Creating Drainage

Water pipes run through three raised garden beds, and planning for the drainage was the second step after welding the metal railings up. The garden walls needed to create a seal to capture the rain water, as it is not possible to off load soiled water run-off into the surrounding river estuaries. With some simple wood working and the help of master cody with plumbing, we were able to epoxy pipes and cover them with measurable inches of rock to create a slope that would create the lowest point for successful drainage. More details to come as the drainage "lasagna" was extremely effective and a great use of recycled materials.

harvesting greywater plants

-two pairs of lent wellies
-thermos of coffee
-4 bananas
-cell phone
-ranger john's cellphone
-GPS to Floyd Bennett field
-two spades
-contractors bags
-small converted bus
-gardening scissors

Ranger Jose told us life firefighting stories and we shook off soil and found two earthworms and one beetle larvae.

let's wish the plants luck in their new home.

chicken coop!

We have invited Genevieve from Montreal to create the chicken coop for the waterpod. She has proposed a favela. Aside from the fact that chickens like to "bunk" together, her urban mock of a home, is exciting.
We have selected materials for her to use and the challenge becomes, can you build a chicken coop with what materials we have foraged on site? The crate being the best structure, with little labor.

let's see what she comes up with.

the crew

soil on site

With a generous donation of soil from the parks department, we are beginning our on site garden. Mary brought her plants first. We are all impressed! Mary's tomatoes are TOUGH she said. They could withstand 3 days of no watering and then lots of love. Sometime half of the battle, is plants learning how to live like you do, on your cycle, on your rhythm. The soil on the other hand is 100% compost, which is amazing and we found out after the first rain storm, that the compost helps to absorb water. Drainage however is a challenge, and we are looking at supplementing the soil with a mineral base.

temporary living systems

Just because the barge doesn't have anyone living on it yet, doesn't mean we don't have to start worksite living system.
One bucket is sawdust the other compost and some fruit albeit pesticided covered grapes, taught us the hard way that we can't wait to be eating our own home grown food!

on site!

Getting dirty, using our hands as tools of the earth to move large amounts of materials to change space, and enjoying the vision of sunsets on the cranes that will lift soil for us...come out and PLAY!

plants in places all over the city!

garden fence

The best part of working on a barge is the air, the sun, the cool breeze and getting to feel tough about working with metal. The garden railings are going up slowly but surely and sloping with the arcs of this salvaged stage that we are reinventing. Inside these sloped areas will be mountains of sloping soil.

Our welds are beautiful, strong and torched into place alongside some soft beaming sun.