20/03/13

Weather:
Clear sky in the morning with light a variable breeze, high cloud later with stronger winds around noon then easing later.

Rain - 0.0mm
Temp - high 17C low 7C
Wind - N to E 4-15kph, SW 17kph, E 20-11kph, N to W 6kph.

Practical work:
Today in our Plant Collections unit we toured L block's  gardens with the intent of choosing a site to adopt for the year.
I chose to re-enliven the tyre gardens. Upon studying the site I decide to move the garden from the driveway up on to bark/soil beside the chook house and the western fenceline.
I did this for various reasons.
The first of which is aspect.
The former site of the tyres was at 9am still shaded by L-block to the east. As the winter sun's path falls in the sky this shadow will increase. By moving the garden to the western fenceline I will maximise the winter sunlit hours.

My second reason was drainage/water retention.
I can appreciate that tyre gardens(on concrete or other inert surfaces) illustrate a way of gardening without an earthen plot.
But I know that tyres will heat up in the sun and can dry out very quickly, especially on a hot hard surface.
Conversely, I noted when moving the garden that some tyres were not releasing water where they were pressing against the tarmac and the soil they contained was a soggy mess.
 I believe having the garden on living earth will help to balance these extremes. With the soil below acting as a buffer,I hope to minimise the risk of my plants drying or drowning.
Contact with "wild" drainage will also increase the biodiversity of my raised columns of medium. Certainly it will open up my garden to earth pests from below but I believe the microorganismic diversity will enhance the overall health of my garden.

My third reason to change the site is Health and Safety.
I wish to feel safe when I am gardening but the existing garden is on a driveway.
This driveway is regularly used by staff and students as a path.
The eastern side of the driveway is being used as a trailer park leaving just enough room for a vehicle to pass the existing tyre garden.
This leaves no room for the frequent pedestrians or the gardener should a vehicle wish to pass.
By moving the garden I will have minimised the risk of collision with pedestrians and eliminated the risk of an unseen crouching gardener standing up in front of a moving vehicle.

The next step for me is making a final decision on what to grow.

Yeah and in the afternoon we had our Turf Unit class...umm yeah......bren guns is all I remember.
Oh and some RE-iteration of common sense facts about prepping a site for lawn sowing/turf laying.
Visited the cricket ground. 500kg N per year. 300,000L of H2O per night. Sustainable? hell no