Introduction
The parameters and goals for
the internship I selected were to design a cropping plan in space and time
while considering the historic value and aesthetics of the garden. The client
wanted a garden that would have a high yield with less work. We decided to
accomplish this through a combination of crop rotation, intercropping, mulching
methodologies and a historical component after meeting with both Wageningen and
Zuylestein. The program was under the management of the Farming System Ecology
Department at Wageningen University and Research (supervisor Dirk van
Apeldoorn) and Landgoed Zuylestein under co-supervision with owner Jemima de
Brauwere and garden manager Thea Dengerink. The internship started October 4,
2017 and concluded May 9, 2018, with 4 additional check-in dates throughout May.
I was considered part-time until period 5 (March 19, 2018). Until this point I
worked 100+ hours on items such as plant lists, planning charts, soil sampling,
manure quantity for C:N ratios, and composting methodologies. Afterwards I
worked on-site to create and plant/maintain the garden, specifically the 3 test
beds (4, 6A, and 8).
Learning
goals and reflection on the learning process
Goal:
|
Pre-Internship Evaluation (self 1-10)
|
Post-Internship Evaluation (self 1-10)
|
Improve my
ability to coordinate with multiple stakeholders to develop a list of project
goals and objectives.
|
7
|
8.5
|
Compile
statistical data, facts or information and analyze quantitative data in
regards to soil sampling at the beginning and ending of the project to
evaluate the changes made by the project.
|
2
|
5
|
Learn about
the processes and conduct the laboratory work for creating appropriate soil
sampling for this project.
|
2
|
5
|
Develop a
working knowledge of various agroecological designs for market gardening in
both a historical and modern context.
|
4
|
8
|
Plan and
organize a project wherein sections of a market garden are designated as test
plots.
|
2
|
8
|
Explain by
justifying one’s action or making obscure ideas clear to others via meetings
with the client and supervisor as the designs are created and implemented.
|
3
|
7.5
|
Find and
research information from various sources, including interpreting other
languages or meaning of statistical data in historical and modern texts on
permaculture, market gardens, gardening, and agriculture sources.
|
2
|
7
|
Implement
new plans, procedures or ideas within the organization by creating various
test plots, assisting with their creation, monitoring, and comparison.
|
3
|
9
|
Learn the
techniques of agroecological and historical marketplace gardening,
specifically within the Dutch geographical context.
|
2
|
6.5
|
Schedule
meetings with both the client and school advisor to evaluate the project at
multiple junctures.
|
5
|
9
|
Write
analytical and cumulative reports on what changes we are making, why, and the
outcomes observed.
|
3
|
8
|
Write short
descriptions on the techniques in place for creation of informational plaques
on site.
|
7
|
8
|
Work with
volunteers and the public to educate on the techniques used.
|
5
|
7
|
Evaluate the
performance of each agroecological design process initiated via analytical
data.
|
3
|
6.5
|
Description of the internship organisation
Jemima and her husband own the
facility which is composed of a rented house, two bed-and-breakfast locations,
the garden, the woods, a second orchard location, and a sheep croft. The house
is on a long term (10 year) lease and there is a shepherd who rents out the
sheep croft. The garden is under the direction of Thea and there is a forestry
volunteer group who manages the woods.
The garden is managed by Thea
who works with a variety of volunteers to manage the daily tasks as well as the
store that is opened on Fridays on-site. Different groups will pay to have use
of or be taught in the garden periodically (like a special needs group or a new
immigrants group). The products from the garden are sold to a variety of
sources including the chefs at the restaurant on the property, a CSA group, in the
Friday shop, and special clients (ex. the beer or apple juice making group). Most
of the design for the garden is up to Thea, but Jemima’s directions and wishes
are always prioritized since she is the primary client.
Activities
The main focus
of my internship at Castle Zuylestein is to create a garden plan that
incorporates:
- rotational cropping
- companion planting
- composting
methodologies
- historical garden design
It has taken me several months working part-time to create
the spring planting guide incorporating these items. Unfortunately, the
historical aspect has been cut out of most of the garden plan by the clients. I
submitted a plan that includes a historical mushroom bed and was informed that
it would be implemented in the area between the Medlar trees. The other
historical piece was a submission of recipes to use the Medlars that are grown
on site (see appendix).
The other aspects have been entered into the plan as much as possible. We will be doing 3 test plots to check for OM and yield ratios. One will be mulching around deep rooting plants to deal with a soil compaction issue (4), one will be deep-bed mulching (6A), and the last will be lasagna bed compost/mulching (8). I originally took soil samples and did the OM/C testing and submitted it to the client back in December. After the season (May) I did another round of testing to see if the ratios have changed any.
The other aspects have been entered into the plan as much as possible. We will be doing 3 test plots to check for OM and yield ratios. One will be mulching around deep rooting plants to deal with a soil compaction issue (4), one will be deep-bed mulching (6A), and the last will be lasagna bed compost/mulching (8). I originally took soil samples and did the OM/C testing and submitted it to the client back in December. After the season (May) I did another round of testing to see if the ratios have changed any.
When creating the visual planting guide, I used the Garden
Planner program from the Farmer's Almanac. The benefit is it
has companion planting guides as well as plant spacing built into the program,
which means I had to do less work on those aspects. There is a way to do
rotation planning as well, but you need to enter in the months you will leave
each plant in the ground, which is fine for small gardens, but a time-consuming
pain for larger ones like this market garden, although I did enter the planting
seasons as the planner only takes into account 'popular' plants and U.S.
growing zones, so I had to do other research on those aspects and make the
changes. The website the client uses for purchasing seed stock for France and
the Netherlands is Vilmorin,
which has a great website and includes information on planting and harvesting
times. I used their planting times for my chart. They also have a pdf calendar showing the same information.
Most of the information I needed was on their site, but I did need to go to
several others for certain one-off pieces of information. The client also
purchases from several local shops and after I spoke to them about a German
seed company I met at Biofach (Rein-saat) they
ordered a few seeds from there as well.*See Appendix 5
March 10: Volunteer Day: Sheet
mulching in layers in area 6A. Each one is 702 cm long and 147 cm wide. The
completed one was 44 cm tall.
At the end of
the day, we decided to use mulch from under several fir trees that were
removed.
I prepared the
soil sample and had it tested for OM/C ratios.
·
The test was performed on 3/12/18
·
Pre-dried weight: 144.30g
·
Dried in the small over at 105 degrees for 24 hours.
·
Post-dried weight: 98.01g
·
Sieved at 2.01mm
The Organic Matter is the combined biomass plus
carbon in the sample after being dried and fired. The Organic Carbon ratio
is calculated by dividing the OM by 2 (as per Dirk's request). This gives the
percentage of carbon within the OM total number as explained above. SOC is
expressed as a % per 100g of soil.
% OM
|
% C
|
Sample 1:
19.04
|
Sample 1:
9.52
|
Sample 2:
21.71
|
Sample 2:
10.85
|
Average:
20.37
|
Average:
10.19
|
These percents
are the best we've seen to date and I'm really looking forward to seeing what
adding these into the garden will do.
March 20: was the first day I
felt like a real student of agriculture. I was at the garden by 8:45am and
worked on my internship until 4:30pm creating new garden beds (2 m x and
helping the poor frost-shocked green bean seedlings by placing twigs beside
them for them to climb on as well as prepared 5 garden beds for planting in
area 4 which involved removing any plants, then using the grelinette to break
up the soil, then hand weeding, and finally raking. My hours are Tuesday-Friday
8:30pm-4:30pm on site and working on paper/research at home on Mondays.
March 21: we took one of the
beds in Area 4 and created mounds for 4 rows of potatoes that we planted. I
also got down the 1st brown layer on 1.5 of the long beds in area 6A. The
layers for the rows in area 6A are: newspaper (clean) 5 layers, compost 5cm,
green compost (garden waste, grass, moss), brown compost (leaves, mulch,
nasturtium vines, old composted straw, forest humus with pine leaves) 2-5cm
depending on mixture, horse-bedding 5 cm, green compost 5cm, brown compost 1-2
cm, horse-bedding 5cm, and straw.
March 22: harvested a bit of
mache, winter purslane, spinach, asian greens, parsnips, chives, and beets.
Then finished the first brown layer and added the second layer of dung to rows
2 & 3 in bed 6a today and took soil samples in the grains bed.
March 23, 28-30: consisted of
creating 4 more rows to various levels of completion. Row 5 I completed last week.
Row 4 was done on day 5, row 3 finished on day 6, row 2 needs a layer of
horse-poo and then hay to be completed and row 1 got its first layer of green
today (Orthotrichum Lyellii or Lyell’s Bristle Moss). Hopefully by Wednesday
I'll have rows 3 and 2 done and can finish cleaning row 6 and get it started.
We're testing using fir mulch and ferns/moss as well as the deep bedding method
for weed control and compost in this bed. The OM for the fir mulch was 19-20%!!
The first round of tests for the average garden soil was only 3%! After doing
some more research online I found that some gardeners stated that using moss
retained moisture in the soil, but did not allow for the compost to heat
sufficiently and had acidity issues. I am going to add in more organic matter
in the form of green compost and use wood ash and baking powder to hopefully
neutralize that issue. Since the entire bottom green layer on bed 1 of area 6A
is covered in the moss, I will need to amend that area first.
It has taken 2 weeks to get
this far (along with the other tasks like planting potatoes). I am tired, but
also appreciative of the farmers out there. The first map is of my test area
6A, which are the beds I'm making now. The large picture is the entire garden
plan. Final versions will be included as a separate excel file with the plant
listings for test plot 8, 6A, 4, and the mushroom bed listed in the appendix.
April 2: spent the morning
transplanting chives and wild strawberries into area 1 & 8. The afternoon
was spent finishing bed 2 and two more layers added to bed 1 in area 6a; took
longer than I wanted due to working alone. I spent some time on Saturday and
Monday researching using moss in the garden as compost and found mixed reports
that they could cause acidity in the soil, so I added wood ash and baking powder
to neutralize any issues. It was surprising to me that there is not a lot of
research to using live moss as a cover or a green layer in deep bed mulching,
even from Scandinavia where they have forest moss.
April 3: finished bed 1 of area 6a and planted second and
third batch of potatoes in area 4 bed 3 and 4. Unlike the early potatoes which
were planted in mounds, we planted this later variety in trenches. The potato
farmer came by and explained about the different space requirements for each
variety: small potatoes get 18-20 cm between them and larger 25 cm. Both have
50 - 60 cm between the rows. We ended up with 50 cm because the bed is only 2m
wide and we have 4 rows planted.
April 4-6: Cleaned and
prepared Area 4, beds 10-15. Finished the last bed in area 6a and put in 8 rows
of shallots in bed 6 and 4 rows of peas in bed 5. (6a4 1x
sugarsnap lusaka and 1x pea douce provence & 6a5 shallots 2x long and 2x round and 1x amsterdamse bak).
April 10-13: Thea is on
vacation this week, which leaves me in charge of the garden and volunteers
along with Alexander’s help. Our goal is the following:
Finish what we did not get
completed from last week:
• 6a5
winterroot flakkeese 1x
•
6a6 broad beans elenora express (season is done- haricot nain 2x coco), marigold
rose din 1x
•
6a3 salad lettuce red salad bowl 1x and green salad bowl 1x, field lettuce
palace 1x
•
6a2 leek elektra precocee -> 2x (young?), Beetroot robuschka1x, marigolds in
the major 1x
•
6a1 rucola 1x, radish round and melange1x, beetroot robuschka 2x (part fore),
• 3a5
dandelion jem
Get as much completed for this week as possible:
• Sow sowing: mizuna,
radish, cardoon, lettuce suzanne, beetroot crapaudine
• 2a3 chives from 8 or 4
(split 4 plants in three parts, plant in 1 row); (celery leaves in flat bowl) -
Els
• 3a3 early spinach is ready
in flat bowl 1x (Els-radish fr breakfast jem)
• 3b3 carrot nantaise 1x and
Amsterdam bak1x; 1x garlic flavor replace by shallot!
• 7b5 1x lettuce suzanne
sowing directly or sowing alder
• 6b5 2x salsify N shooters
and 2x lettuce twellose yellow (pre-sown)
• Sow 6b3 2x ball beet
directly
• 7a7 1x beetroot bolivar
(pre-sown in flat tray) plants, 1x parsnip l. the guernsey minus 17 degrees!
• 7a6 1x card seeding (or
for sowing - May pl)
• 7b1 1x white chard V
sowing
• 7b3 White cabbage ½ crate
Jongerius
• 7b4 beets egypt 2016 1x
• 2a1 1/4 bed radish ch
belle (thursday jem), ¼ bed mizuna, 2x white turnip
• 2a2 beetroot crapaudine
(VZ?),
• 2a4 2x marigold (jem)
• 2a5 winter carrot flakkee
2x
• 2a7 1x card seeding
• 2b5 1x chard green
witribbige; 2x cutting blade (pre-sown in greenhouse)
• 3b5 1x Chinese cabbage, 1x
Mayiraap (navet M and 1x milan)
• 3b6 1x dill, 1x yellow
beet and 1x marigold pollux
I also needed to calculate how much of each type of material
we need to make up the lasagna beds in Area 8. The total area is 6m 167cm
(20.23ft) by 2m 51cm (8.23ft); with breaks every 1 m creating 20 beds. This
means each lasagna bed will be 1m x 2.51m giving us a total surface area of
2.51m^2. The lasagna bed should go up about 0.6m (2ft). The layers are paper,
straw/leaves, food waste/compost, manure, topsoil. We’re going to do this 3
times in each bed (10 total beds). The layer sizes are 1cm paper (5 layers),
8cm straw/leaves, 8cm food waste/compost, 3cm manure, 8cm topsoil.
For ten
beds we will need:
·
10cm paper
(251L or 0.251 m^3)
·
240cm straw/leaves (6024L 6.024 m^3)
·
240cm food waste/compost (6024L or 6.024 m^3)
·
90cm manure (2259L 2.259 m^3)
·
80cm topsoil (2008L 2.008 m^3)
I calculated at 10 beds because we are going to duplicate the
plants: 1 bed will be lasagna styled, the 2nd will be traditional in
the soil.
I also went through Area 4 and looked at if dung was needed
based on the plants. The Artichokes, Asparagus, and Sunflowers all need dung.
The Mint, Cauliflower, Cardoon, Oregano, Peppers, Tomatoes, Thyme, and Fennel/Dill/Rosemary
only need a small amount, so I’ll make up a wheelbarrow full and spread lightly
over those beds.
Thea has shown me how to enter the information on what was
planted where and when on the seed packets and also on the To Do list she keeps
so there are back up copies of the data. The problem I have is organizing my
excel sheet to have the correct information on it because Thea is working on
one part of the garden and I’m in another so I’m not always sure what she’s
done. The other problem is the language; everything I get is in Dutch, which
means a lot of time is spent translating documents. Moving forward, I think
someone who is better at Dutch would be a greater asset to the garden.
I ended up reorganizing the list to be easier for me to
understand and had to make a few changes to Thea’s list because the live plants
needed to go in a.s.a.p., but there weren’t places for them, so Jemima and I
made some executive decisions while Thea is on vacation. Most days it was just Alexander and I, which
severely limited our ability to get many of the tasks completed. The following
is an example of the list Thea left for us to do.
Workinglist moestuin
Week 14 1 April
·
Bed 3
o 3a5
pissenlit jem – (need seeds)
·
Bed 6
o 6a1 rucola 1x (*can’t find plants, will use seeds instead),
½ crate broccoli (4/11), salie (4/11), bietjes robuschka 2x (deel voorgez)
(4/11)
o 6a2 prei
elektra precocee -> 2x (jong?), bietjes robuschka1x, marigold-souch dolce 1x
(4/11)
o 6a3 snijsla red salad bowl 1x en green salad bowl 1x, veldsla
palace 1x (*not ready as of 4/12)
o 6a4 1x
sugarsnap lusaka en 1x erwten douce provence (4/6)
o 6a5
sjalotten 2x lang en 2x rond en (4/6) (1x amsterdamse bak, winterwortel flakkeese
1x 4/12)
o 6a6 tuinbonen elenora express (season is done- haricot nain 2x
coco), goudsbloem rose dÃnde 1x
Week 15 8
April
·
Els
o zaaien:
mizuna, radijs, kardoen, sla suzanne, rode biet crapaudine, pumpkins,
zuchinis (4/13)
·
Bed 2
o 2a1
1/4 bed radijs ch belle (donderdag jem), ¼ bed mizuna, 2x witte meiraap
o 2a2
rode biet crapaudine (VZ?),
o 2a3
bieslook from 8 or 4 (split 4 plants in three parts, plant in 1 row);
(bleekselderij vz in platte bak)
o 2a4
2x goudsbloem (jem)
o 2a5
winterpeen flakkee 2x
o 2a7
1x kardoen zaaien
o 2b5
1x snijbiet groene witribbige; 2x snijmoes (voorgezaaid in kas)* moved to 6b5 (alternative white kool 2x)
·
Bed 3
o 3a2
replaced onions the chef took (4/13)
o 3a3
vroege spinazie staat klaar in platte bak 1x (Els -radijs fr breakfast jem)
o 3b3
wortel nantaise 1x en Amsterdamse bak1x; 1x knoflook flavor replace by sjalot!
o 3b5 1x Chinese
kool (4/12), 1x meiraap (navet de m en 1x Marteau), 11 plants Asian salad
(4/13)
o 3b6
1x dille, 1x gele biet en 1x goudsbloem
pollux
·
Bed 4
o 4.8 changed
out cauliflower for broccoli 3x, mint transplanted from wall in between per
Jemima (4/13)
·
Bed 6
o 6b3
2x kogelbietjes direct zaaien, roed kool 2x (4/12)
o 6b4 rode
bietjest 2x, prei electra 1.5x, poireau de casentan 1/2 x (4/13)
o 6b5 2x
schorseneren N schieters (4/11) en 2x sla twellose gele (voorgezaaid)*
alternatives: 1/2 x field sla, 1x snijmoes, 1/2x lettuce riene de mai, 11
plants asian salad (4/13)
·
Bed 7
o 7a6
1x kardoen zaaien (of voorzaaien- mei pl)
o 7a7
1x bietjes bolivar (voorgezaaid in platte bak) planten,1x pastinaak l. de
guernsey min. 17 graden!
o 7b1
1x witte snijbiet V zaaien
o 7b3 Witte
kool ½ crate Jongerius (4/12)
o 7b4
bietjes egypte 2016 1x
o 7b5
1x sla suzanne direct zaaien of voorzaaien (Els- created a tray on 4/13)
·
Lasagna beds (by shed)
o Bed 1
created (4/13)
April 17-20
Thea is still on vacation, which means we continue to work
through the list. Most of it was accomplished; however, some of the plants had
to be moved once Thea returned due to a misunderstanding on my part regarding
the numbering of the rows in Area 7 and Area 2. The issue was that the map had
6 beds, but the notes had 7 and therefore the numbering was off when we
physically put plants in the ground. The biggest issue was the bieslook (garlic
chives), which were placed in with the beans. This is a problem in the
companion planting rotation as beans and onions do not mix. A few other items
involved the quantity of rows we placed and a mix-up in what is defined as a
‘marigold’. This is one of those language barrier issues that came up a few
times, because in Dutch there are three or four different words for marigolds,
but they refer to the variety, not the genius. In English it’s just ‘Marigold’,
so I put alternative varieties in locations that Thea had specified because we
did not have the appropriate number of seeds. Since the idea is to use them as
companion planting for pest management, in the end it did not matter, but it
was a point of confusion for several days.
As for management of the garden, much more time is needed to
organize, plan, and refine than I initially thought. It’s not that hard when
you are managing yourself, but to manage three or four other people, most of
who do not speak the same language you do, it is very difficult. I spent much
more time trying to explain what I wanted people to do, then what it actually
took them to accomplish the task. Having Thea’s working list helped out a lot,
but we found that many of the beds needed to be cleaned and prepared before we
could do what was written, which took even more time. Since many days it was
just Alexander and I, tasks that would have taken an hour took several hours to
complete. This is a point that should be taken into account for future work in
the garden. Projects will go faster if more than one person is working on them.
Case in point, the lasagna beds took several days to complete
because it is hard, strenuous labor and if there are only one or two people
working on them, it takes a very long time. We only finished two full beds and
a third of a third bed in the time available. One completed bed did give us
enough material for 5 test beds of 20cm depth to test against purchased compost
in Area 8 and most of the material had broken down within the month that it had
been allowed to sit, which was a welcome surprise.
I also ended up giving my first tour to the public while Thea
was gone. The tour group was from England and we spent about an hour and a half
walking around the estate and the garden explaining about the history and what
we were doing/planting. It was made the more difficult because of a series of
errors on my part (I got locked out of the garden and had to walk the long way
around because I didn’t have keys for the portcullis and I accidently locked my
phone which was how the restaurant was to call me so I knew when to expect the
tour group). In the end the group had a great time and said they really enjoyed
the tour, which is all that matters in the long run. I would recommend in the future that a tour
booklet be created with the appropriate history and facts listed out, as I had
to make that up based on the website and the booklet, but both were in Dutch,
so it was a bit of Google translate, my own knowledge of the facility, and what
I could remember from Jemima’s initial tour back in October.
April 24-26
We had volunteers in this week learning about the garden and
the various tasks necessary to maintain an Estate. Most of the men are from
war-torn countries in Africa or the Middle East, so the language barrier was
even more pronounced than normal. To be honest, I thought we’d have a bigger
problem with the gender, because Thea and I are both female, but the men were
very nice and respectful and a few were downright funny. They were onsite for
two days-the first was very productive, we flipped our second lasagna bed and
started the third one and prepared most of Area 8 for planting, including
transplanting several beds worth of plants to other parts of the garden. The
second day was not as productive. I think they were unprepared for the amount
of physical labor involved in keeping the garden up-to-date and getting all the
ground prepared. They seemed to like using the grelinette, which appears to be
everyone’s favorite tool in the shed and I believe they took away enough for
them to be able to make small personal gardens or at least be familiar with the
rhythm of a larger working garden. They also went out with the wood group and
cut down a tree which seemed to make them very happy.
There is a definite level difference between occasional
workers in the garden and the regulars. The ones who come in once a week for
three or four hours prefer set tasks, like weeding or working in the shop,
while those who come in every day or three-four times a week are pretty much up
for whatever Thea or I need them to do. I’ve worked with older volunteers
before and I understand they have a ‘volunteer’ mindset, but in a garden this
large, having that mindset is exceedingly difficult for whoever is managing the
garden because you never know who will be in or what they will feel like doing
that day. During the second day with the volunteer group, I was happier once
they left, because I could just focus on what needed to get accomplished
without having to supervise them all the time. That really struck me as a waste
of time and I can see why Thea spends so much time on Administration. If
someone is not watched, then you have to go back and change all your plans
multiple times, which I am sure she doesn’t appreciate.
May 1-4
We had a bit of a hard time organizing my getting out to the
garden due to bus strikes, but Thea was kind enough to come get me on Tuesday.
We pushed through getting as many plants in the ground as possible regardless
of the hot weather. The biggest points were for me to get all of the test beds
completed. Area 6A had been finished for a few weeks and 8 had been completed
the previous week, but now we needed to get 4 complete. We made some changes to
the seed lists due to an ordering oversight where many of the seeds Thea and I
had requested were unable to be procured in time and some other changes due to
space and the date. For example, we had enough red onion for 1/3 of bed 4.14.
We ended up placing overflow munt, dille, and bieslook in the remaining portion
of the bed to fill it up.
May 8-9
Last two days of the onsite portion of the internship
included taking photos, notes, writing up the organizational chart, helping
set-up for a wedding, and planning out where to put the flowers within the
garden. Jemima wanted a larger portion of the flowers to be orange, but we also
have mixed colors, all pink and purple beds, and all white and blue beds along
with trellised flowers around the sitting area in the back of the garden and
took soil samples. I also made a possible plan for terracing and a floating
duck house in the pond directly in front of the garden for Jemima to review.
Duck house
idea:
Jemima wants Runner Ducks and the idea is to put them in the
garden where the large compost pile is next to the shed. This will work fine
once the compost is gone, but I put together another idea for her to think
about for the pond in front of the Orangery since they are planning to redefine
the edges of that anyway.
Reflection of internship
Jemima and I sat down to go over some things that we could
improve for the next intern working on site when Thea was on vacation. The
primary item, in my mind, was language skills. My limited knowledge of French
was fine, but not having a decent level of Dutch was exceedingly difficult for
all parties. Thea’s lists are in Dutch, which means I spent much of my time
translating or trying to figure out what she wanted me to do.
Communication is another item that could be worked out more.
Having the Working lists each week would make life much simpler. It would allow
the intern the opportunity to see what the goals were for better time
management and keep track of items done or changed. Creation of testing beds
prior to full-time onsite work would also have helped. Timing for this was the
biggest issue. Although I was working on plant lists and companion planting
before period 5 started, much time could have been saved by testing plots being
noted and only creating lists for those particular beds. As it was, I created
plant lists for the entire garden for no reason, since Thea already had her
lists in place for the season. All I contributed were new varieties and sources
to purchase seed stock from.
The organization of daily tasks I found to be very useful.
Having a set break every two-three hours and alternating the type of work
between breaks (heavy, light, heavy, light, etc) was very well conceived and I
believe it to be a good way to make sure people do not get too tired or over
worked. There is a lot of bending and shoveling, which can be physically
taxing, especially if you have not done that type of work before. I ended up
with Tendinitis in my elbow from all the shoveling to create the deep mulching
area. More helpers would have made this task easier, but we were working with
what we had.
The facility itself has a lot to offer. Docent training for
giving tours, educational opportunities, estate planning and management, shop
keeping, community relations, etc, but I think there may be some disconnect
between what is wanted and what is feasible with such a small, part-time,
volunteer based ‘staff’. I have worked in volunteer oriented companies before
and I find the volunteers mean well, but do not necessarily understand or have
the same values/goals as the staff or management does. There is also just the
scale of the facility. It’s huge and managing it all while maintaining a
nuanced understanding of the day-to-day operations of each section is nearly impossible.
The wood’s group does a lot of work managing the forests and helping out on
occasion in the garden, but they don’t really know what or why we do certain
things in the garden, as we don’t understand what they do 100%. I found it
interesting that they would say the garden work was for ‘fine-detail’ work and
then when we asked them to help do the lasagna beds they said how hard it was
and they needed a break. It’s nothing against them; it is just that we each
have different preconceived notions about what the other groups do and no real
comprehension.
In the future, I would recommend a new intern (or docent) be
cross-trained. Spending a day with each group to see what they do and their
responsibilities. Even now I only have a vague notion of the woods group’s
weekly tasks and even less understanding of how the relationships with
surrounding farmers and the municipality work. Granted, that wasn’t within the
scope of this internship, but knowing who is responsible for what would be
good. Another item I would suggest is a small handbook for new interns/docents
with contact numbers, people’s names and photos, a small map showing where
things are located (not just buildings, but water access in the garden,
bathrooms, seed storage, etc), and a brief history of the facility just in case
they are called upon to do a tour. This little booklet could have a who to
contact in case of an emergency or “I’m locked out”, there is a wedding/meeting
planned, etc.
I do highly recommend that another round of soil samples be
taken at the end of the growing season, as I do not believe the time allotted
has shown enough change to be a decent indicator for the amount of work that
went into it.
At the end of the day, I think if Thea has done an excellent
job of giving me the prerequisite knowledge to run a facility like this in the
future. The Administrative knowledge along is worth an internship, but learning
how to organize and run the garden, including design and project management, as
well as dealing with all the personalities has greatly expanded my repertoire
of skills. The true benefit of this program, and something to be thought of for
future internships, is the flexibility presented. A student interested in
administration, or in crop rotation, or beneficial insects, or (soon to be)
animals in garden settings can take their interest and fit it in to the grand
scheme of the garden very easily and I would recommend those options be
explored in the future.
Soil Sample Analysis Final Report
When I created the first soil
sample analysis, I did not have the map of the garden with the quadrants,
therefore my first step was to compare and match between the first map I made
and the one Thea uses. Then I compared the new ratios against the old ones.
Organic Matter (%)
T1 is the first test I did in
December and T2 is the test I did in May. There were four locations that showed
a decrease in Organic Matter as listed below: Area 1B, 3B, 7A, and 8C. The test
plots I was working with specifically were 6A, 4, and 8. 1B showed a decrease
of 0.413%, 3B a decrease of 0.823%, 7A showed a combined decrease of 0.386%, and
8C (lasagna) showed a decrease of 0.060%. On Average, the OM percentage
increased by 0.308%.
1B was originally housing the
horse manure during the first testing phase and by the second test the same
location had been turned into planting beds with strawberries and peas. I
believe this is the reason for the decline in OM. 3B was taken from an area
that had salads and endive growing. The area had not been amended, only weeded.
Area 7A had winter rye on it that was removed and used for compost, but not
added back into the soil. 8C was part of my test plot with an amendment of the
lasagna compost. I believe the loss was from the fact that we did not mix in
the lasagna compost, but simply laid it on top of the bare soil.
From these numbers, one can
say that yes, adding in compost does increase the OM ratio. It also appears
that the purchased compost had more readily available OM than the created
onsite lasagna compost method, however the greatest increase was from the
deep-mulching area where we used the sheet mulching method- section 6A (the
deep-mulching area) which shows a gain in OM of almost 2.38%.
Organic Carbon (%)
OC content was between 1.36
(in 8A) and 2.81 in 6A, showing that again, the deep sheet mulching gave the
highest readings and the unamended soil in 8A had the lowest. Considering that
OC is found by dividing OM in half, it makes sense these number correlate. Topsoil
ranges from 0.5% to 3.0% organic C for most upland soils, which our numbers
continue to fall within, even the lowest. Our hope was that the addition of
compost and the different mulching methodologies would greatly increase these
numbers. At this point, it appears they abate natural loss, but do not increase
the numbers to any great extent. When looking at the difference between the
first and second test there was an average increase of 0.154%, with decreases
in plots 1B (0.21%), 3B (0.41%), 7A (0.19%), 8A (0.21%), and 8C (0.06%). 6A (deep mulching) had the greatest
percentage different at 1.19% between the two tests.
Nitrogen (g/kg)
Nitrogen rates dropped in most plots by a small amount. The
largest drop was in 2a with a decline by 0.53 g/kg or 0.053%. This amount is
negligible and can be explained by the uptake of nitrogen from the plants as
they grew. Plots 2B, 6A, 6B, 8B, and 8C showed increases in nitrogen. The
greatest addition of nitrogen was in plots 8B and 8C. 8B (purchased compost)
had an increase in 0.10% and 8C (lasagna) had an increase in 0.12%. The average
was a decrease in nitrogen of 0.0019%.
Phosphorus (g/kg)
All but three plots showed a decrease in phosphorus
percentages between the two tests. Plots 6A, 8B, and 8C showed increases. The
largest increase was in plot 8B (purchased compost) with an increase of 0.119%;
plot 8C (lasagna) showed an increase of 0.116%. The average was a decrease of
0.008%, which is negligible and can be explained by the uptake of phosphorus by
the plants as they grew.
C:N Ratio
The Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio is found by converting the
Nitrogen (g/kg) into a percentage and then dividing the Carbon % by the
Nitrogen %. The areas that showed the greatest increase between the first and
second test were 2A, 2B, and 6A. All of these locations were above a 20:1
ratio. Only 6A was part of my test plot, this being the deep sheet mulching
area. Proper compost should have a ratio of 25-30:1. The initial testing had an
average of 14.63:1, where as the second testing showed an increase to an
average of 17.64:1. The plot that showed the greatest increase (9.67:1) was 2A
with 8C showing the greatest decrease of 13.9%
Final Thoughts
When reviewing the difference between the two tests I find
that 3B lost the most OM and C and 6A gained the most. Plot 2A lost the most
Nitrogen while plots 8B and 8C gained the most. Plot 2B had the greatest
increase in C:N of 90.99:1 while 7B lost the most with a loss of 82.7:1. 8B and
8C gained the most Phosphorus and 4A lost the most.
In my test plots (averages):
4: gained( 0.63%) OM, gained C (0.31%), lost N and P (0.03%),
and lost C:N ration (13.46%).
6A: overall, 6A performed the best of the plots. OM was up
2.38%, C was up 1.19%, N increased 0.037%, P increased 0.003%, and the C:N
ratio increased 4.22:1 bringing it up to 21.1:1.
8: gained N and P (both ~0.1%) and C:N (0.68%) and lost
slightly in OM and C (less that .15%).
After reviewing the different methods and work/reward, I
suggest that the deep sheet mulching method does produce the best results for
soil fertility, however, as a planting method it is not recommended. Creating
the beds for over-wintering would be the recommendation with traditional
planting the following spring as the method did show a reduction in weeds, but
more plants were lost to pests or did not germinate at all from seeds.
The lasagna method was a very quick way to make compost from
on-site materials. We saw breakdown in the various layers after just three
weeks and a single turning. The home-made compost showed a third of the
quantity of OM/OC that the purchased compost did however there were fewer
invasive weeds in the lasagna method. During spring and fall this method would
do very well for creation of compost from waste, but in application, you would
need to use three times as much as from purchased compost.
We also used a different method of making the 6A beds, which
I was unable to find literature on, that is using forest (fir humus) and moss
in the deep sheet mulching. There are several articles on forest humus, but the
moss was trickier to find. The general consensus is that it can slightly
acidify the soil and will take longer to decompose within a compost bed, but
that it gives space for air and will eventually decompose to around 1/8th
the original thickness. Some sources said it doesn’t heat up enough, but in our
beds, the horse manure seemed to stay quite warm under all the straw. * see
Appendix 7
Primary moss species we used were Polytrichum commune and
Tortula ruralis. Various carpet mosses also were incorporated. Most sources
online comment on peat and sphagnum moss only; sometimes Spanish moss, but
rarely these two types of mosses. Therefore I took the general information
available and made sure to incorporate baking soda and wood ash to the moss to
counter act the acidity issues.
Only the first three deep sheet mulching beds in area 6A had
moss, the others used standard grass clippings and vegetable matter as the
green component. Original testing of the
hummus/moss gave OM ratios of 19% and 21%. The hope is that as 6A breaks down,
those ratios will be seen through and future tests will show a marked
difference between 6A 1-3 (moss used) and 4-6 (no moss).
Along with the composting methods, we also used companion
planting and intercropping. The idea is that having strong scented plants like
onions interspersed with cabbages or other plants will ward off pests. In the
few months I was on site, I did not see a dramatic reduction in pests due to
companion planting. The best method I saw was placing mesh netting over the
plants to keep moths and snails/slugs off and hand picking any that were found.
One must take into account, however, that I was only on site
for a short period of time when plants were actually growing, but the cabbages,
broccolis, and beets received the worst damage by pests. Even organic pest
control methods did not seem to work. In my opinion, the straw does nothing to
prevent pests such as snails, slugs and moths. More plants were destroyed by
insects in the 6A test plot than any other area, with 60% reduction in beets
and 50% in broccoli.
Some other problems we faced in the test beds were trying to
plant seeds vs. plants. Plants were much easier to place and grew once planted.
None of the seeds, to date, have germinated except the very large shallots.
Compared to the traditional plots, the deep bedding has proved a good
prevention against weeds, with only bed 6A6 having enough that we needed to
weed, and in adding in OM/OC, but nothing else.
In Area 4 we were focusing on soil compaction. At the time of
this writing none of the plants had been in the soil long enough to show a
change. I would recommend testing again once we remove the potatoes and after
the comfrey and other plants have established themselves.
A notation on comfrey- the
roots are large and spread out, some were over 25 centimeters in depth. More
bees were seen on/around the comfrey than any other plant in the garden. As a
border plant or included into a beneficial insect planting these would be great
additions.
Final calculations for May 2018 tests.
Test 1 (December 2017)
|
|||||||
Location
|
%
Organic Matter
|
%
Carbon
|
N
(g/kg)
|
% N
|
C:N
Ratio
|
P
(g/kg)
|
% P
|
1a
|
4.414501001
|
2.207250501
|
1.456739962
|
0.145674
|
15.15198663
|
1.541586998
|
0.154159
|
1b
|
5.005418129
|
2.502709065
|
1.761472275
|
0.176147
|
14.2080709
|
1.58042543
|
0.158043
|
2a
|
4.154386907
|
2.077193453
|
1.502748566
|
0.150275
|
13.82261489
|
1.545172084
|
0.154517
|
2b
|
3.432371879
|
1.716185939
|
1.088869608
|
0.108887
|
15.76116469
|
1.558626673
|
0.155863
|
3a
|
3.701566912
|
1.850783456
|
1.361013547
|
0.136101
|
13.59860292
|
1.431259408
|
0.143126
|
3b
|
4.882998632
|
2.441499316
|
1.614771904
|
0.161477
|
15.11979611
|
1.60391021
|
0.160391
|
4a
|
4.107327356
|
2.053663678
|
1.54591195
|
0.154591
|
13.28449701
|
1.49245283
|
0.149245
|
4b
|
4.265709048
|
2.132854524
|
1.679799427
|
0.16798
|
12.6970742
|
1.369985673
|
0.136999
|
5a
|
3.561327561
|
1.780663781
|
1.321996028
|
0.1322
|
13.46946884
|
1.03897716
|
0.103898
|
5b
|
4.376756875
|
2.188378437
|
1.329074671
|
0.132907
|
16.46548667
|
1.15169933
|
0.11517
|
6a
|
3.230689744
|
1.615344872
|
0.956521739
|
0.09565217
|
16.88769708
|
1.082256169
|
0.108226
|
6b
|
3.153581094
|
1.576790547
|
0.951644818
|
0.09516448
|
16.569108
|
1.124783577
|
0.112478
|
7a
|
3.924577943
|
1.962288972
|
1.435094983
|
0.143509
|
13.67363003
|
1.550779347
|
0.155078
|
7a (border)
|
3.976363159
|
1.98818158
|
1.280826886
|
0.128083
|
15.52260315
|
1.378143133
|
0.137814
|
7b
|
3.14878532
|
1.57439266
|
1.271626298
|
0.127163
|
12.38090215
|
1.430425111
|
0.143043
|
8a
|
3.141135098
|
1.570567549
|
1.067144873
|
0.106714
|
14.71753986
|
1.304092192
|
0.130409
|
8b
|
3.494221618
|
1.747110809
|
1.138727625
|
0.113873
|
15.34262564
|
1.205249153
|
0.120525
|
Ammended 6A1 soil (fir)
|
19.03895377
|
9.519476884
|
|||||
Ammended 6A2 soil (fir)
|
21.7084802
|
10.8542401
|
|||||
Test 2 (May 2018)
|
|||||||
Location
|
%
Organic Matter
|
%
Carbon
|
N
(g/kg)
|
% N
|
C:N
Ratio
|
P
(g/kg)
|
% P
|
1a
|
4.592
|
2.296029278
|
1.358381503
|
0.135838
|
16.90270232
|
1.208092486
|
0.120809
|
1b
|
4.592
|
2.296029278
|
1.358381503
|
0.135838
|
16.90270232
|
1.208092486
|
0.120809
|
2a
|
4.556
|
2.278121631
|
0.969764012
|
0.0969764
|
23.49150547
|
1.267207473
|
0.126721
|
2b
|
4.974
|
2.487031996
|
1.173582126
|
0.117358
|
21.19184032
|
1.214092806
|
0.121409
|
3a
|
4.115
|
2.057334605
|
1.329526917
|
0.132953
|
15.47414955
|
1.298065719
|
0.129807
|
3b
|
4.060
|
2.029959612
|
1.160797034
|
0.11608
|
17.48759142
|
1.177015755
|
0.117702
|
4a
(purchased compost)
|
4.821
|
2.410321667
|
1.352597257
|
0.13526
|
17.81991473
|
1.017539915
|
0.101754
|
4b
(purchased compost)
|
4.821
|
2.410321667
|
1.352597257
|
0.13526
|
17.81991473
|
1.017539915
|
0.101754
|
5a
|
3.986
|
1.99288946
|
1.181184669
|
0.118118
|
16.87202171
|
0.986062718
|
0.09860627
|
5b
|
4.395
|
2.197718747
|
1.149558755
|
0.114956
|
19.11791248
|
0.926614027
|
0.0926614
|
6a
(deep sheet mulching)
|
5.616
|
2.808167938
|
1.330409357
|
0.133041
|
21.10753781
|
1.112329435
|
0.111233
|
6b
|
3.675
|
1.837477166
|
1.037994965
|
0.103799
|
17.7022627
|
1.08720531
|
0.108721
|
7a
|
3.565
|
1.78227002
|
1.13582584
|
0.113583
|
15.69134484
|
1.19734974
|
0.119735
|
7a
(border)
|
3.565
|
1.78227002
|
1.13582584
|
0.113583
|
15.69134484
|
1.19734974
|
0.119735
|
7b
|
3.883
|
1.941747573
|
1.22721598
|
0.122722
|
15.82232666
|
1.265917603
|
0.126592
|
8a
|
2.724
|
1.361975697
|
0.854941292
|
0.08549413
|
15.93063404
|
1.092221135
|
0.109222
|
8(b+c)/2
|
3.626
|
1.813
|
1.093378124
|
0.109338
|
16.58160932
|
1.183218847
|
0.118322
|
8b
(purchased compost)
|
3.878
|
1.938916812
|
1.021126761
|
0.102113
|
18.98795268
|
1.199611462
|
0.119961
|
8c
(lasagna compost)
|
3.374
|
1.686782027
|
1.165629488
|
0.116563
|
14.47099017
|
1.166826233
|
0.116683
|
Difference Between T2 and T1
|
|||||||
Location
|
%
Organic Matter
|
%
Carbon
|
N
(g/kg)
|
%N
|
C:N
Ratio
|
P
(g/kg)
|
%P
|
1a
|
0.178
|
0.088778778
|
-0.098358459
|
-0.009835846
|
-9.026043967
|
-0.333494513
|
-0.03334945
|
1b
|
-0.413
|
-0.206679786
|
-0.403090772
|
-0.04030908
|
5.12737543
|
-0.372332945
|
-0.03723329
|
2a
|
0.402
|
0.200928178
|
-0.532984554
|
-0.05329846
|
-3.769868362
|
-0.277964611
|
-0.02779646
|
2b
|
1.542
|
0.770846057
|
0.084712518
|
0.008471252
|
90.99553112
|
-0.344533867
|
-0.03445339
|
3a
|
0.413
|
0.206551149
|
-0.031486631
|
-0.003148663
|
-65.5996346
|
-0.133193689
|
-0.01331937
|
3b
|
-0.823
|
-0.411539704
|
-0.45397487
|
-0.04539749
|
9.065252381
|
-0.426894455
|
-0.04268945
|
4a
|
0.713
|
0.356657989
|
-0.193314693
|
-0.01933147
|
-18.44960518
|
-0.474912916
|
-0.04749129
|
4b
|
0.555
|
0.277467143
|
-0.32720217
|
-0.03272022
|
-8.479990136
|
-0.352445759
|
-0.03524458
|
5a
|
0.424
|
0.21222568
|
-0.140811359
|
-0.01408114
|
-15.07162627
|
-0.052914442
|
-0.005291444
|
5b
|
0.019
|
0.009340309
|
-0.179515916
|
-0.01795159
|
-0.520305412
|
-0.225085303
|
-0.02250853
|
6a
|
2.386
|
1.192823066
|
0.373887618
|
0.03738876
|
31.90325289
|
0.030073265
|
0.003007327
|
6b
|
0.521
|
0.260686619
|
0.086350146
|
0.008635015
|
30.18948212
|
-0.037578266
|
-0.003757827
|
7a
|
-0.360
|
-0.180018951
|
-0.299269143
|
-0.02992691
|
6.015286952
|
-0.353429608
|
-0.03534296
|
7a
(border)
|
-0.412
|
-0.205911559
|
-0.145001046
|
-0.0145001
|
14.20069924
|
-0.180793394
|
-0.01807934
|
7b
|
0.735
|
0.367354913
|
-0.044410318
|
-0.004441032
|
-82.71837032
|
-0.164507508
|
-0.01645075
|
8a
|
-0.417
|
-0.208591852
|
-0.212203581
|
-0.02122036
|
9.829797963
|
-0.211871057
|
-0.02118711
|
8(b+c)/2
|
0.132
|
0.065889191
|
-0.0453495
|
-0.00453495
|
-14.529199
|
-0.022030306
|
-0.002203031
|
8b
|
-15.161
|
-7.580560072
|
1.021126761
|
0.102113
|
-74.23697347
|
1.199611462
|
0.119961
|
8c
|
-18.335
|
-9.167458072
|
1.165629488
|
0.116563
|
-78.6480965
|
1.166826233
|
0.116683
|
Bibliography TBA
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