Sticks and stones

 

No, not getting ready for Zompocolipse...

chopping, carving mulch steaks

making a stop cut then the side, angle cut for notch in mulch steaks

 Pea fence and mulch steaks

From the get-go, this season has been about sticks. I have loved sticks since I was a kid, but within the past few years as a gardener and artist, I have found that they are more to me than something to throw, whittle or use as a drawing tool. When, around the middle of April, my first ever WWOOF worker arrived, we started using sticks as markers to map out my new Permaculture, Fukuoka inspired  vegetable garden beds ie: Mandala Garden. And, I have to say that I am completely in love with the multiple functions, aka "stacking functions"in the Permaculture world, that I've created by cutting and using sticks.

When scoping out sticks to use, I immediately thought of our willows, a large patch of wild willows of varying kinds at the back of our property. Although willows lend their flexibility and often the quality of being quite straight, Ryouta, the WWOOFer couldn't get in to the willow patch because of the flooding we experienced this spring. So, the next best thing was Poplar saplings. These things are like weeds here, in Alberta, popping up unwanted along fence lines and encroaching on other spaces such as garden sites and amongst a lovely hedge of lilac along the front of the property. So, Ryouta set about cutting down many suckers and saplings, delimbing them, and cutting them to size for several projects.

The projects we used them for were many. First, the stakes I mentioned to mark where we were to dig Mandala garden. Next, some longer sticks to criss-cross, as seen in the last photo, for the Chinese stick gardening method I'd learned from a friend, who was taught by his Chinese neighbour. The sticks are stuck as deeply into the ground as possible at an angle, weaving in and out of previously thus planted sticks. This creates and nice support for peas and other vine plants, and in turn creates shade for lettuce and spinach. Another use for the sticks is the pegs you see Ryouta creating. They were carved to a point so they could be secure and with a notch out of the top to catch and hold the twine we used to hold the criss-crossed, longer sapling cuttings up and over the mounds. These longer cuttings hold the straw mulch down in our at times 80-100 km/ hour winds.

The shear number of functions that sticks have offered, including the freeing of space created by removing them makes me giddy. I love sticks.