Tag Archives: Waterless Garden

Regular Events: A Day in the Waterless Garden

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New Growth in the waterless garden - self seeded

New Growth in the waterless garden – self seeded

A Day in the Waterless Garden is an event (usually a morning) generally facilitated by Lincon Trelor and Philippa Gray. (Check the Events Page for the next one)

It is an open invitation to come and learn the principles behind the waterless garden concept and to gift and contribute your time to various parts of this on-going project.
Lincon and Philippa hold days periodically and will do so until the project is completed. Check out the Events page for dates you can volunteer your time and efforts if you so desire.
For more information please contact Philippa and Lincon via email.
General things to Bring each time, check Events Page for specifics before you come as items may vary depending on the activity:
  • Water
  • Snacks if you want them
  • Sun protection
  • Gloves
  • Anything you feel you need for a day in the garden outdoors
Parking: Please park cars/vehicles up near the big green shed (Jumbuck) on the roadway and walk to the garden, behind the cottage on the grass oval, Thank you.
waterless garden

Waterless Garden Project Update {Guest Post}

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This is a ‘guest blog post’ written by Philippa and Lincon about the findings to date in the ‘Waterless Garden Project’ that they are leading at the Kyabra Learning Centre, Kentucky. There will be a day in the Waterless Garden on Saturday 16th February 2013, for anyone who would like to volunteer their time and give to the land. We feel it is exciting discovering what has been happening and observing the experiments Lincon and Philippa have undertaken so far. Hope you enjoy their discoveries…

 
The Food Forest Waterless Garden Experiment
 
By Philippa & Lincon
The Garden
Findings so far:
 
Of all the Waterless systems that we have created, we have found to date that the plastic lined system held more moisture than the others, due to the water storage capacity.
 
Given the unseasonal conditions we experienced, being very hot & dry, we have been impressed & amazed at the growth & effectiveness of all these systems.
 
Once planted, for the first four weeks we had no rain & 3 of those weeks were 30 degrees plus heat, enough to wilt the sturdiest of vegetables!
 
However, all the systems were still moist & growing well, but needed to be topped up with water given this lack of rain & heat. We both feel had we had the usual summer rainfall this perhaps would not have been necessary.
 
Over the first 9 weeks of the gardens life to date we have watered only twice. 
 
There has been some fixing up required where the kikuyu has come through the gaps where there was either not enough newspaper, the newspaper was not overlapped or the kikuyu in its bid for survival & desire to grow has travelled along under the newspaper & found a thinner spot of mulch to come through!
 
The harvest so far has included ‘whale’ size Zucchini of various colours, watermelons, sweet lettuces & cucumbers. 
The chillies are on the way, as are the eggplants!
 

 
There already appears to be creatures moving into the garden, we have seen lots of lizards, frogs & many six & eight legged wonders!
 
We have also noticed that it seems as though a creature of some sort has made a home in one of the mounds, but to date we have yet to sight it! We will keep you posted….
 
What’s Next:
 
We have two systems left to finish of the approximate 50 that we started with! Amazing, Thank You everyone for the gift of your time.
 
By the middle of this month we will have completed the top half & spread a mountain more mulch to finish the task!
 
Now that the ground has had time to fallow, we will be planting out with the native legumes & other native plants to create the beginnings of the forest canopy & under storey!
 
We have planted some legume seeds (soy & cow pea) to get the  nitrogen fixing plants underway.
 
We will be holding working bees to complete these jobs over the next few weeks.
 
We look forward to seeing how the experiments go, watching things grow & letting you all know about it.
 
Our plans for the lower half of the garden are next, we already have some ideas & will begin to plot them on paper.
 
Having spent more money on the top half than we originally anticipated, funds will be required before we can commence the second stage of the project.
 
Should you have a desire to donate to The Waterless Garden Project, the details are below:
 
Donations for the Waterless Garden Project:
 
Account Name: Lincon Treloar
Account:  9897348
BSB:  638 – 080
 
 

‘Summerfest 2012 Project’

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We recently held ‘Summerfest’, a week long project that included different projects with the intention that those who came could learn techniques based on love that are logical and beautiful* that are applicable to their backyards or acreage. It was a project with lots of different learning experiences so that those who attended and volunteered their time could leave with skills and knowledge on how to do what they learned at home and teach it to others. Below is a summary and thank you to those who volunteered and contributed their time, expertise and energy to these projects.

The week of the ‘Summerfest 2012 Project’ – 28th November to 3rd of December 2012, held at Kyabra Station (Kyabra Learning Centre, Kentucky, NSW), was a great week full of various fun filled activities. 
 
We began and ended with a focus on large scale soil improvement and water management, demonstrating methods using contours and ponds to redirect and retain water, building living eco systems to provide fertility and regenerate soil, and seeding of grasses and re generation plants to prevent soil erosion. This project took longer than expected with some of the pond walls needing adjustments to hold water properly.

There is still some work to be done in this area to complete the project but a lot of headway was made and we are so grateful for all volunteers time in beginning the project.
 
the site – Standbye Paddock
Alternate View of Standbye Paddock
Bedrock the beginnings of  erosion at the top of the paddock
Alternate view of bedrock erosion
Erosion, contours, ponds


Site for contour planting, ponding and living fertility systems:
Contour
Close up of coutour
You can see where the water held and was slowed down
in a shower we had pre-seeding the contour
Harrowing hand planted seeding on the
contours.
Contours at Site (Standbye Paddock):
Digging the Fertility pits
Living Fertility System hole on a contour

The various materials and ‘food’ for the living fertility systems – use what you
have on hand and have an abundance of. We are wanting to create systems
that are self supporting and that can be done with low cost using what is
available.
Filling up the Fertility pit
Tractor moving ‘dead matter’ into place
An almost finished Living System – needs some more hay and
matter around the logs so they will break down faster and encourage life
to live there feeling protected and ‘safe’.
Fertility pit complete
Volunteers working at a Living System

Standbye paddock Site showing ponds:

Just dug pond
After a rain. The soil here as you can see in the background is prone to heavy
erosion after rain. The soil is light and fly-away- when exposed.
Working on the bank of one of the ponds. Creating a dam wall to prevent
erosion and cover as much bare soil as possible. (Begin from the bottom up
when creating a dam wall).
 Harrowing the dam wall
Adding sticks into erosion cracks and at overflow to manage and
slow down water.
Lomandra grasses planted either side of logs – logs
purpose to slow down water flow.
Dam bank complete
Other projects during the week consisted of tending to the swales planted out last year and filling them with gathered matter to transform them into living systems in order to create fertility and improve soil conditions.
Our many thanks to everyone who was on the ‘food’ team for all the living systems spending your days carrying and carting dead wood matter and treading lightly to place it in an already re-generating area. Thank you for your time and care  to disturb as little as possible the new plants and creatures that have been moving in over the last year. Thanks also to our neighbors and Bunnings for supplying much of the ‘dead’matter used to feed the living systems.

‘Food’ for the Living Systems – Thanks Guys for your help pre – summerfest!
More ‘food’ for the systems
shredding paper for ‘food’ for the living systems and
getting the worms going.
shredded cardboard and paper
Other Projects:

Waterless home Gardening project: demonstrating several techniques including fibonacci system to maximize sun and water usage of any area, designing water flow in your garden, techniques to minimize or completely remove the need for watering, mixed planting incorporating natives both flowering and mulching, fruit trees and vegetables. (More detailed information on the Waterless Garden can be found in the blog post titled the same).

Waterless garden before

fibonacci spiral marked out
volunteers creating various systems in the garden
Nature box project: constructing from flat packed pre made kits, painting and positioning boxes for animals and birds according to their particular needs, providing shelter close to food and water. Scouting for suitable locations and some tree climbing to place boxes.

Pre packaged nature boxes, thank you to everyone who made these for us
in Queesland. We are so grateful for all your time and efforts!
Constructed from pre- packaging
eco painting in process

 

Nature box in place up a tree
‘Reptile Heaven project’: Reptiles are often forgotten or even shunned members of vital ecosystems. This activity focused on providing habitat for reptiles by placing shelter, food and water in close proximity, providing safe transit zones. We utilized above ground living systems to incorporate suitable living shelters and abundant insect life. We also planted various native shrubs, legumes and grasses for protection and mulching. There have already been an increase in numbers of lizards and frogs into the area. 

Reptile Heaven ‘before’ – looking up the hill
Reptile Heaven ‘after’ – looking up hill

 


Reptile Heaven ‘after’ looking down the hill
Reptile Heaven in progress

Some little frogs who have moved in near by

 

Worm nursery and breeding centre: Setting up optimal conditions for worm breeding farms and educating about lovingly caring for worms and soil creating creatures.

worms – we love worms!
Worm Breeding Centre under construction –
For more information see blog post on the same
subject.
Worm slurry in the field to add to the living systems to
get the worms started.
We had a marvelous time in the woolshed each evening learning new things in presentations from Jesus and Mary and reflecting on events during the day, as well as much fun dancing, singing and being entertained by wonderful musicians and singers. Our thanks to Jesus and local singer/song writer Fabio Tolli for the evening entertainment. Thank you so much for all the time and gifts to all who planned, prepared and attended these events! We hope you learned heaps and enjoyed it as much as we did!
 
We want to thank God’s Way of Love Organization (no longer in existence) for all the wonderful contributions they made, Jesus and Mary, the team leaders and supply teams and everyone who participated and volunteered giving their time, resources and efforts to helping us love the land some more. 
 
We would like to acknowledge the amount of time and effort that went into things such as organizing and pre making animal and bird boxes. We are grateful to everyone who came and made this event such fun and worthwhile this year. We look forward to seeing you again sometime in the near future.
 
Thanks again 
 
From the Lytton-Hitchins Family  
 
For more information or if anything in this takes your interest please feel free to contact us at eloisalh@gmail.com or phone 67787458 or check out www.divinetruth.com for more information on creating loving eco-systems.
 
* We found out how illogical some of us were or how we sacrificed logic for beauty or beauty for logic rather than having a beautiful balance of both. 

Waterless Garden Project

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This project is an ongoing project begun at ‘Summerfest’ 2012.

Lincon and Philippa had a desire to create a garden more in harmony with love. They began with a whole heap of ideas. We offered them some land to experiment on and they have since grown their ideas, thoughts, knowledge and have begun a ‘food forest’ based on various principles and ideas gathered from varying sources. One being principles of Divine Truth as consulted with by Jesus in how to bring everything they are doing into harmony with God’s definition of love, waterless gardening techniques, Geoff Lawton’s food forest ideas, and adding the fibonacci spiral (amongst other things).

They are conducting a series of experiments and putting ideas to the test.

Lincon and Philippa have regular days in the garden where anyone with the desire to learn and love the land and people are welcome to come along and volunteer their time. Check out the Events static page for the next meeting time or contact them via emailfor more information.

(more will be added to this blog page over the next while)

Lincon and Philippa
The Waterless Garden Before beginning
Garden plan
Fibonacci spiral laid out – each little ring is a different system or experiment
that will be put in place.
Volunteers putting down newspaper and mulching
Nov/Dec 2012
Volunteers in the garden creating systems
Nov/Dec 2012
creating the garden with volunteers from ‘summerfest’
Nov/Dec 2012
Lincon with a scoop mound system
Nov/Dec 2012
The garden in progress (Dec 2012)
Components in the Waterless Garden:
Scoop mound with above ground Living System

Rock Garden creating habitat

Components for above ground Living System (drawing), Above ground Living System
made in the garden – using available resources with a pallet for creature holes and habitat.
Components for Waterless garden plastic lined with rocks recommended to add a pipe to
fill with water /when if required see Living Systems post for more detailed information
Components for waterless garden with logs – a plastic pipe would be helpful to be added to
fill up with water if needed (see waterless nursery project for images and information)
produce from the waterless Garden
Waterless Garden with plants growing
beautifully. You can just see the pallet in the
fore-ground that creates the waterless Garden
beneath.

Swales and Contours:

Check out Cushnie Learning Centre images of Contours doing a
beautiful job holding water on
Mary.divinetruth.com ‘And then the Ants told us…‘
Swale (side view) – for water management
 
Components for hot spots

How to make a circular below ground living system:

Hot Spot – idea being that it creates thermal mass and holds heat effectively
making a warm area for plants to grow. Creating a micro climate to
hold heat for plants that do not tolerate frost and cold that well. This is
experimental and over winter will see how it works. Will keep you
posted when we know.
Hot Spot/rockery garden
Components for condensation collection
Condensation collection – The idea being that dew will gather on the rocks which are angled so that any moisture runs down onto the earth below.
How To make a below Ground Living System (to create fertility):
Components for below ground Living System
check out Living Systems post on this blog for more detailed information about
what, how, why…

1. Dig a hole and put all sorts of delicious food stuff (for creatures) in it

step 1. Below Ground Living System
2. Line surrounding area with newspaper to prevent weeds/etc growing up and taking over (if in a garden situation, not needed in a paddock or large scale situation as much)
step 2. Below Ground Living System
 3. mulch, woodchip/hay what ever you have the area (the newspaper is left exposed so when the next area of garden is done Philippa and Lincon can overlap newspaper for the next sections.)
 
step 3. Below Ground Living System

4. place some logs/matter on top of the system for other creatures to come and enjoy and set up homes in if desired. You could also just leave it so that it is almost un-noticable in your garden. There are many possibilities!

step 4. Below Ground Living System
some little seeds beginning to germinate. Another aim of the Garden is to set it up with the intention that like a forest it will eventually self seed and there will really be very little ‘work’ and maintenance if it is set up properly. We are noticing how much work we create for ourselves and realising that if we set it up well, lovingly and ‘correctly’ (as God would) in the first place we do not need to return with great efforts in the future. When it is not done well in the first place and care is not taken that is when things create much more work!

The ‘One Tree’ Forest is an idea that incorporates a Living System top, mid and under stories which eventually will join up and create one larger forest over the whole area of the waterless garden. It will have a self supporting mound to feel all the primary regeneration organisms and then it will eventually support a tree (maybe big, maybe 6ft, what ever the plan for the garden/forest is will depend on tree selection) Then it will have a mid story and a lower story so each little ‘forest’ is self supporting and self sustaining. Legumes are important to feed the plants and create top soil. These little forests will end up joining up and creating one big forest eventually.

The ‘forest’ will eventually self seed, self mulch (might need a bit of help in the beginning with pruning of the prunable legumes/plants) and may need the odd prune to create mulch every now and again, but the amount of ‘work’ is significantly reduced when a garden is set up well with love, thought and loving intention as God would create. Really this is a food forest rather than a garden and as such it will maintain itself as God’s forests and food forests do independently from human intervention, pretty exciting we reckon!!!

One Living System and tree at a time to make a forest

If setting up a worm breeding centre, these are an idea and recommendation of layering options for optimum breeding. Don’t over feed the worms, keep an eye on how much they are eating and feed them when they need it. See Creating Loving Worm farms for more information. Worms are essential for soil production, you want to have as many as can be lovingly sustained in your garden. With worms you really don’t need to do anything for them when they live in the garden, they are super intelligent in and experts in their field so let the little soil warriors do what they do best and give them some mulch, plenty of food, somewhere to go when it is wet, and they will flourish.

optimum worm breeding layers