Vertical Gardens Update

I have just tided up the vertical gardens and over the summer test out some other plants and herbs. As we are in the middle of a drought at the moment, the vertical gardens come into their own, with the salad crops. Though I am topping up the water supply with approximately 10 litres of water per day and we have just had the water tank filled with 20,000 litres, so hopefully we will make through the summer. The gasses will need to be planted somewhere else as they have out grown the garden.

Having a test garden has been useful to work out how such a garden might work in a public space, an one mostly unattended. The initial idea was to provide the community with a series of gardens which they could plant and tend, so you could pop down to Gordon St. and pick yourself a few herbs or some salad to go with your sandwich and eat it in the space. It just might need some more thought and tweaking to make a workable solution, to avoid any possible vandalism, but we will keep working on the idea.

Vertical Gardens

We had our first vertical salad at the weekend and very nice it was. A few plants have not flourished, so I will be doing some replanting, but most are doing well. Just have to stop the dog and cats drinking all the nutrient water.

Vertical Garden Update

Vertical Test Garden Update

Long weekend, so it will be time for some vertical gardening, and maybe our first vertical salad? Some plants need replacing and others need some trimming, but overall they are doing well. There are a few bits that need tweeking but it has been useful as a test garden to see what works and what needs working on.

I will probably need to make a new application for funding to build a more substantial and hopefully vandal proof garden. But that will have to wait until we have started work on the fence protection work.

Fences

I have been working on designs and ideas for work to go on the fences over the last couple of months. The ideas have  developed from work with students at Dargaville High School. We have been looking at the area and comparing it with a healthy ecosystem at Waipoua Forest. Using this as a starting point we are looking at ways to improve the areas biodiversity along with protecting the fences from graffiti vandalism.

Ideas so far include making insect hotels, encouraging birds and providing birdhouses and developing an extensive planting plan. The ideas to protect the fences have come from looking at the natural defence system of insects, birds and plants. The fence defence system design will be completed after we have done a detailed survey of the area. I am in the process of trying to find someone who can come and help us photograph what we find, including some of the microscopic soil and water creatures. We shall then use these images to make the finished designs.


The images below are some artist impressions of the above ideas.

Vertical Gardens Update Photos

Vertical Gardens

These are some photographs of the vertical garden prototype. It will enable us to get an idea of the practicalities of placing them at Gordon St. One is planted with salad crops and the other has mainly native plants. They are watered by an irrigation system and pump and the water has nutrients added. I shall add more pictures over the next few weeks to show their progress.