Sunday, November 25, 2012

Now That the Soil is Planted...

Hello,
     Welcome, thanks for coming. This blog hasn't been active lately, but lucky for us, microorganisms in our newly planted soil have been eating the existing soil, grass, cardboard, and mulch and turning it into awesome soil so we can plant in the spring.
     That means it's time to start thinking about what we want to plant in the spring. We're going to host a design event on January 27th to figure out what we want in the garden. So now, start thinking: what do I want in the garden?
     Maybe you want native Iowa plants?
          
     
Left to right: Wild Bergamot, Indian Blanket, Black-eyed Susan
All images from http://www.public.iastate.edu/~herbarium/inps/photos/picy.php          
     Iowa plants have been thriving in this ecosystem for years on years, so they are a natural choice for our landscape. Coe's library has some wonderful picture books about Iowa's native plants. Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands by Sylvan Runkel and Alvin Bull (call number QK160 .R86) is on the third floor and currently checked in. If you go to that section of the library, you'll fund some other lovely books with lots of pictures. 
     For those of you who prefer to find information on the web, the aptly named Plant Iowa Natives page is full of links to businesses (including Backyard Abundance) and government agencies that sell seeds, preserve prairies, spread information, and all sorts of other good stuff.
     I've been drawn to plants in Coe's colors as there are some very pretty red and yellow (crimson and gold) plants. That said, there are some very pretty plants in all of the other colors. So keep your eyes peeled. I'm going to keep looking for things that look nice, and you should do the same. Remember to mark your calendar for January 27th.
Best,  
Peter
     
     

Monday, November 5, 2012

Sheet Mulch Success

       We installed sheet mulch yesterday! The first thing we did was dig a hole to see what the soil was like. Fred Meyer says it's always a good idea to dig a hole and see what the soil is like. After about a foot, we found that the nice, dark soil turned into sand. Susan Woolverton hypothesized that it used to be the bank--or main body--of the river. She's probably onto something there.
       After that, we took some pitchforks and aerated the soil. "Aerate" here meaning "poke holes in the ground." Lots of fun in this step.

 
Susan, Tim--barely visible--Spencer, and Alexis aerating the soil.

       After that, we spread a layer of compost over the grass so that just a few tufts were poking out. Then we spread a layer of cardboard over everything. The cardboard kills all the grass and eventually the compost will break it down into delicious plant food. We owe a huge "thank you" to Shack-a-Thon and the various Greek organizations who gave us big boxes. Also a big thanks to Tom Wieseler from Sodexo for bring a number of boxes directly to our site.
       With the cardboard covering everything, we uncovered our mound of compost and wheelbarrowed it to the location, just about fifteen feet away. Arial, Spencer, and I shoveled compost into wheelbarrows that Jon and Nathan wheeled back and forth from the pile to the site. The other 7 or 8 of us were spreading it all out and unloading the rest of Lisa Stroschine's truck. Lisa and her two children came and got in on the fun, too.
       Then we unloaded two truckloads of wood chips with rakes and shovels. I'm not sure if you've ever unloaded two truckloads of wood chips before, but it's a lot of wood chips. We spread them out so no compost was visible.
       Finally, we swept up the site, put our tools away, and admired our work. It took just over two hours. I'm glad we got it done quickly, but there were some people hoping to come by later who didn't have the chance to help. Luck for them we'll be designing the garden at some point in time.
       There were a lot of cameras floating around, so as we get more pictures, we'll post them here along with some updates on what's next: design and choosing plants.
       We don't have a design date set yet, but stay tuned for that information. In the meantime, start thinking about what you want in the garden!

 -Peter          

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Welcome!

Hey everyone,

       Welcome to our new blog! It's run by the Coe College Environmental Club. We're super excited about a new project we're working on here: permaculture. This is a national movement and we at Coe are trying to be a part of it. We're working closely with Fred Meyer of Backyard Abundance.
       Our project this year is to turn a boring patch of grass in front of Murray Hall into an awesome landscape that will feature native Iowa plants, perennial flowers, and maybe some fruit or nut trees. Really, the options are endless.
   
This is the spot in front of Murray. It used to have a pine-y bush. It will have the best things ever!

      We got approval from President Phifer to use this spot of land. He is almost as excited as we are about the project. The first step is to install sheet mulch, a thick layer of cardboard, compost and leaves (from campus trees), and wood chips. This should make a nice soil for the spring when we plant all sorts of beautiful things.
       Thanks to E-club's president Palmer and some other volunteers, we have a mound of cardboard in our club closet. Our big goals now are finding trucks to pick up compost, ordering mulch, finding tools, and getting volunteers! If you want to help out, we'll be in front of Murray on Sunday, November 4th at 1 PM. Bring warm gardening clothes, gloves, shovels, pitchforks, rakes, a fun attitude, and friends!