Thursday, December 16, 2010

Magic Square Car Parks and Pommie Cricketers

'Tis the season to get silly!

Unfortunately the pic's no good but this is my pommie mate, Mark... before the Poms had collapsed to 6 for 120.

Well, what can you do?



On Saturday I helped set up a garden in a car park. This project had been some months in planning, in fact I asked for suggestions on wicking gardens back in September. I knew a small crowd had been invited but I must admit to being completely unprepared of the day that followed.



The car park is actually one car parking space at a block of flats. This space has now been deliberately and specifically reclaimed for the envionment and we have created two productive vegie gardens for the residents to tend and consume. My thanks to Aj, Frank and friends for welcoming me so openly.

The project was challenging in that we had to guess and adapt to create wicking beds but I had plenty of willing helpers, all of whom were generous with suggestions and ideas. As a social experiment this is obviously "thinking local" but I was pleased when the neighbours showed up and joined in... neighbours Frank hadn't seen in "ages". I think that's a great start, let's hope all the residents of these flats get to participate: planting, growing, watering, harvesting or consuming. Aj's a bit of a dynamo so I'm sure there'll be regular updates.


Adapt? Possums are challenging in this environment. I started with this 4 poster arrangement but following suggestions on the day I think we could set up some very neat cloche hoops, like small, independent poly houses. I can also report that Marsha who had purchesed our very first Magic Square Gardens was one of the participants on the day. Marsha has just planted a new crop having harvested "the best Broccoli she has ever tasted"! Sadly the onions weren't so successful but I'll take the Broccoli as the greater challenge any day.

5 comments:

  1. Fantastic project. I checked out AJ and Frank too...wonderful. Thanks for the post. Pity about your pommy friend though.

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  2. It is a good approach! keep sharing stuff like that! Gatwick Airport Parking

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  3. Wonderful approach, Its such a great idea to have a garden in a car park. Keep doing and sharing this. Worth visiting your blog.

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  4. It is really good need for pleasant environment. We should help to grow these plants in other suitable surroundings because it is not suitable for parking lots. Both the car parking and planting should be done separately in separate places. In this way, the plants shall not be affected by car parking and car will have good spaces in the parking lots.
    Gatwick valet parking

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  5. A combine effort, however small, makes a community strong and helps them bond with one another.
    gatwick valet parking

    ReplyDelete

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