Ste. Anne de Bellevue Permaculture Meeting no. 7

Minutes

April 2nd, 2pm, Coop du Grand Orme

Attendance : 4

Two new people joined us this month so Welcome Louis Erik & Renee!

Louis Erik has given us a copy of his co-authored paper "The Current State of Food Security in Montreal and Alternative Food Systems" for our library which we can take turns reading.

And due to advice from Ryan, whom we saw by chance and who is also on the town's environmental committee, we decided to go ahead with an application to the Town's 2014 Sustainability Fund for a small Permaculture Garden Project in one of the underused municiple parks, the deadline of which was on April 10th.

While we need to discuss this in more detail together once we have gotten the green light for the funding - the overall strategy of the garden is as follows:

-The two, long beds will extend from the level of the existing "steps" (part of the sculptural piece consisting of an elevated chair in a mini amphitheatre)

-The beds length are to be determined in function of the contours for maximum passive water harvesting and their width will be aprox 4' so it can be worked by hand from either side.

-The beds will be mini-terraces, level with the footpath above it and dropping of to the foot path below it with possible indentations (or keyholes) from low side for edge enhancememt and access to beds at widest points

-Irrigation will be by rain (except in the case of seedlings early in the year and depending on permission to install a rain barrel) and kept in maximum humidity through generous mulching.

-The beds can be layered (soil, compost, cardboard, straw) or created by digging the terraces or a combination of both, depending on how much outside materials we are able to acquire.

-The plants are preferably perennials, but we will have room for annuals especially in year two when we plan to try and teach kids to garden. Its important they can relate to the plant and known annuals are the best bet.

-Mulch plants must be included since our hydration strategy depends on them.

-An additional installation consisting of two dwarf fruit trees and three berry bushes will border the top ridge of the site, and provide centre points around which we can build plant guilds of companion herbs and other beneficial plants.

-Something we didnt discuss at the meeting but which I think could be an important part of the design is the inclusion of plants especially designed to attract pollinators.

Here is a starter list of plants to include:

Perennial Trees Bushes and Vines
Dwarf Cherry (edible fruit)
Dwarf Apricot (edible fruit)
Canada Plum (edible fruit)
Hascap berry (edible fruit)
Seaberry (fixes nitrogen, edible fuit, drought hardy)
Hardy Kiwi (edible fruit vine)
Fox grape (edible fruit vine)

Perennial Plants
Russian Comfrey (mulch plant, dynamic accumulator, medicinal leaves & bee attractor)
French or Buckler Leafed Sorrel (mulch plant, dynamic accumulator & edible leaves)
Chicory (dynamic accumulator, edible leaves & late-summer bee attractors)
Asparagus (edible shoots & bee attractor)
Raspberry (edible fruit & bee attractor)
Chives (edible & bee attractor)
Rhubarb (edible & drought resistant)
Lemonbalm (tea leaves & bee attractor)
Beebalm (edible/ tea leaves & bee attractor)Mint (edible/ tea leaves & bee attractor)
Oregano (edible/ tea leaves & bee attractor)Savoury (edible leaves & bee favorite)
Borage (edible flowers & bee attractor)
Hyssop (edible flowers & bee favorite)Native Goldenrod (non-invasive indigenous variety & bee favorite)
Milkweed (edible pods & monarch butterfly favorite)
Asters (edible flowers /leaves & late-summer bee attractors)

Annuals
Corn (edible guild plant "three sisters")
Beans (nitrogen fixing, edible guild plant "three sisters")
Squash (edible guild plant "three sisters" & bee attractor)
Cucumber (edible & bee attractor)
Corriander (edible leaves, spice seeds, self-seeding annual & bee-attractor)