La Casa Grande Colectiva

Author: orbitscoot

  • Final dispatch from Rob as New House Members take over the Garden

    (*This is now the redirect from http://www.robscott.net/lacasa/ —if you are looking for pre-2009 info on the Garden at La Casa Collectiva you can find links to earlier posts further down on this page.)

    In February 2009, I met with some of the new housemates at La Casa to chat about the garden there, discuss permaculture, etc. This is when the energy really shifted around the garden, with people like Ronna, JP, and others really stepping up to make things happen in terms of annual vegetable production and whatnot. I handed off the below blank map and note about the configuration of the perrenials just before this blog was started (see next post). This content, and all the material before it, was added years after the blog was initiated.


    This is a blank map that can be used to draw sketched of garden plans upon. Though it is not very clear from this map, the perennials (in particular the trees) had been planted in a horseshoe configuration, with the open end pointed south so that the sun would not be blocked by the trees. The Asian Pear on the South side was an mistake/exception to this design.


    The concept of a sun trap has been used in this garden, although not strictly. The idea is that, in general, the tall perennial components of the garden are arranged in the shape of a “U” with the open part of the U facing south. In this way, the perennials serve to create a few walls around the garden, protecting it from wind, and providing some privacy, plus a nearby source of mulch (tree leaves) etc. while leaving the south side open for good light penetration from the sun. Additionally, the La Casa Garden has some warmer climate perennials planted near the house, specifically a timber bamboo and a black-cane bamboo, which are otherwise impossible to grow in Illinois – they can survive in the warm microclimate by the house. The plebian drawing above shows the suntrap wrapping around the back of the house whereas the one at La Casa passes in front of the house, so that when people look out the southern windows of the house, they see shrubs and trees just outside the window.

  • Garden Flooding


    One day when Eun Ah visited Urbana for the first time she found Michael and Rob staring frustratedly at the flooded annual beds and chicken area in the garden. Note the objects placed around so that the chickens could use them as islands where they could stay dry. This was a combo of sump pump water (from the house) and continuous rain that logged the soil through May and into June. Flooding mades it difficult to work on the garden.. Michael diverted the sump water to the sewer in the street after this. The swale in the garden can take some water but this was too much this year.

  • Garden Concert


    (1) Braden Eliot plays guitar at a concert in the garden.


    (2) It was a cool and wet spring, here is an image of the swale full of cold water, with the willow trees still dormant.

  • Gardening Day at La Casa, April 20, 2008


    Gardening Day at La Casa, April 20, 2008.


    (1) an invoice for some perennials: the 25 Cavendish Strawberries were planted by the willow, and mostly eaten by squirrels, the Candice and Interlaken seedless grapes were planted on the west side of the garden, and in late April Rob built a trellis for them to grow on, (Rob planted the 2 Elderberries elsewhere).


    (2) Kyra’s map of her garden plans, circa February/March 2008.


    (3) Kyra with some herb beds she build around the Aronia and Gooseberry on the east side.

  • April 2008 Garden Images


    Tim Richardson and Kyra Shaughnessy planting kale seedlings that were started indoors, April 2008.


    Chickens introduced for the first time, donated by Danielle Chynoweth.


    Tim and Jacob Barton adjust the topography following standing water in the annual beds. It was a very wet spring growing season.


    Kyra using the sump-pump water to water plant seedlings.

  • March 2008 Garden images


    (1) Internal view of the garden, March 2008. Click for larger image.


    (2) Panoramic view of the garden, March 2008. Click for larger image.

  • Garden Action was Scarce in 2007

    In 2007 the social dynamics at La Casa Collectiva tanked, and a new group of housemates moved in for the Autumn session of the School for Designing a Society. These are the only three photos of the garden from 2007, taken by Kyra in the fall before frosts (i.e. September or early October):

    (1) photo of the house with the northern part of the garden in front of it.

    (2) photo of the annual beds – stinging nettles at lower left, elderberries above that… some tomatoes further to the right give a flash of red color.

    (3) photo of the general craziness of the garden from 2007. This is an apple tree covered with vines including American Hops, surrounded by weeds and other trees.

  • La Casa Garden part of an Ecological Construction Symposium

    Random artifact: the La Casa Garden was part of the 2006 Ecological Construction Symposium in Urbana — here‘s the crazy map/agenda that shows the La Casa garden as one of many local stops on the Ecological walking tour or whatever.

  • Summer 2006 Maps of the Garden


    (1) Bamboo map for surviving bamboo as of summer 2006, it should be noted that the Phyllostachys aureum and the Phyllostachys aureosulcata basically became nuisances in the locations chosen for them and they’ve been virtually removed since this time


    (2) Perennial map after a discrete planting of perennials, it should be noted that both of the Mulberries were killed in a late frost in Spring 2007 whereas the Aronia bushes have lived on, and one of the Mulberries was re-planted in 2008


    (3) A “veggie map” from 2006, which also shows that two new bamboos were added this year, of those the one labelled “new bamboo” (possibly a Thamnocalamus) died in the winter and the Phyllostachys rubromarginata was chopped down by Rob in 2008.

  • March 2006 Notes from Todd Rusk

    Notes from Todd Rusk

    To do this spring:

    • Sump pump water
        Need another flexible connector, 1 1/2″ x 1″
        Continue to observe water flow in channel between black pipe outlet and swale
        Consider: Is a meandering water channel between black pipe and swale (i.e. to bring extra moisture somewhere) advantageous?
        Settle on final shape of path and fill with coarse rocks, i.e. from driveway, and cover with straw
    • Downspout water – get barrels for rain catchment
    • Pruning experiments with nanking cherries, if it’s not too late
    • Identify and maybe transplant more of the mysteriously bountiful grassy allium
    • Set up annual vegetable breeding plots
    • Plan annual vegetable crop locations
    • Trellises for viney things – hops
    • Garden boundary
        • Annual plantings to condition areas for spread of bamboo, i.e. mulch, annual crop, border/boundary…
        Create short term border/boundary using annual grains/grasses

    3/14/06 – 1 hour

    Observation: Someone reattached the pipes with a lot of duct tape, and a section of the wall of the house was saturated with water>

    Activities:

    • Foiled! Connector I needed not available at Sunnycrest True Value and Do-It Best is not answering phone
    • Dug a small channel across garden path near bench to convey sump pump water into swale, then filled the trench with branches and straw. Channel is basically a straight line.
    • Detached the pipes again to protect the house and left a friendly note written in purple crayon explaining that they’re not yet ready to be connected

    3/13/06 – 0.5 hours

    Activities:

    • Purchased a 1 1/2″ x 1 1/4″ clamp on flexible connector from Sunnycrest True Value, $5.00
    • Installed connector between 1 1/2″ sump pump drain pipe and 1 1/4″ pipe into garden, now a lot of water backs up onto house because of the increased pressure drop –> another connector is needed between 1 1/2″ sump pump drain pipe and 1″ pipe coming out of house – I left the pipes disconnected to protect the house

    3/10/06 – 2.5 hours

    Observation: Lots of water from sump pump is flooding strawberries and herbs near house.

    Activities:

    • Said hello Rita, Mariana, Katlyn
    • Rob pruned the fruit trees
    • Rob and Todd trained the curly willows in the swale
    • Todd rescued a nanking cherry from chicken wire entanglement

    3/9/06 – 1.5 hours

    Activity: Transplant & consolidate chives – finished 1 area

    3/7/06 – 1 hour

    Activity: Transplant & consolidate chives

    3/6/06 – 1.5 hours

    Observations:

    • Steaming compost
    • Wheel barrow has a flat tire

    Activities:

    • Tie up loose ends of mesh around compost bin
    • Remove bricks from around compost base, stack by garage

    3/4/06 – 2.5 hours

    Observations:

    • Tire tracks in grass south of garden. “Dude, wanna do some donuts?”
    • 2 partial compost piles, stinky
    • Some scattered plastic trash & debris in garden
    • Chives stands, tasty & mild

    Activities:

    • Pick up trash
    • Attempt to balance compost pile: consolidated into 1 pile, added hay from around yard, watered
    • Collected hops seeds for Love Pond green tunnel
    • Removed steel frame thing holding hops vines
    • Inventoried miscellaneous stuff around site
    • Talked to Rita, met Mariana

    Inventory of miscellaneous stuff around site

    • 5-gallon bucket (Nasty) 2
    • Asphalt shingle (Sheet, 2’WxLong) 1
    • Bat (Waffle ball) 1
    • Brake drum (Car) 2
    • Building bricks (Red) Pile
    • Chemicals (Nasty) Assortment
    • Chicken wire (3’H) Roll
    • Cinder blocks (Various sizes) Few
    • Flat (Seed starter, various) Few
    • Garden tools Basic assortment
    • Lawn chair (Functional) 4
    • Lawn chair (Broke-ass) 2
    • Lumber (Various) Some
    • Metal frame (Rectangular 4’Wx6’Lx3’H) 1
    • Metal pole (Long) 9
    • Metal thing (Artistic, strange) 1
    • Metal tub (Probably leaks, 2’dia x 1’H) 1
    • Metal wire (Wavy, thick gauge, 6′) 1
    • Painting (4’x2′) 1
    • Plastic mesh (like compost bin – Black, 3’H) Small roll
    • Plastic pipe (Various dia, long) Few
    • Plastic tarp (Green, gray) 2
    • Platform (Carpeted, wood frame, 3’Wx7’Lx5″H) 1
    • Play sand (Blue) 40 lb bag
    • Pots (Terra cotta) Few
    • Radiator (Car) 1
    • Rim (Bicycle) 1
    • Seat cushion (Blue) 1
    • Tire (Bicycle) 4
    • Tire on rim (Car) 4
    • Tomato cage (Metal) 5-ish
    • Toys (Various outdoor, plastic) Bagful
    • Trash can (Metal) 1
    • Tub 15 gallon (plastic) 1
    • Wire rack 3’x3′ 4

  • Fiskars Grant Proposal (rejected)

    In February 2006, this grant (.pdf) was submitted to Fiskars for their “Project Orange Thumb” program, requesting $1500 in garden support mainly in the form of new tools. A rejection letter arrived within a few weeks.

  • Rob’s Reflections on the La Casa Garden

    From Rob Scott’s notes, January 2006:

    Site History
    2003 – Bob Cook made a design and executed it.
    In the winter most of the fruit trees were girdled.
    2004 – Bob moved out of La Casa and we did some workdays together on the site.
    2005 – I organized some workdays, and did a lot of labor on the site personally.
    This year, my efforts were mainly aimed at reducing wasteful space-use.