Transforming green spaces

My recent project with designing artwork for two tram stops in Melbourne's inner city has gotten me into the idea of transforming public spaces into new things. Public spaces ought to bring a sense of community, so projects that can provoke this, especially unexpectedly, are projects that I love getting involved in.

Here are two great examples of how local communities have taken empty public space and turned them into green spaces.

The Underground Railroad Park: New York City is full of old terminals for streetcars from the olden days. Dan Barasch and James Ramsey of the Delancey Underground project are aiming to build an underground park beneath the hectic streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side using one of the existing defunct trolley terminal for streetcars coming off the Williamsburg Bridge. This project integrates both green technology and the historical architectural features to turn unused underground space into something that can be a community hub, a marketplace, an art exhibition hall, and more. The founders are still raising funds to build a full scale model and to convince the city authorities that the public wants this project, so they've started a Kickstart campaign. Since they've started their $100,000 campaign, they've raised over $118,000 and there's still 33 days more to go! Way to go, Dan and James!

Beacon Hill Food Forest: I'm a huge fan of urban food gardens, so this project is close to my heart. Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood has always been sparse on formal public green space despite acres of free grassland around the long-defunct reservoir. During a permaculture course, a plan was drafted for a sustainable edible garden in the neighborhood, and eventually enough momentum was created to form a community group, contact the city council, and apply for grants to actually implement the plan. Now, the Friends of the Beacon Hill Food Forest are working with a landscape architect and volunteers to plan and execute the project. One of the challenges of a public community garden project like this will be balancing how the work and the harvest is divided. Successful community garden models I've come across, such as Incredible Edible Todmorden, have an open policy where everyone can join in on harvesting and eating, and work is shared by everyone. The trick is to create the community sense and get everyone to feel a sense of ownership over the project so they can share both responsibility and goods.

How to make a wicking bed

I'm part of a community group in Melbourne called Permablitz that does urban gardening and agriculture. Of the many cool things about Permablitz is the workshops they hold. I learned how to make a wicking bed system through Permablitz and next weekend, I'm going to be facilitating a wicking bed workshop at the next Permablitz. But before that, I wanted to share the notes on it.

So what is a wicker watering bed? It's essentially a raised garden bed where water is stored on the bottom. For gardens in hot weather, it's a good way to help keep water storage to the maximum and keep plants alive. The water is poured into a pipe that runs through the bottom of the bed and seeps into the scoria (volcanic rock) or sand or whatever sediment that you use for the bottom storage layer. By preventing water leakage with plastic inside the bed, water can be held. Plants can then draw up moisture from the bottom via capillary action, which is the same principle as growing seedlings on a tray of water.

You can also combine the wicking bed system with a worm farm system. This way, nutrients from the worm poop can steep into the water and the plants can take it up. A worm farm is also a great way to add in nutrients into the closed wicking bed system - since you're taking out the crops (and nutrients) from the bed, you have to add back in the nutrients somehow and the worm farm is an easy way to do this. See the last step if you want to combine the worm farm with the wicking bed.

Steps for making a wicker watering bed

1. Start with a raised garden bed or any container that you want to grow vegetables/plants in. You can have anything from a broccoli box to a full-on garden bed. The bottom scoria/sand layer needs to be about 5-10 cm and plants require 30-35 cm of soil (this may vary depending on what you're growing). If you have garden beds that come up to your waist, you can fill the bottom with wood pieces or carpet (note on carpet: just make sure the carpet isn't in direct contact with the soil/scoria as there is sometimes chemicals in the carpet). You can also use carpet/wood chips to make the bottom more even or cover up any parts that might tear holes into the plastic.
   
   
2. Using a sheet of plastic, line the sides and bottom of your garden bed. It's important that this plastic not have any holes, as any water leakage would defeat the purpose of the wicker bed. Although you don't necessarily need to line the sides all the way up, it makes it easier not to have the plastic slip down over time or weeds grow between the spaces of your plastic/soil and the garden bed container.
   
   
3. Measure out an appropriate length of agricultural pipe, which is basically tubing with holes on the side so water can drain out. In small garden beds, you can just lay the pipe out diagonally, but for larger beds, zigzag it. The pipe needs to go all the way up one side of the bed to where it'd be above or flush to the top of the soil. This is where you'll pour water into the pipe.
   
   
4. Once measured out, cut the piping and cover both ends with a piece of shade cloth or some other permeable material that will allow water through but prevent sediment.
   
   
5. Fill the bottom with a 10cm layer of scoria/sand, covering the piping. Use your feet to keep the piping in place as you pour in the sand. It's important to keep the sand layer even, otherwise the water will be biased towards one side, so use a balance to see if this layer is level. As you leveling, make sure not to tear holes in the plastic surrounding the bed. Once level, dig out ridges in the sand (see below) so that even if the water level drops, the soil can always be in contact with the water.
   
   
6. IMPORTANT: Once you have your sand layer in, an outlet must be placed in. This is so that you can tell when you've added too much water to your wicker bed. If too much water gets into the bed, it gets swampy and acidic, which is not good for the soil. To prevent this, make an opening in your garden bed where the top of your sand layer is and place a small PVC pipe (~25mm radius) through to the outside. This way, if the water level goes above 10cm, then the overflow can leave the bed via the PVC pipe. Cover the end of the PVC pipe that's in the bed with shade cloth/equivalent to prevent sediment from clogging it.
   
   
7. Once your piping and sand layer is done, place another layer of shade cloth over the whole bed. The soil layers will sit on top of the shade cloth. The benefit of this is that you can periodically lift up the entire shade cloth and do maintenance on the bottom sand layer if necessary. The shade cloth should go all the way up the sides of the garden bed and over the top a bit. IMPORTANT: Make sure the shade cloth is as flush as you can get to the sides of the bed because anything that falls between the sides will contaminate the water in the sand layer.
   
   
8. Start layering on soil, manure, and dynamic lifter to the top of the garden bed. You can pretty much put whatever you have on hand, but for nutrient rich soil for plants to grow in, it's best to layer in sheep/horse manure (best for leafy vegetables) or chicken manure (high in phosphates, good for food producing plants). Other things to consider - straw, dynamic lifter plant food. Keep sandwiching different layers in until you hit about 5cm to the top of the bed.



9. WORM FARM: An easy way to add nutrients to the wicking bed (a closed system) is to have several worm farms along the sides of the bed. Simply take a plastic bin (such as an old ice cream tub), cut out the bottom, and place against the side of the bed and on the bottom of the shade cloth. This way, the worm droppings will steep into the water and be diluted enough for plant uptake. You can have as many as you want, depending on how big your garden bed is. As you layer in the soil and the manure in the bed, fill around the bin to secure the placement. To activate the worm farm, fill it with straw/moistened cardboard, or newspaper at the bottom and worms. On top of that, place your kitchen scraps (vegetable peelings, uneaten leftovers, coffee grinds, tea leaves, etc). Eggshells can be used, but since they're harder to decompose, crush them first. Avoid citrus or onion peels because they're acidic and worms don't like them. Keep this worm farm covered to keep in the moisture.

Before: Empty raised garden bed
Seila and Sophie tying the shade cloth onto the ag pipe
The bottom layer of scoria with ridges. Seila here is adjusting the overflow pipe
Layering on soil and manure
After: The finished wicker bed

The good of community gardens

This article here on community greening is an issue that those involved in community gardening and open space advocating come across often – having to describe the benefits of community gardening. Having just written a review section on urban agriculture in the US and Canada, I wanted to share with you some of the key points I found.

There are a number of benefits from community gardens which fall under three main themes: urban agriculture, community development, and open spaces.

Urban agriculture: One of the crises faced by inner city residents is the food desert and lack of access to fresh healthy produce. This food insecurity problem can be addressed through community gardens in the city itself – vacant lots can be turned into garden plots and its harvest distributed to the neighborhood. The gardens can be owned by municipalities, community organizations, schools, land trusts, or even private owners. This local cultivation of one’s own food comes along with better food security, improvements in nutrition by eating fresh produce, reduced need for food transportation, and less money spent on groceries. Learning to plant and eat with the seasons can bring in a lot of educational opportunities as well. Organizations like Just Food in New York City focuses on developing a sustainable food system including partnerships with community gardens and community supported agriculture (CSA) farms.

Community development: Besides the direct impact on food security, getting a group of people together for a common cause, in this case growing greens, opens up many opportunities for community development. A sense of belonging is cultivated by the members and gardeners who tend the plot as well as a sense of neighborhood. Growing one’s own food, making decisions in what goes into the garden, and becoming self reliant is also hugely empowering, especially for new immigrants or low income people who might not feel as comfortable in formal parks. Relationships can be built across generations, cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic classes through working and playing together in these spaces and certainly it can contribute to reduction of crime and drug use. Some who get involved in gardening find that it helps them reconnect to their cultural or ethnic identity by the types of fruits and vegetables grown. Such empowerment and community participation very much strengthens the community as a whole.

For the especially productive gardens, they can become starting points for teaching entrepreneurship. Food from the 'Hood in South Central Los Angeles was created in October 1992 in response to the race riots and has become a nationally acclaimed program for empowering youth through entrepreneurial training. Students grew fruit and vegetables in an empty lot behind the Crenshaw High football field and developed their own line of salad dressing. Proceeds went to donation and scholarships to student managers; to date, over $250,000 in scholarships has been generated.

Open spaces: The garden itself can be a space for social, cultural, and educational activities. A study by Saldivar-Tanaka and Krasny (2004) on Latino community gardens in New York found that these spaces were used as places for family gatherings, parties, holidays, workshops, school group tours, and educational courses. For residents and families that may not be able to afford visiting public parks or personal backyards, having a green communal area is an inexpensive way to gather and relax. In addition, having a green space contributes to city beautification, improvements in environmental health through ameliorating air pollution and the urban heat effect, and positive reflections of the community identity. It’s a great opportunity for residents to participate and show their culture, creativity, and aesthetics through the plants and structures.

Today, the American Community Gardening Association estimates there are over 18,000 community gardens in the US and Canada, ranging from neighborhood gardens to public housing gardens and school gardens (Kortright and Wakefield, 2011). I think that it’s a great way to reconnect with nature and the community. If you’re interested in starting your own community garden, check out the resources below or contact the People’s Garden Initiative with the US Department of Agriculture to locate your nearest community garden.

RESOURCES

American Community Gardening Association

The Urban Agriculture Network

Community Food Security Coalition

City Farmer

FoodShare Toronto

REFERENCES:

Brown KH, Carter A (2003). Urban agriculture and community food security in the United States: farming from the city center to the urban fringe. Community Food Security Coalition, North American Urban Agriculture Committee.

Kortright R, Wakefield S (2011). Edible backyards: a qualitative study of household food growing and its contributions to food security. Agricultural and Human Values, 28:39-53

Saldivar-Tanaka L, Krasny ME (2004). Culturing community development, neighborhood open space, and civic agriculture: The case of Latino community gardens. Agriculture and Human Values, 21:399-412