In June we got some new sea buckthorn plants and around one of them we decided to create a small mandala garden.
A mandala garden is simply a round garden form with paths going through it to avoid the need to step on any of the beds. It is a very popular form used in permaculture designs all over the world. Mandala gardens usually are bigger than ours and many utilize the keyhole garden method, and/or have raised beds. Ours is really simple with the main idea to surround the young sea buckthorn with some useful companion plants and not just grass.
The buckthorn is in the middle of the garden. From it four paths leave towards the edges of the garden in a cross form, leaving four „slices“ of garden to be planted. As we created this garden from lawn, we dug the upper layer of grass up and turned it around to create a simple bed. Onto this soil we planted a few potatoes, radishes, cress, salad, spinach and some Canterbury bells.
Some weeks after the potatoes and radishes are growing wonderfully as is the cress as you can see in the header picture. The rest is rather small or has not appeared at all. Soon we will be adding mulch over the beds, feeding the soil and further helping the little sea buckthorn to grow strong!
But, at the end we decided to go with hemp.
There isn’t any big difference between cellulose or hemp. Hemp just feels like the right material for us. (Actually I wanted sheep wool, which is unfortunately impossible to get locally). We ordered the hemp from Hemprefine and started the preparation of the floor with industrial paper for wind protection in wooden houses. We got lots of helping hands from within the family – Thank you! - to lay out the paper and get the hemp prepared.
All the hemp is stuffed in and parts of the floor is also back in. We hope that with double the insulation value compared to saw dust the hemp will keep the house warmer through the winter time. It is now my turn to get the sensors in so that we can actually evaluate the temperature differences between ground floor, first floor, cold storage and the outside.
