wall gardens

 I build wall gardens out of material I find and save from going in the dump. I take something old and turn into a new productive garden. You can plant succulents or edibles in the wall but it needs to root in before it sits upright on a wall.  

About Marie (the fairy garden mother)

Marie McClain

Sustainability and Garden Specialist

805.990.0381

planettarian@gmail.com

www.OrganicFairyGardenMother.com

About Marie

·        My background is graphic design but my passion has always been nature and gardening. When I was in high school I studied horticulture, floraculture and got certified in floral design. I have been following this passion for sustainable gardening for 8 years. It all started when my kids were babies and I wanted to grow healthy organic food. I learned how to compost and build brand new soil by using layers of organic material. I also up-cycle material to build raised garden beds and wall gardens.

Current Projects

·        I work as the garden specialist and volunteer as the garden leader at Bridges Charter School. I ignited the garden program three years ago and we now have ongoing productive gardens built by students and parent volunteers.  As a result, the students’ community snacks are fruits and vegetables grown by them in their own gardens. ·        The home school garden program that I teach planted a native butterfly garden for a beatification project.  I helped work on the grant that funded the project (from the City of Thousand Oaks) I am in the process of planting more native / drought tolerant gardens and restoring the natural habitat in our out-door classroom and in our gardens by the playground. ·        I am also in discussions with Yerba Buena Elementary School about starting up their sustainable garden program.

Process

·        I bridge the gap from composting to organic gardening. I have several successful clients who are now using sustainable practices and building successful gardens as a result. I am passionate about teaching sustainability, organic gardening and native/drought tolerant landscapes.  I coach organic gardening and composting to individuals, schools and facilities. ·        I demonstrate how to take organic material then turn it into a healthy productive organic garden with the end result being the best soil in the world. To accomplish this, I use a method called sheet composting.  Once your compost is full I harvest all the compost and layer it with other organic material e.g., dried leaves, mulch and manure. After two months all the layers decompose into healthy living soil. I have the children do scavenger hunts for this process.

Some of the sustainability benefits

·        Statistics show that 40% of the trash that ends up in land-fills can be composted.  Establishing sustainable practices throughout your facility by composting and building gardens is a win-win for everyone. ·        Building brand new soil will be low maintenance without all of the pre-existing weed seeds. ·        The soil retains water for a longer period of time making it more drought tolerant. ·        The living organisms in the soil decompose the layers and create a balanced ecosystem to attract the good bugs that eat the bad bugs. ·        The soil is rich in nutrients and can be used for more than one growing season. ·        You will grow food. ·        You will harvest the compost into the garden beds making composting clean and efficient.

I welcome new schools, clients and opportunities to teach in our community. Please contact me and/or let me know how I can apply for garden/sustainability opportunities in the district.

Thank you for taking the time.

Best Regards,
Marie, The Organic Fairy Gardenmother (a name lovingly given to me by a teacher)

Jodi's Garden

Jodi heard through the grape vine that I love to build gardens. Then she asked me to build her three 4x4 raised gardens. I built them by up-cycling pallets. She wanted the rustic look. I filled her raised garden with a method called sheet composting AKA lasagna gardening. Layers of organic material!

  After Jodi started to learn how the layering worked, and how all this material will create new soil after 2 months, She was inspired to start composting, So I built her a composter.

3 months later. Jodi updated me on her tomatoes. OMG! the tomatoes went crazy huge. The layers in this bed are sea weed, wood chips, aged compost. Looks like the tomatoes like it. LOL!

My most recent update from Jodi is the zucchini! The zucchini are HUGE but tender and sweet when you eat it. She is so thrilled to have this beautiful, bountiful food to grace her table. She measured to show me how large they really are. 17" inches long!

My latest raised garden. I made the raised box out of up-cycled pallets. I filled the garden bed using the layering method explained in the garden fairy scavenger hunt. The excelent advantage of using this method is that you can plant closer together. I use the square-foot planting method utilizing companion planting. Plants have friends and like to hang out together. I enjoyed working with this client. She was supper excited to go on the garden fairy scavenger hunt with me. She is an empowered gardener now.