Healing Gardens

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WEEK 2

10/5/06 Longhouse

Tahoma and I met Meghan at our beautiful compost site at 9 A.M. on Thursday October 5th. We got acquainted with the site and completed our site description. Tahoma played fetch and scoped the area while Meghan and I tried to identify some of the plant life around our site. We talked about our hopes, dreams and plans for the compost bins. We are both eager to educate ourselves on the many different options for composting and to pass that knowledge on to our classmates and our community. We parted at 10:30 with excitement in our eyes.

I typed our site description last night from 10 P.M. until 11:30 P.M. and posted it a few minutes ago on our web page. I can't wait to get back out there to do more plant identification and to begin making a concrete plan for our site. First we must read, read and read some more about composting!!!

Meghan is drawing our site map. If it has not been posted yet it, it will be soon. 

Hours: 3

10/10/06 Longhouse

I visited the compost site at 1:00 on Thursday afternoon. A good friend of mine accompanied me to help identify the plants in the site area. Four hours later we had identified almost all of the plants that reside in the compost site. Salmon berry is growing in abundance along the edge of the woods and has managed to creep its way aroung the actual compost structure. There is coltsfoot, nettle, comfrey and two young and healthy western red cedars. There are many more plants that we identified and Meghan and I will share them with you over the course of the quarter!

Hours: 4

Total Hours: 7

WEEK 3

10/11/06 Longhouse

I headed to campus early today so that I would have a few hours at the compost site before class began. I pulled an old stump up to the comfrey and spent some time quietly observing her. It was a nice to sit silently in the shade of the woods and get to know a plant on a more personal level. I also poked inside the compost bin and looked closely at the actual structure to see how difficult it will be to take apart. I just wanted to spend time with plants, animals, insects and compost pile for a while. It is all still very new to me.

 

Hours: 3

Total Hours: 10

 

10/16/06 Longhouse

Today Meghan, Tahoma and I spent an hour taking digital pictures of the plants that we previously identified in the compost site. We will download the pictures to our webpage and label each plant. We thought this would be an opportunity for fellow students to see what lives in the compost area of the Longhouse garden. We also talked about our hopes and dreams for the compost site and what is realistic for the duration of this quarter. We both see eye to eye and have the same vision for what we would like to accomplish (if you look in the goals section of the compost webpage you will see some of our ideas).

It was nice to be back at the site and to share with Meghan what I have learned about the native plants that reside there.

 

Hours: 1

Total Hours: 11

 

10/17/06 Longhouse

  

The Rodale book of Composting is the book that Meghan and I have made our text book for the quarter. It is our bible and will help us to learn and eventually conceptualize the fundamentals of composting. I have read the first 5 chapters and am amazed at how long humans have been composting. Would you believe that humans have been composting since before the birth of Moses? Well it’s true. It is not until the industrial era hit the United States with massive speed that composting became a thing of the past. Why compost when you can dig a giant whole and bury everything and the leftovers can just be burned in an incinerator? I am going to leave you with that pleasant thought and will write more on the history of composting later.

 

Hours: 2

Total Hours: 13 

 

WEEK 4

10/20/06 Longhouse

 

I've found that when I haven't been to the Longhouse garden for more than a couple days, I begin to long for it. I can hear it calling me in the breeze that blows in my courtyard. Today I answered the call and headed to the Longhouse for a short while. I read more of The Rodale Book of Composting in the shade of the Douglas Fir that stands tall and strong on the left of the compost bins. I also cut back some salmon berry that was overtaking some salal.

 

Hours: 1 ½

Total Hours: 14 ½

  

10/23/06 Longhouse

 

Today I took extensive notes on composting from the Rodale Book of Composting and posted them on our site page.

Hours: 1 1/2

Total Hours: 16

10/24 Isabelle's garden

 

I started my volunteer work today at Isabelle’s garden with Jeff her gardener. He is extremely knowledgeable about plants particularly native plants of the Pacific North West. We pruned lavender, investigated mycelium, split native iris bulbs and transplanted them and talked a little about the compost. We worked until that magic hour when it is not day or night, and your eyes begin to play tricks on you. I had a wonderful time and cannot wait to be in the garden at Isabelle’s once again.

 

Hours: 2

Total Hours: 18

 

WEEK 5

10/26 Isabelle's Garden

I worked on pruning the many lavender plants in Isabelle's abundant garden. I also harvested the last of the delicious rasberries and strawberries so that they did not go to waste. I treasured every last bite on my walk home at the end of the day.

 

Hours: 2

Total Hours: 20

 

WEEK 6

 

11/2/06 Longhouse

The gentleman that I work with at my community service garden was unable to be there this week and so I did not volunteer this week. He is not a big fan of working in the pouring down rain. I can't blame him, though I was ready to work, if he was willing. Instead, I concentrated on researching compost. I continued reading the Rodale Book of Composting. I have been learning so much about the history of composting, why it is a beneficial to compost and what the best ways to compost are. For example it is hard to have a successful compost with out manure. Manure is high in bacteria and bacteria is food for the microorganisms that are the decomposers of a compost heap. *There are more extensive notes under the compost site portion of the web page.

 

Hours: 3

Total Hours: 23

 

11/5/06 Longhouse

Today was an exciting day full of rain and hardware stores. I ventured out to begin pricing different options for the future compost bin at the Longhouse Garden. I felt like I had entered a different world once I was in the hardware stores. I was unable to find many helpful workers who could answer my questions and I was surprised at how expensive wood can be. One thing worth noting is that Lowes will cut wood for you. I found that to be a positive discovery. I will keep you posted!

 

Hours: 1

Total Hours: 24

 

WEEK 7

11/9/06 Longhouse and Isabelle's

I started my day off at the Longhouse. I began the process of breaking down the existing compost bin to see what was inside and more importantly for humus under all the plant material. The dirt that has gathered under the plant material is not humus. It closely resembles dust! Not the desired product of a compost pile. I began to get frustrated with all of the large pieces of blackberry branches that were pricking me. Every thing was wet and very heavy. I gave up a couple of hours into it and decided to wait for some help. I returned home for lunch and was right back outside, but at Isabelle's working in her garden. Jeff and I worked on the front section of the garden doing clean-up. We pruned, cut back, and weeded for two hours. The conversation was good and the work was rewarding.

 

Hours: 4

Total Hours: 28

11/13/06 Longhouse

 

 

Meghan and I met off campus at a coffee shop to discuss our presentation. We compared our notes, wrote a project outline, and divided the remaining work between us. We are both feeling positive about where we are in our compost study and the planning of our presentation. We are meeting again next week to bring our information together and start posting our presentation.

Hours: 2

Total Hours: 30

 

WEEK 8

 

11/17/06 Longhouse

 

This afternoon I visited Marja's house to check out her compost structure. It was built out of wood and had three compartments. It had no doors which makes it easier to turn the pile. A similar structure would be perfect for the Longhouse garden.

Hours: 1

Total Hours: 31

 

11/19/06 Longhouse

 

Today Meghan and I met on campus to begin the process of creating our presentation web page. The last time we met we wrote an outline for the presentation and both left with hefty to do lists. Today we had all of our completed work. We edited each others documents and began posting them on our web site. We had a little trouble getting our pages in the order that we want them in, but agreed that we would try again tomorrow!

 

Hours: 2

Total Hours: 33

 

11/20/06 Longhouse

 

Meghan and I completed are online portion of our presentation. We scanned many pictures, compared compost structures, and posted plants present at our site. We have both worked very hard to make our webpage informative and educational. I am proud of our work and am pleased that I have had the chance to learn so much about compost.

 

Hours: 2

Total Hours: 35