PLANETARY GARDENS
The idea
The project is based on the idea of a conscious and researched horticulture, which aims to create green spaces where flowers and vegetables’ production meets meditation and “natural magic”. In the orchards project design and management synergic agriculture principles (association, mulching) and biodynamic (agricultural calendar for sowing and transplanting, use of biodynamic preparations) will be taken in consideration, while for plant nourishment it will be use natural and biological methods and remedies.
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For the setting, whether it’s possible, there will be a manual labour, trying to reduce as many tillage actions and excavations as possible to maintain intact the microbiological and energetic profile of the soil.
The project is conceived with a productive, decorative and educational production.
The project
Therefore, the orchards once are settled –up will be the theatre and object for workshops and tastings, besides providing vegetables, flavourings and flowers. Activities will last one or two hours, during which guests, in a guided visit, can taste vegetables and explore the gardens. This is an opportunity to get closer and know better the meaning of biodynamic and Earth, Sun and Moon relationship (i.e. which are the lunar influences, the five biodynamic elements, the zodiac in biodynamic, Maria Thun work, etc.).
THE MOON GARDEN
The Moon Garden (23 x 5,5 squared meter) are made of three raised beds of two meters diameter each, by two water’s tubes of one-meter diameter each and by two plant rows of 23 meters long. The garden will welcome vegetables and aromatic plants with lunar character mainly.
Each one of the three raised beds stages the moon cycle: Crescent, full and waning. In the crescent moon pallet, which will have a half-moon shape and a body of water in the middle, there will be planted sees where the crescent moon influence have beneficial effects (fruits, leaves). In the circumstances, pumpkins will be the queens of this first season.
The waning moon raised bed will be mirroring the crescent one, in a sickle shape but rotated on the vertical axis with respect to the first, and it will have a mirror of water in the middle the one above mentioned. Here there will be root vegetables and we will start with carrots. The tips of the scythe will be decorated with white lilies.
Next year, the increasing and decreasing functions of the two pallets will be reversed, so as to alternate crops. Water lilies and lotus flowers will be placed in the water tanks (2 underground tanks).
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Lunar vegetables in head, from leaf or flower (white cabbage, endive, salads) will be planted in the centre of the vegetable garden in the raised bed of the full moon (a circular pallet of two meters diameter). The perimeter of the bench will be drawn by a circular row of white onion or spring onions (both lunar and martial plants) and the raised beds will be mulched
Seedlings of celery (1 row along the east side) and Lavandula angustifolia (planted on the edge along the west side, in three rows of 46 seedlings each) will be planted in the 23-meter rows that will run along the major sides of the garden framing it.
In this way the garden will be protected by perfumes (repellents for pests), and the small cultivation of lavender will attract many bees, ensuring, in June and July, wonderful purple blooms, in addition to the silver and perennial light of leaves. Even the lavender will be mulched, just like celery. The straw gives aesthetically light and “softness” to the profiles of the garden, besides acting as a fertilizer with gradual release and protection from drought and thermal changes. Moreover it tends to become increasingly white and lunar over time and use.
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Lunar plants of excellence (lunaria, artemisia, beautiful at night, but also peppers, tomatoes, aubergines and other solanaceous) will be planted in the north, south, west and east corners, in semi-circular beds 1.5×3 meters. These will give birth to bushes.
There will be 60 cm wide walkways marked by pebbles or stone slabs (material to be selected together with the client) between the raised beds. The use of the raised beds technique allows not to resort to the ploughing of the soil. This garden water need will be medium. In the hottest period, two irrigations of 30-minute per day, morning and evening will be required. An irrigation system (16 mm diameter polyethylene pipes) with timer will be installed.
The idea is to continue the cultivation even during the winter season, especially with Brassicaceae and then with leguminous plants (green manure).
THE SUN GARDEN
Solar plants will be hosted by six concentric circular bands, made up of an olive tree (olea europaea L.), of increasingly large diameter and one meter wide in the centre of the garden. There will be, in order from the inside to the outside: artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.), calendula (Calendula officinalis L.), strawberry (Fragaria vesca L., of re-flowering variety), helichrysum (Helicrysum italicum L.), dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis), laurel (Laurus nobilis L.) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), which will provide fragrances for the kitchen and arranged in circular rows to form green, yellow and orange circles and they, strawberries and artichokes. The more external hedge, with laurel and rosemary, that is pruned regularly, it will form a frame higher than the rest, a sort of green fence that people will have to cross to “enter” the solar garden.
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Radial paths will cross the garden, which will all lead to the centre, where the olive tree is placed. The garden will be permanent, as it is made up mostly of evergreen permanent plants (olive, helichrysum, rosemary, laurel.) Artichokes also have leaves all year round.) Mulch will be done among the artichokes, the elicrisi and in the mixed hedge of laurels and rosemary. As per the irrigation an installation of a concentric system of polyethylene pipes and a timer is foreseen, in order to program date, time and duration.
The fittings will be equipped with valves that will allow irrigation by choosing the sectors according to the water needs of each row of plants.
Seen from above, it will be a labyrinth of perfumes and light.
