Bruce Wales (right) at the Xeriscape Demonstration Garden at Gila Community College. Wales is working with Mesa del Caballo to create a rain garden complete with gutters and storage tanks on Community Center property.
By Jim Keyworth
Gazette Blog Editor
Payson resident Bruce Wales is working with Mesa del Caballo’s El Caballo Club to create a demonstration rain garden that will serve as a permanent example of “sustainable-bountiful land use.”
Wales, who authored a column entitled “Get Smart with Water” in the Rim Country Gazette, has spoken at Gila County Community College for a number of High Country Xeriscape Council Seminars, for the Arizona County Extension Service, The Pine Awakening Earth Expo, and community center and garden clubs on subjects such as worms, soil, rainwater and gray water harvesting and sustainable gardening.
The project, which includes rain gutters on the Community Center and outbuildings and water storage tanks, will be dubbed the Garden of Eds in honor of three men who made major civic contributions to the community – Ed Schwebel, Ed Blose and Ed Zumach.
“When Ed Schwebel passed away (earlier this year), I thought it would be fitting to remember him in a manner that addressed our mutual interest,” Wales said.
Wales is working with the El Caballo Club Board of Directors on the project, which he originally hoped to create at either Green Valley Park or Gila Community College. When response to those proposals was tepid, he turned to Mesa del Caballo, a small community northeast of Payson off Houston Mesa Road that has historically experienced water shortages.
“After the go-ahead, I met with (Board President) Jim Keyworth, (Treasurer) Randy Norman and (Secretary) Minnie Norman on Oct. 28,” Wales said. “We decided on an eventual three phase program, the first being the Memorial Rain Garden of Eds."
The initial phase of the garden will encompass a 1,000-square-foot area east of the main building. This first rain garden will be fenced and have two gates. Soil improvement will begin immediately, and Mesa del Caballo and other Rim Country residents are encouraged to help.
“The method is lasagna gardening, or sheet composting,” Wales explained. “Cast-offs will be distributed in layers inside of the ‘roped-off’ area in the following order:
1. Moistened cardboard sheets in one layer flat on the ground - but none from China or Canada. They’re laced with insecticide.
2. Cover that with pencil-sized dead sticks, twigs and small stompable/breakable branches. No Walnut or Eucalyptus. Their juices kill soil life. Dead weeds are OK at this depth.
3. Cover that with six inches of horse manure.
4. Cover with leaves – many inches.
5. Cover with wood ash. This will have the potash necessary for root/tuber growth.
6. Cover with garden vines, stalks, etc.
7. Cover with rabbit, goat, droppings, spoiled hay, or pine needles no thicker than six inches. Do not leave dog or cat droppings. We share vulnerabilities for the same unhealthy organisms.
Note: Thin layers of sawdust, not walnut or eucalyptus - can go on anytime.
“Next we can ‘salt’ the medium with worms and pill bugs and roaches for the breakdown process,” Wales said. Don’t worry, they won’t invade Mesa Del. They’ll be too busy 'eating their dinner.' When they die, fungi and bacteria will break them down. Then the crickets, arthropods, worms and cutworms with continue the process.
“We won’t need (and don’t want) a tractor, tiller or other fossil-fuel expender (FFE). Rather, Nature’s ‘soil-sergeants’ will take over by doing what they do naturally; dig, chew, expel, squirm, swell, slither, die and will offer their nutrients in a new available form. By 2011’s first rain season, only processed soil should remain.”
In addition to the fencing, Wales will donate rain gutters, water tanks with timers, and drip irrigation. The community will provide volunteer later as needed.
“The garden will consist of at least one deciduous tree in the southwest corner of the plot," Wales explained. "This will shade the garden and building in the summer, lose its leaves and help to warm both in the winter. Screens will keep the gutter clean and direct leaves into the garden for more mulch/decaying-to-trace mineral action. Also, it will most likely be a fruit-bearing tree.
“If you are readying your own garden, use these same steps and you too will be growing a lot next year.
"With this layering process, eventually the ph will become balanced and elements such as calcium will reach an optimum level. However, we may be adding a soil sulfur or bone meal in the meantime. Squash, chives, onions, walking onions, leeks, garlic, sorrel, dandelion, Swiss chard, Jerusalem artichoke, kale, nasturtiums (yes, they are edible with a pepper-like taste), oregano, peppermint, lemon balm, apples and peaches can handle an alkaline soil. Once they are planted we can increase the acidity and plant some rhubarb, potatoes, tomatoes and other acid-loving vegetables."
Wales is passionate about the project.
“This process is meant to be fairly self-directing and self-policing," he emphasized. "Re-purposing and using waste as the wealth it is will be the equity you bring to the project. Your actions will be the multiplying factor to that wealth. I believe that a cadre of individuals working WITH natural processes can produce a true bounty noticeable by the public and be a glowing example of real sustainability.”
Subsequent phases will enlarge the garden to encompass the front of the Community Center building and create a second garden in a fenced area within the grounds that will be supplied with water from gutters installed on outbuildings. If you have any questions or want to participate or donate contact Keyworth at 474-8787 or j.keyworth@q.com or the Normans at 474-4454 or minnie955@msn.com.
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