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                         a   S T A M M E R  project              

2009 August 18 to 27

August has been even warmer than July. On several days temperatures reached 35ºC, quite exceptional for these surroundings. Fortunately there was again a heavy thunderstorm in the second week of this month which left more than 20 litres of rain. The blackberries immediately responded, swelling up to sizes we hadn't seen in previous years.

The Natterjack toads (Epidalea calamita) are also ready to respond: after each substantial rainfall they organize their meetings and matings and days later strings of eggs and then the tadpoles can be found.

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Swollen blackberries on the lowest terrace.
Looking north.
24 August 10:06

Fruit of Verbascum blattaria on the lowest terrace.
Looking east.
24 August 10:10
 

1. Sieve the earth with 6mm sieve to get rid of the stones.

22 August 10:24

I continued the plaster work. As I am getting quite enthusiastic about this material and am sure that many people will also be interested in the applications (quite ancient by the way) of this 'gold' that can be extracted for nothing from the earth, I decided to add a more extensive paragraph about the matter with a sequence of the different stages with the corresponding images here on the left.

After the help and company of family and friends in the previous weeks, this time it was just me and myself, and I needed some morale to continue.  But what they say in many books and internet sources about needing many people to do this kind of job isn't true either. When you organize the job well, making sure you introduce sufficient rests and alternate the different actions of sieving, mixing and applying, it is perfectly possible to do the job alone.

I managed to apply two layers of the earth-straw mix on the interior walls of the garden house in one week, each layer containing about 400 litres of earth, about 200 litres of straw and 100 litres of water. The total surface of the interior walls is approximately 30 m2 and the thickness of each layer varies considerably but will average about 2cms.

In some areas, especially the corners, I could have introduced just some more loose straw to save earth plaster, but I preferred to fill them in with the plaster, even to depth of up to 10 cms. All this plaster (adding up to at least 1 m3) will act as an effective temperature buffer, tempering the extremes in summer and winter. In fact, I could already notice the effect, even with the open windows and door: when the temperature reached 35ºC outside, inside it didn't pass 28ºC.

In the coming weeks I will add another fill-up layer and then apply a finish layer of clay and sand (and possibly some colouring agent) for which I will need to do some experimenting.
Testing is mandatory in many stages when you work with earth plasters. Never trust the cook book recipes.  

3. Mix the three layers with a shovel.

Cement blocks as the foundation and the discarded door as the floor for the waterless compost toilet.
26 August 18:23

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To alternate the different actions and give the skin of my hands some respite, I started another relatively urgent project: a complete compost system, including a compost toilet and a compost bin. I followed the philosophy and methods of Joseph Jenkins, whose inspiring 'The Humanure Handbook' can be downloaded and read online. Contributing a lot of scientific evidence, he states that the problems with the practical use of human faeces and urine as compost are by and large psychological and that it is really absurd to use so much drinkable water to get rid of something  that can be so valuable for the fertility of the soil.

The system he proposes is as simple as effective: collect faeces, urine and toilet paper in a bin, assuring to keep it covered at all times with saw dust or chopped straw. When full, carry it to a compost bin and let the contents stay there for at least one year.  Due to the inherent composition of the faeces and the straw, the mix will produce a thermophilic process and the combination of time and heat will ensure the annihilation of possible pathogens.

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The compost bin will of course not only receive faeces and urine but all kinds of scrap and organic material. Jenkins is surprisingly permissive as it comes to what can be composted and what not, and I am tempted to believe him, also because he draws on more than 25 years of experience.


I decided to use wire mesh surrounding the bin to keep out rats, cats, foxes, badgers or dogs which will go after the (cooked) remains of meals and make a mess of the bin. Straw bales will keep the bin somewhat isolated and favour the composting process.

Zucchini ('Emeraude' F-1), with an impressive fruit of more than 50cms.
22 Aug 10:29

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We couldn't give all the attention needed to the vegetable garden and we didn't do any watering this month. So the 20 litres of rain that fell were really a relieve and the straw layer assured that the beneficial effect lasted for weeks.

Especially thriving are the fruit vegetables, showing that the soil has real potential (we didn't add any fertilizer or manure).

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Because of all the different activities, spontaneous paths are forming around the garden house. I try to favour and maintain these paths and animate visitors to do so too because this selective trampling of feet is not only nicer to look at but also enriching the vegetation.

I was happy to detect again Trifolium fragiferum on one of these paths. It seemed to love the layer of loose straw and some trampling.

introduction
floristic catalogue
faunistic catalogue
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index
gallery 1: 2006-2012
gallery 2: 2012-
map
>> 2009 Sep 2
<< 2009 Jul 1