and speeds the learning of the next.

3) No matter how much research you do, learning a new skill, technique, or material takes working through the results that you don’t like to learn how to get the results that you do like. This takes patience and tolerance for the learning curve.

4) Learn on materials that are inexpensive to you, or better yet free, so you can relax with the results while you are learning.

5) Wisdom is the ability to create abundance for yourself and others by learning from others, and applying your skills and experience to the resources at hand. And, to do this with patience and without stress and fear. It takes working the process as long as it takes to achieve the results that you want. This is a mind set. Any results that are less than your vision are an opportunity to learn, practice, and find more information.

I will say in closing that my greatest joy is finding an overlooked or discarded resource and exploring what I can do with it.

You can find articles, how to’s, and stories on my page at Buy Me a Coffee

Mother Maple

Just to set the scene: This was written on a blazing hot day in late June, during the hottest year on record. This is where many of my stories start, sitting under the maple tree, or out at the lake. I sit there with pen and paper in hand, and just write what comes up. Here is the raw writing. It is hard to say what it will become when it actually becomes a story.

I am in the shade of the maple tree just watching, observing, feeling, listening. The young falcon is circling over head, just above the trees. Once, twice, 3, 5, then off to the south. The lake is warm right now and the sky is hazy. The warm air blowing off the lake is so heavy with moisture that you can almost drink it. As it rises over the land and moves to the south, it condenses into clouds over the four lane and drops its water in intense bursts of rain.

The maple tree on the edge of the yard is a young and gentle mother. I sit nestled under her branches and feel the gentle embrace. As I sit here listening to her stories, a bald eagle takes a strong flight path up river. No gentle glide for this beauty today. She is on a mission and in a hurry to get there. The stories are there in the gentle whispers this day when I can get quiet enough to hear the voices beyond hearing. Sitting surrounded by the blanket of Mother Maple, I let her sweetness soothe and heal. The breeze kisses my cheek with the potential of what could be.

The rain to the south washes the air and the land. Today, I breath my worry and fear into the moist air, for it to be carried to the rain and be washed into the earth. The earth takes it all and turns it into fertility for the next cycle. As I listen to the land, the red tailed hawk honors me with her presence. She rises from the trees, circles then, off to the east she flies.

I start to fidget, and the spell is breaking. Like Mother Maple, I draw wisdom and energy from deep from within the earth. The fires burn as we watch turning sky white and grey far from the spark. They burn away the veneer of illusion to expose what needs to be cleansed and released and changed. So what is the story today?

The cycle of life. We humans have stressed this cycle to the breaking point. The links are breaking one after the other. It is in the haze, the fires, the eagle, the hawk, and in Mother Maple. Earth struggles, re-calibrates and adjusts. She will, in time, reach a new balance.

Mother Maple whispers into my ear, “Tell your kind, that if you are to be a part of the world that is to be, you must be in the cycle of sustainability.”

And for a little bit more

Events

February 9 - National Pizza Day

February 10 - Chinese New Year, The beginning of the Year of the Dragon

February 12 - International Darwin Day

February 21 - Card Reading Day

February 24 - Full Moon

February 26 - Carnival Day

March 10 - New Moon, Next Newsletter

March 10 - Daylight Savings starts in US

March 14 - National Pi Day

March 19 - Spring Equinox

April 8 - Full Solar Eclipse, US and Mexico

Sunchoke

Hakialaipen or sun root is known as sunchoke or Jerusalem artichoke by western culture. This beautiful sunflower, Helianthus tuberosus, was one of the primary food crops cultivated by Native Americans across much of the Eastern Woodlands. This valuable crop was taken to Europe in the 17th century where it became an emergency food source in times of war and famine.

Once sunchoke is planted and established, it thrives for decades in its location. It is so vigorous that t is difficult to get rid of once you have it. It is drought, disease, and insect resistant, and highly productive. This makes it an important plant for surviving hard times.

It is also a crop that hides in plain sight. To the untrained eye, this is an ornamental or wildflower. Its nutritious roots usually get overlooked. They are high in nutritional value, low in calories, and filling.

Much of the indigenous wisdom around this plant has been either lost or hidden. However, modern research indicates that sunchoke has health giving effects for the entire body. They can be consumed raw, baked, fried, or boiled. They can be overwintered in the ground and harvested as they are needed.

For anyone looking to develop more self-sufficiency, resiliency, and abundance in their lives, sunchoke comes highly recommended. If you have a back corner on your property, this might make a beautiful screen to plant there. If you don’t have enough space, this is a wonderful addition to community wild flower projects in the United States. Either way, sunchoke might just be the medicine you are looking for to get you through challenging times.

For a longer article, click on the button to go to my website.

Digital download versions of my artwork are available here

Owl

Owls are beautiful, mysterious, and intriguing. This is a class of birds that contains 240 or so species worldwide. Every continent except Antarctica has at least a few owl species. They range in size from the very small elf owl of the south western United States, to the 10 pound Blakeston’s fish owl from China and Japan.

Most owls do not build their own nests. Most use cavities of hollow trees, nests of other birds, or nesting boxes, buildings, or burrows. Among the few species that do build rudimentary nests is the grey owl, which will build a platform if it is needed, and the snowy owl, which hollows out a nesting spot on the ground.

Owls are a critical balancing agent in most environments. Most species hunt and eat small mammals like mice, rats, rabbits, and lemmings. Occasionally, I have lost young cats to owls, usually between the ages of 4 and 6 months, so owls can play at least a small part in keeping feral cat populations in check. Some of the smaller species eat insects. Some of the larger species eat fish and other birds.

If food is plentiful, some owls can lay up to 12 eggs in a season and raise as many chicks as the food allows with the oldest having the best chance of survival.

You can encourage this important animal for pest control and environmental balance buying or building nesting boxes and placing them on your property. Each species has its own critical needs and preferences. So, the place to start is by contacting your local DNR, extension office, or bird watcher’s club to find out what species are in your area and what they need. Then try to provide the ideal conditions for the species that you prefer to attract. You might get what you want, you might not. The results should be entertaining and educational no matter what decides to inhabit your box.

The owl is the symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and truth. Called Night Eagle by some Native Americans, and oracle by some cultures, this bird has spiritual significance for most cultures.

Hopefully, you can attract an owl to your environment for their ecosystem benefits and spiritual connection.

If you have enjoyed this article about owls, check out the article on my website about the owl’s spiritual significance.

And I'm Not The Only One

Here are a couple of places to find more information.

For information on plant spacing and bed setups check out

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

For more information on owls, check out these sites:

owlresearch,org

audubon,org

fws.gov

Some one I'm following:

The Spruce is one of the organizations that I use for some of my herbal information. They also have information on organic gardening and more. Find them at thespruce.com