Mulch Party at Kellogg Park!

Last month in September on Saturday the 26th from 9AM to 11AM, over 30 residents of Ventura came together to spread mulch at the city's latest park at Kellogg Street and Ventura Avenue.

Mulch is especially important before the rainy season to keep rainfall from evaporating too fast. With thick enough mulch (at least 3 inches) water has time to percolate down through the soil into our water table. Mulch is also important because it protects the soil food web from sun exposure. Exposed soil becomes baked and compacted into lifeless DIRT that only the hardiest weeds can grow in.

15 tons of mulch!

Thanks to our friends at RESTORE VENTURA, local landscapers and AERA Energy have been depositing mulch on site during the weeks prior, and during the event knocked piles over with tractors. The kids were STOKED on those tractors!


Thanks to the Ventura Chapter Surfrider Foundation for providing volunteers, tools, waivers, and for being passionate about Ocean-Friendly Gardens :)

Thanks to the Trust for Public Land, City of Ventura staff and local volunteers who make this possible.

Resident volunteers (not all pictured here), County Supervisor Steve Bennett, Mayor Cheryl Heitman, and me on the right. Photo from the official Kellogg Park Facebook page.

DON'T MISS NEXT WEDNESDAY Oct 14 at Bell Arts Factory!

Come show your support Wednesday night by choosing the kids' play equipment, adult exercise equipment, and request an edible forest at Kellogg Park!

Connect here with Kellogg Park on Facebook. Stay tuned for the next mulching event at the end of November!

Cheers, your dancing gardener,
Robert

Chipping Away at Permaculture

As our next step in creating a permaculture landscape in Ally's yard, we asked our friend Don to come over with his chipper to help with breaking down a huge pile of brush. Instead of having all the brush hauled off to the landfill, we decided to keep it onsite and use the resource for mulch and compost building.  It's part of our permaculture ethic, to close the loop and reuse as much as possible.

Don purchased the chipper with this is mind.  Whenever we have a need to chip up a bunch of organic debris, he is the person we call.  He's been helping neighbor's and friends since he started in his own backyard last summer.  It's a great piece of equipment for small to mid-size jobs.  Easily portable and economical, and makes really nice mulch.

Earlier in the week, our crew had cut down a volunteer pine tree and trimmed vines and hedges all around Ally's yard.  The trunk and some of the branches were too big to chip, so we cut them into lengths to be used as firewood.   Most of the rest of the branches we cleaned for mulching. The rest we lopped up into big compost piles.  After about 6 hours of work we had about 5 yards of rough compost and a dozen bags of fine mulch to be used in the yard.

Thanks Don!  Now we can move on to the next phase of Ally's edible landscape--building raised beds and compost bins.