Dos Pueblos High Permaculture

[Kevin]

Hi Permaculture Community,

I am an art teacher at Dos Pueblos high school and with an
enthusiastic group of students we have sheet mulched an oval of grass
about 20 X 60 feet in size and have begun plans to build a productive
food forest right in the middle of campus. (I started my first
permaculture garden in my backyard inspired by many of the ideas and
people this community has brought to town.) We dug shallow swales to
catch runoff from the surrounding sidewalks and a roof gutter and have
piled up soil for a future herb spiral. I have attached a photo of
our site below. Our vision is to have a lush mini-forest of low
water, multi-functioning plants and flowers, Chumash medicinal herbs
(white sage, yerba santa, etc.), dwarf fruit trees and some annuals.

A month and a half has passed and we're nearing the time of year when
the mulch has started to break down and we could start putting things
in the ground. We are brainstorming fundraising possibilities, which
I think is an important part of the process, but I also thought I
would throw a request out to the community if anybody has plants,
tools, compost, or other things that they would like to donate to our
project. We will take any offers, but below is a list of things that
we need and if anybody has a surplus, we could definitely put it to
good use.

Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
Kevin Gleason
(805) 968-2541 ext. 268
kgle...@dphs.org
Art Teacher
Dos Pueblos High School


Tools:
shovels
pruners
digging forks
a hose and nozzle

Drip line:
we need about sixty feet of 1/2" poly drip line, 60' of the 1/8" drip
line and lots of emitters to put in a drip system
to irrigate the garden as it gets established and in dry seasons.

Plants:
Fruit trees (preferably that have seasons during the school year
(figs, mandarins, avocado, apples, etc.)
Low water and native plants (some ceonothus would be good as a
nitrogen fixer, some insectary plants and herbs would be great.
Seeds for a cover crop this winter





[lbsal...@aol.com]

One minor suggestion.  Dwarf fruit trees have shallow roots and are not nearly as drought resistant as the same cultivars on semi-dwarf root stock, assuming you are not talking about true genetic dwarfs.  You can prune semi-dwarfs to be as small as dwarfs.  The fruit trees at our property on semi-dwarf root stock get through the summer with little or no watering once they are about 3-4 years old.

 

Larry Saltzman

[Shelly Cobb]

Hi Kevin,

Two suggestions:
1. I went to an estate (?) sale on Saturday across from U-Haul on Hollister. The guy was a collector and gardener extraordinaire. They had all kinds of tools for $3 - shovels, rakes, spades, you name it. This guy had it all! Even beautiful wrought-iron fencing and gates which could be used as a support for beans, etc. The lady running the sale gave me her card, and last night I gave the card to Kim Howard so she could call about getting tools for Beautify DP committee. You can ask her for the contact info, or maybe she can ask for whatever you need. It's not free but "almost". ;-)

2. I am transitioning into the role of Wish List Coordinator for the DP PTSA. You could put this on the Wish List and see if you get a donation from a parent.

Hope this helps! I absolutely LOVE what you are doing and hope it spreads like wildfire to the whole campus. The folks on the Beautify DP committee are super nice, but very traditional in their gardening style. I'm hoping when Randy Baldwin joins we can get them to open their minds a little to things like sheet mulching with cardboard vs. weed cloth, and zero-waste work days vs. lots of "crap in a box" snacks and bottled water from Costco. Alana is the student rep on our committee and she is excited about the idea!

Shelly

--
........................
Shelly Cobb
Edible Santa Barbara
Office Phone (805) 617-0359
Office Fax (208) 445-6242
Cell (805) 452-1440
she...@ediblesantabarbara.com
www.ediblesantabarbara.com

Shelly Cobb
Edible San Luis Obispo
Office Phone (805) 617-0359
Office Fax (208) 445-6242
Mobile (805) 452-1440
she...@ediblesanluisobispo.com
www.ediblesanluisobispo.com

[Kevin Gleason]

Thanks Larry.  I'll follow your advice.