P (otager) of P (arouseux) P (artaged) in Champagne

[QuentinDida]

Hello everybody

I would have liked to call this topic "PPP in Champagne" but was very afraid of imagining the reaction of those who would have immediately translated this acronym into "Public-private partnership", which the garden I am about to speak about is not exactly (!).

In fact, in the strict sense, it is a bit of this kind of partnership, since it is a project carried out in common front between the town hall of Saint-Martin-sur-le-Pré (800 inhabitants bordering Châlons-en village). -Champagne, Marne) and your servant as well as some of his friends who want to lend a hand from time to time.

I told myself that a first publication could justify such a chat, I allowed myself to explain my subject a little in detail and hope that you forgive me.

For context, I allow myself to give some information to my own subject. My name is Quentin Dida, I am 19 years old, was born in Châlons-en-Champagne and am currently studying German and literature in Nancy. I have been very interested in plant biology for a year now, first by coming across videos of permaculture, then very quickly on those of Didier Helmstetter who interested me more in that they were subject to a certain rigor and of a kind of humility that appears to me only in a more troubled and hypocritical form among the proponents of the new agronomic religions (butte-makers and burials of biomass). Little by little, I try to train myself in plant physiology and botany, not because of a particular goal but because I find pleasure and that it amuses me enough.

As for the garden I am talking about (the "PPP"), its genesis dates back to the middle of last spring (2018) when some friends in myself, therefore, contacted the said town hall of St-Martin to submit the following project: that of creating a garden on land lent by the municipality and on which vegetables, fruits and aromatic herbs would be grown. Free from any commercial logic, this garden is freely accessible (it adjoins the public road and is not closed by any fence) and everyone has the opportunity to come and participate in its development, without needing to join any association, without obligation of presence, contribution or other.

Regarding the financing of operations, the town hall plays a key role since it is it who takes care of all the expenses related to our projects and our desires. I specify that I use a plural tense but that, in fact, it is almost exclusively me who makes all these projects and who tries to realize them since to date no "unknown" has yet come "to us. "join and that the few friends who regularly come to the garden do so mainly to have a good time there than out of particular interest in the thing. However, the thing is recent (less than a month and only a few weeks for the creation of a Facebook page and the publication of the first articles in the newspapers) and I am largely willing to get along with other people who would like take over the garden ...

Let's move on to the heart of the matter:

Starting situation: 450m² of wasteland (for several years, but previous activities in the field remain unclear); obviously the soil is very chalky, very stony as everywhere in the chalky Champagne I presume.

(The land goes to the end of the chalk wall on the left (the plot that remains between the garden and the hall will be inhabited by chickens and geese, according to the last words of the mayor)

After the ground was shorn to the lowest, we rolled 4 hay bows in an arc and transplanted through (end of May), without any preliminary work of the soil and without amendment. The thickness at the start was everywhere about 20 cm; after a big thunderstorm in early June, some places have moved to 10 or 5 cm only.

(hay bales, before said thunderstorms and before the hay was evenly distributed)

(detail of the turn, before said storms)

First of all, plants bought from a local market (almost all F1 hybrids, the goal was, if we can not start to make our seeds, to have "beautiful" plants this year, and there is also a side "Com '" so that people can see that it works ".

(a courgette from the market gardener, the first two fruits of which are now "commercial type" size)

I gradually introduce other self-produced plants, mainly squash and zucchini for a reason quite beyond my control which is that I had sown too much at home and I still have a lot…

After one month, 90% of the plants survived and grew relatively encouraging (some yellowing here and there and others remaining on stand-by for several weeks after transplanting before resuming growth). Since transplanting, no watering, no treatment etc. only weeding out weeds that pierce the hay layer.

(Breakthrough of the different weeds For the moment I do not make an obsession to tear them off, I tear them only where I replant and when they grow next to such or such cabbage for example)

I started to list native vegetation for my general knowledge, to see how this vegetation will evolve in contact with crops (competition, association, etc.) and to study the different characteristics of the plants present. I can already mention: thistles, poppies, mauves, sagebreams, erect, rumex, bindweed, brambles.

At first, I do not intend to make war on one or the other of these plants. EXCEPT thistle; for a perfectly trivial reason which is that we can not leave it in our alleys, otherwise the passage becomes a hell.

So we attacked the pickaxe ... thistles proceeding from front alley by sowing then sowing a mixture of white clover, incarnate (the mayor has offered us, it was to use) and fescue. It is hoped that they will grow with some of the old vegetation, which could perhaps limit the impact of the thistles ... Moreover, the drought of the last few weeks makes the germination of all this beautiful shy world and, with some Watering for the shot (on the aisles, and therefore a fortiori on adjoining crops that have had to enjoy - to relativize my "no watering since transplanting" a little ostentatious), only clovers sprouted. We'll see what that gives ...

(before the pickaxe)

(after...)

So that's where we are at the moment:

20180624_183122.jpg (480.79 KB) Viewed times 4755

We have to install a little shadow somewhere in one way or another near a wall and try to move forward on this plan which is for now ours:
1. Construction of a wooden cabin with already two walls.
2. Installation of a vineyard to the south
3. Hedge of shrubs to the east (syringat, loquat, buckthorn)
4. Fruit plantation around the growing area
5. Aromatic and medicinal herbs zone (for annuals, and if we want them to grow from one year to another, should we cultivate them on squares of bare land? other options?)

Here is a projection (a little crude I concede) of what it might look like:

coarse projection.jpg (493.35 KIO) Viewed 4755 times

With a more conventional plan, it would give something like this:

projection plan.png (25.71 KIO) Viewed 4755 times

(the first band of hay would be removed to enlarge the area close to the wall, so to have many different aromatics, also to be able to increase possibilities of design, to plant roses, rhubarb and what do I know that intoxicates the nostrils and flatters the pupils of men like butterflies, bees etc. who will navigate there)

In the idea then, there would be in the middle a vegetable garden under hay (I would like to try to cultivate under cover alive with white clover, but finally I will wait to be a bit more prowl to venture into that , maybe next year ) and on both sides more woody areas, with BRF cover (for strawberries on the left and shrubs on the right).

I will try to feed this thread as and when events occur, while I continue to read here and there what is found in the various discussions where I discover many things.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, I have only 19 years and so have only a tiny experience of the living so far (outside my own life, which is already a delicate experience) - thus, definitive as they appear, the project ideas that I formulate are not certain and are for me more proposals than decisions. By necessity, if no event makes me give up, these proposals, in fact, take the form of decisions, but I do not see things happen otherwise.

Have a good day !

[QuentinDida]

PS: the first photos of the first post were disordered, I have not managed to edit so I allow myself to republish here in order with their legends. I remain interested in an indication to edit the first post if someone can help me, thank you!

(The land goes to the end of the chalk wall on the left (the plot that remains between the garden and the hall will be inhabited by chickens and geese, according to the last words of the mayor)

(hay bales, before said thunderstorms and before the hay was evenly distributed)

(detail of the turn, before said storms)

[Did67]

Welcome here.

I remember your "nickname" on Youtube.

I will make some suggestions to you shortly, regarding the context (soil, social) and the site ... If I zap, raise me !!!

[edit Did67 - correction of a written slip]

[Moindreffor]

you have a beautiful wall, well exposed you must absolutely exploit it
so to your reflections
Good luck for the future

[Did67]

you have a beautiful wall, well exposed you must absolutely exploit it

Absolutely. Nothing like a south-facing wall for successful tomatoes ... A transparent "roof" above prevents raindrops. Growing them against the wall avoids condensation. The production can be spread until the end of October without any treatment, porridge, decoction, etc ... Think that they can reach 3 m high!

Potasser the technique of "Trombe walls" [Trombe is the name of the architect who highlighted this in bioclimatic constructions].

[QuentinDida]

you have a beautiful wall, well exposed you must absolutely exploit it

Absolutely. Nothing like a south-facing wall for successful tomatoes ... A transparent "roof" above prevents raindrops. Growing them against the wall avoids condensation. The production can be spread until the end of October without any treatment, porridge, decoction, etc ... Think that they can reach 3 m high!

Potasser the technique of "Trombe walls" [Trombe is the name of the architect who highlighted this in bioclimatic constructions].

I originally had the idea to build a small building on this wall, with an adjoining greenhouse, but the dimensions are actually quite modest and it would probably be more reasonable to opt for a "simple" greenhouse, or indeed to first mount a roof to house tomatoes and others. Next to it, that is to say in the corner with the brick wall, I would like to build a small workshop, lengthwise, which could be adjoining the greenhouse.

For the moment, my projects remain in my head and in my speeches, mainly because of two reasons, one of which is easy to solve while the other concerns me more:

The first reason is just that I don't know how to go about building a building or whatever. It always seems extravagant to me to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on this kind of thing (walls and a roof in short) even if I could say that spending hundreds of dollars on just about anything me seems extravagant. But let's move on. So I started to look at the side of "eco-construction", first since it is the possibility of reducing the expenditure, but especially because the autonomous methods allow to achieve almost everything that we want, and as I'm trying to draw a whole bunch of buildings, I like the idea of ​​being able to make them as in my plans, with earth and straw, stone, wood or whatever again. For that I started to register for participatory projects (in reality only one for the moment, but I intend to accentuate the approach) since one learns there particularly quickly and that in short, in spite of the little enthusiasm that I have for this register there a priori, the social interactions that are solicited have something reassuring about the possibility of a joyful cohabitation with human beings.

This is where my second problem begins, which may be the only real problem ... I was telling a friend a few days ago that I found the garden both desperate and exciting. . Exciting because I imagine a lot of things; I see myself planting my hedge of shrubs in the fall, transplanting about thirty strawberries, raspberries, vines, planting an apricot tree, a pear tree, cherry trees, etc. etc. I can see it in a year or two, sipping a glass of mint, correcting some texts written during the winter, preparing great dinners, listening to Schubert's lieder with enclosures hidden between the branches of the laurels. .. short. The garden is first of all an opportunity for fantasies. There is, no doubt, a part of projection. Enthusiastic that it appears to me, the garden would be an echo of my hope for life, for my life, I do not know too much. Its corollary is delicate, even rancid, until tasteless at times.

I realize that plants do not need me. Evidently, even, they are out of necessity and suffer none of my categories. The rupture between my temporality and theirs makes me see the grotesque of my agitations in all directions, I am brought back to the unstoppable comedy that must be this moment of my existence, which will have to be followed by others, that I can not imagine no less comical, usurpatory. I find the garden despairing because I have nothing to do there (except to reap the fruits, certainly, but I remain excluded from the real machine that is running, or so I am only the driver of the locomotive to steam, the face marked by soot and who just hears the whistling train) and because the contemplation causes me a dull pain which is only the echo.

More factually, and more prosaically, I see that my projects are incompatible with the rhythm, the dialectic of the plant. I'm riding a garden shed. Two days, three days, a week. So what ? I bring the world, an evening, an event, a few hours, lost in the big void. Nothing will have changed. This feeling is further accentuated in the situation in which I am: in a very small town, the mayor agrees with everything and willingly pays, but we must give him a call, I try to pay attention to my attitude because I would not want him to feel that I'm taking my ease, that I'm taking advantage of the situation, so I avoid asking too much, too often, so we wait, nothing happens, things are done with a kind of linearity that uses yet. Oddly.

[Moindreffor]

there, you are mistaken
the plants will surprise you,
a few feet of tomatoes, some onions, a little cheese, some wheat and here you are at the head of a pizza and that a few months after your debut
a gooseberry, a raspberry, a rhubarb foot and the first jams are there
a little mint, and you already have a cool drink to share

does not calculate in euros, a building is above all branches, sheets for the roof, it is in nature,

do yourself before any pleasure, if you want to turn this land into a haven of peace without taking your head

this place, give it a soul, forget the conformism and instead of enclosure, happy birdsong, you will see in a deckchair in the shade of a fruit, nature will play you its melodies

[Did67]

Reflection - or doubt - seems to me deeper. What are we serving ??? What are we doing on earth? Where is the difference between a hustle (doing something without knowing the meaning) and an action (doing something that makes sense) ???

A vegetable garden, no more than a profession or a work of art or a family, provides an answer to this. Whether it works or not. Whether it is "green" or not. It can be a "headlong rush" or a "nourishing haven". Such a "method" can be a new religion - in short, a crutch! It can take a lifetime. Or hide it ... As can the ambition to be "green" ...

The meaning of life, you have to look upstream! It's not easy. Generally, it's when we start having gray hair that we see a little more clearly. Especially on the relativity of everything!

[Did67]

I realize that plants do not need me ...

And here is the knot. You are not indispensable to the living !!! Quite simply.

The living exists. You are part of it. Without ever this element - you, me ... - is indispensable. Some attribute this to some God, or, more simply, to the founding myths of which all societies are fond. For my part, I find it easier to admit that it is like that [in my opinion, all the myths, all the religions enclose and impose rituals; it seems to me more important to be free, at the risk of being alone].

To go to the end: in the living, the basic unit is not the individual, even if he is the "basic carrier" of life. The basic unit is the species. Who evolve. Individuals, for this very reason, must die. They just pass, and pass the torch again, and must therefore absolutely not be essential.

If the first cyanobacteria had clung to SA life, no evolution would have been possible and we would not be there. She preferred LA life.

Therefore, we must accept not to be indispensable. And give up our dreams of omnipotence, which are those of dictators (who, fortunately, die anyway!).

[Adrien (ex-nico239)]

I realize that plants do not need me ...

And here is the knot. You are not indispensable to the living !!! Quite simply.

Uh yes and no

Yes because everything grows everywhere without human intervention

No because everything does not grow everywhere without human intervention

Indeed, we gardeners, we recreate what does not exist and probably never existed in our plots.

We create the best conditions
We sow inside
We transplant to the right period
We water when the water is missing ....
We protect them from predators

In short our interventions are multiple without which the plants would wither

So in these "artificial" conditions the plants need us