Daan Coolwijk

My cousin is repaving his garden and wanted to get rid of his very old European holly.

We're going to put it in a 50 liter pot and I'm going to raise it in the community garden.

Michael Cox wrote:Nice trellis.

I would add some diagonal bracing though. As it is I think the whole frame could potentially tip along it’s length.

Hi Michael, I was out of bamboo sticks when I put this down yesterday, but today I have bought some more and braced the structure.

Today Me and my girlfriend made a bean trellis for our pole bean variety called Blauhilde.

One of the bamboo sticks snapped, so unfortunately I will have to get a couple more.
The neighbor in my community garden found a mole cricket. It is quite an invasive species here in the Netherlands, and not loved for the fact that it eats young seedling roots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8nqnOcoLqE ; maybe something like this might inspire you. It's a series about places suffering drought in India and turn it into something beautiful. Best of luck

Nola Lewis wrote:If you are getting the soil ready to plant, mix it in a bit. If you have plants to feed, top dress. only water if it needs watering anyway.  I would stay away from root crops, but I might be wrong for saying that, if anyone else says different, listen to them on that one

I don't think root crops should be a problem using manure as a fertilizer. Poop is high in nitrogen, you might have been mistaken with beans perhaps?

Michelle Czolba wrote:Looks like an elm. Nice work! It's always exciting to see patches of concrete become gardens.

Thanks for confirming.  Any suggestion on how to eliminate it? I was thinking of digging it up with my trowel and cut below the rootball with my pruners, not sure how well that will work though.

Turning my old parking space into an urban edible garden. The tree and hedge make a nice microclimate, the southside in the picture is to the right making it the perfect space for me to turn it into a garden.

What I have done so far:
-I used a spit fork/broad fork (not sure what it's called in English) to loosen up the compacted sandy soil, so I could remove all the perennials, I saved all the dandelion roots and washed them all up, I have seen a video of someone making dandelion coffee by drying out the roots and then roasting them to make dandelion coffee and I would like to try that as well, it might be a nice replacement because nowadays I only drink water and tea.

-I moved the concrete tiles 50x50cm (19.5x19.5~ inches), my plan to get rid of them is to place it on a website to sell second hand items, and put it up for free to pick up. I used a shovel and stuck it under the tile being able to lever it against the compressed sand underneath it, making it easy to pick it up, but gosh those tiles are heavy, and it being 30 (86F) degrees celsius outside wasn't favourable either.

-After removing all the weeds I equalized the sand, and raked out most of the stones at the top.

-I used my spitfork again to loosen up the whole area once again, and raked out the majority of stones  sadly enough i tilled some of the hedge's roots up, and damaging the plant although I think it will survive because it has a very developed root system as the hedge is trimmed down throughout the year.

I still have to make a design for my gardening beds, but I am thinking of making a raised bed making it to place a mulch like wood chips for the paths. It would be really cool by making a raised by from pallet wood.

Edit: The plant you see stick out of the hedge is presumably an Elm, I am not a 100% sure but it could have been growing there; other side of the pavement there is a big Elm that might have had a success of reproducing itself. Are there any people that are able to identify and confirm if it's an Elm?

To be continued

I love the way you are thinking Hugo! The approach you take on gardening intrigues me.

I have been talking to the elderly gardeners at the community garden, they also find it strange that I want to take a veganic approach, although one person is very genuine and wishes me luck in my journey.
I am not familiar with Bryant Red Hawk, nor Paul Stamets but I will look them up.

A lot of my knowledge comes from videos from youtube, such as MI gardener, Charles Dowding, Morag Gamble, Stefan Sobkowiak (owns a vegan permaculture orchard), Huw Richards, Self sufficient me, and so on.

Do you know Will Bonsall? Also a very inspiring character, and one of the most knowledgeable people regarding sustainability in my opinion. He explains so well why raising (land) animals is unsustainable in agricultural practices including permacultures.

One of the elder gardeners said if I would be using sand it will end up like concrete in the long run, especially when it sinks to the lower sediments.

Today I have tried Morag Gamble's approach to clearing weeds and preparing land to grow on. I have loosened the soil with a spit fork, then mulched the patch of grass land with comfrey that i cut the flowers off of, put on some nettle compost tea on it to kickstart the composting process, and covered it with cardboard.
I am protecting it from excess moisture and wind by using a tarp.

In this corner I am mainly going to grow biomass for my plot, I might add an Alder in there for the promotion of mycorrhiza.
I have a pear tree already, and I might add in another fruit tree once I have prepared the land for use. I will still have to level the earth at the back of my plot (work in progress).

Hi Hugo,

Thank you for the great post, a lot of information and decisionmaking digest with all these reflective questions. I am glad I have plenty of time left to think about it.
As I recall correctly, a moringa tree does not fix nitrogen; I am quite confused because there are 2 parties saying exactly the opposite when i search for it.

I live in the Netherlands, with veganic I mean vegan and organic, In other words no cultivation of vermicompost, raising chickens etc.
Peat is very fertile, but the water drainage is very poor. I could also dig for a drainage pipe into the ditch (dutch = sloot), However, I still believe that building up soil full with organic matter will be the best over any condition. Will sand not ruin the fertility in the long run? Let's say 3-5 years when I will have build the soil up.
The phacelia i use because it has a nice tap root, I thought it would be nice to sow as well, because it doesn't compete with the clover meaning more coverage, The whole principal of chop and drop is to recycle nutrients from your current ground and create higher quality soil out of it (in the long run), but it does take a couple of years to my observations.
I already am growing 2 rows of daikon radish, as soon as that's done I will amend the soil with some compost, which hopefully mixes in well with the peat. Unfortunately I have a very slow growing variety, so I will probably be too late to get another row going in summer.

What exactly do you mean by sun trap? Creating a beneficial microclimate for the vegetables?
A goumi looks very interesting, I will keep that one in consideration.
The bronze fennel also has a very interesting symbiotic mechanic, I really love that, though I am not really fond of fennel myself.
The two small patches in front of the garden are actually my green manure experiments, I will probaby chop them once it reaches decent size and use it as compost or mulch for my summer vegetables.
The Alder looks very interesting, and appealing, on the other hand I would really like to grow moringa trees, not only because it's a great challenge, but also very exclusively grown in the Netherlands.
Will several goumi be a good substitute to replace an alder?

As of now I have had no difficulties with slugs, however my neighbours find them now and then. Flea beetles I did prevent by spraying garlic infused water with a little bit of biodegradable dishwashing soap which did wonders to my arugula, eventually I want to use companion planting as well as a few beds with a netted tunnel.