Bamboo stakes, found fisherman's rope for a 7 meter compass, and lots of sunshine...now that's how you layout a path...
 removing sod and a layer of subsoil from new path  transferring crushed rock from old path to new path |  transferring sod and soil to old path  lining with cardboard and anchoring with logs |
topping with delicious wood chip sprinkles
 adding even more wood chips |  and my assistant takes the new path for a test spin |
while I keep on laying sod from new path over old path
"There is no such thing as waste, just stuff in the wrong place," as the song from my last post insightfully points out. "Wrong" here implies a judgement call, and since I am in charge (did I mention that I appointed myself Ajishima Park Ranger!?) I decided that those rocks had to go from here to there and some of that dirt had to go from there to here and this here sod needed to be uprooted and transplanted over yonder.
The reason for this labor intensive labor of love is that the old path was dug out and the sod and dirt discarded by the original park builders. I would prefer to create the new path on top of the sod and ring it with logs, but then I would be left with a huge, unsightly dimond-shaped tripping hazard of a path where nothing but the scraggliest of weeds would grow. So, to excavate the new path a bit and transplant the materials is to recognize my favorite Permaculture adage that "the problem is the solution." The problems of the old path are remedied by the making of the new path, and the materials that inhibit growth from the old path can now become the base material for the new path.
I mentioned a plan in an earlier post to supplement our dwindling supply of wood chips. A couple years ago I did up a design, for our own backyard, rife with walking paths, covered in wood chips and ringed with logs to define and contain the path. I then planned to grow shiitake mushrooms in different, fresh logs, and once they stopped producing to use them to replace the logs ringing the path. The old existing logs would have rotted out by then, and all I would need to do to replenish the path's wood chips is kick apart the rotten logs; and then fill in the voids with the spent mushrooms logs. These would add beneficial fungi to the soil and facilitate other beasties in making their homes there. So back to present day: I just took a walk in the forest and noticed many downed trees rotting away. It occured to me that I could utilize those rotting logs, and bust them up and spread the material over the path and it will achieve the same effect as the machine-made wood chips. Another small and slow solution (but...I still want to get a wood chipper, diesel, and harvest inedible seeds from the machilus thunbergii tree, which is plentiful on the island, press them for oil and run the chipper on SVO, but that is another project entirely!!!).
Back at the park, I just have to do 36 more segments to complete the main path...a number I arbitrarily arrived at based on holding my rope compass, taking a step, driving in a stake, repeating and eventually running out of stakes. No science to it, just guessing and doing and hoping I don't mess it up, and at the very least praying I don't get a sliver or poke my eye out with one of those bamboo stakes. Either one would hurt, one probably more than the other. Actually, I got a few slivers, and they did hurt; drew blood actually. So there you go, two more ingredients for a great park: blood and sweat. I am not shedding any tears over the park...yet!!!
The reason for this labor intensive labor of love is that the old path was dug out and the sod and dirt discarded by the original park builders. I would prefer to create the new path on top of the sod and ring it with logs, but then I would be left with a huge, unsightly dimond-shaped tripping hazard of a path where nothing but the scraggliest of weeds would grow. So, to excavate the new path a bit and transplant the materials is to recognize my favorite Permaculture adage that "the problem is the solution." The problems of the old path are remedied by the making of the new path, and the materials that inhibit growth from the old path can now become the base material for the new path.
I mentioned a plan in an earlier post to supplement our dwindling supply of wood chips. A couple years ago I did up a design, for our own backyard, rife with walking paths, covered in wood chips and ringed with logs to define and contain the path. I then planned to grow shiitake mushrooms in different, fresh logs, and once they stopped producing to use them to replace the logs ringing the path. The old existing logs would have rotted out by then, and all I would need to do to replenish the path's wood chips is kick apart the rotten logs; and then fill in the voids with the spent mushrooms logs. These would add beneficial fungi to the soil and facilitate other beasties in making their homes there. So back to present day: I just took a walk in the forest and noticed many downed trees rotting away. It occured to me that I could utilize those rotting logs, and bust them up and spread the material over the path and it will achieve the same effect as the machine-made wood chips. Another small and slow solution (but...I still want to get a wood chipper, diesel, and harvest inedible seeds from the machilus thunbergii tree, which is plentiful on the island, press them for oil and run the chipper on SVO, but that is another project entirely!!!).
Back at the park, I just have to do 36 more segments to complete the main path...a number I arbitrarily arrived at based on holding my rope compass, taking a step, driving in a stake, repeating and eventually running out of stakes. No science to it, just guessing and doing and hoping I don't mess it up, and at the very least praying I don't get a sliver or poke my eye out with one of those bamboo stakes. Either one would hurt, one probably more than the other. Actually, I got a few slivers, and they did hurt; drew blood actually. So there you go, two more ingredients for a great park: blood and sweat. I am not shedding any tears over the park...yet!!!
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