Organic Gardening Services

I have 8 years experience planting healthy organic gardens.  I use zero chemicals.  Here is a list of what services I offer. Thanks for stopping by :)

xeriscape, drought tolerant and food forest design
Build raised gardens
Living soil treatment (sheet composting)
Compost set up
Grass removal
Plant drought tolerant, natives, succulents, cactus, fruits, vegetables, trees
Trimming (deadheading)
Weed removal
Mulching
Soil Amending
animal proofing

Ed's organic drought tolerant landscape garden

Thank you for stopping by to check out my blog...The rain gave me some time to get all my photos together and update my blog. My most recent project was with Ed and Carmen from Simi valley, Ca. 

First thing first. Instead of removing all the grass, I use a method called sheet mulching. Sheet mulching (same as lasagna gardening) covers the grass with layers of cardboard providing a dark moist environment to attract the earthworms to show up and begin to eat, make babies and leave castings. Activating the soil food web. This step is the most important step in my gardens I build.

Why is it so important? Important because we are balancing the ecosystem. Worm castings for example provide a balance of good and bad fungus and bacteria. When this happens the good bug comes and eat the bad bugs. Creating healthy soil for healthy plants, healthy water retention and healthy environment.

Once I finished sheet mulching the area. I begin laying out the gardens. As you can see here, the little grey/green grasses are called dimondia. A cover crop and likes to spread, very tough AKA cement grass and in the dandelion family. Flowers yellow.  

When I build a garden, I use the same method but I kick it up a notch and call it sheet composting (lasagna gardening). I add additional layers of organic material such as, manure, leaves, grass, seaweed and contents from your composter. Most my clients compost or end up composting after I build there gardens. My clients go through a learning curve and they become much more confident gardeners.

We built a garden wall along the outside perimeter to give us the ability to have a long meandering garden along the front. I put layers of horse manure, alternating with mulch.

After last layer of mulch on top of manure. I added an organic planting mix for the dimondia to get established. 

After 2 months from the sheet composting treatment you will have brand new living soil. Providing a heathy ecosystem and healthy water retention for your plants to thrive.

Worms live all over the planet. You build it they will come :)

We added a nice finishing touch. Brick, dimondia and a bench.

Hope you got garden inspiration from this post. If you want organic and drought tolerant gardens. Email me: planettarian@gmail.com

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.

Turn your compost into an organic garden

In this picture I have been layering my compost with peat moss and attracting the native earth worms for 4 years. The layers of organic material I use are peat moss, compost, leaves, wood ashes etc. I have also used layers of worm castings, bat guano and manure etc. The best part of this layering process is I attract the native earthworms that live just 6 inches below the earth by providing a dark moist environment for them to come up to the surface and start eating, pooping, breeding and tilling.  Worm castings are the third best compost in the world and are so great for your garden. Worm castings are so great because the castings are full of beneficial bacteria, fungus and other microbial organisms for your plants to thrive in a balanced eco system which will attract the good bugs to eat the bad bugs. There are many other benefits to this style of gardening AKA lasagna gardening or also known as sheet composting. The benefits include:

retains water for a much longer period of time. Worms come to you. Very little weeding. No tilling. Your plants thrive.

Composting

The trick to composting is just doing it. At first, I had to adjust to an extra step in my day when I took out trash. Compost is good thrash. Keep it simple. You can compost these items:

• Cardboard rolls
• Clean paper
• Coffee grounds and filters
• Cotton rags
• Dryer and vacuum cleaner lint
• Eggshells
• Fireplace ashes
• Fruits and vegetables
• Grass clippings
• Hair and fur
• Hay and straw
• Houseplants
• Leaves
• Nut shells
• Sawdust
• Shredded newspaper
• Tea bags
• Wood chips
• Wool rags
• Yard trimmings

HOME ORGANIC GARDEN

Hello. After three years of not posting a thing. I now have something fantastic to post about. I have been organic gardening and composting for all of about three years. The amazing thing is I do this with ease and enjoyment. No need for tilling, little weeding and no need for heavy equipment. I am a mother of two, I work at home and I do not have a lot of time for myself. The key is composting using the native worms in my backyard. About every four to six months I will build a new garden bed. The method I use is simple and very cost effective. I am not a green thumb but more like a dirt farmer. In fact anything I grow outside of this garden box dies. I did not buy special organic soil from the store to fill up my homemade garden box. I built the soil using compost, peat moss, brown cardboard and my little shinning stars "native worms" from my backyard. Did you know that worm are 6 inches below the earth every where? Did you know that worm castings are an organic pesticide? well now you do. Freaks people out but get over it if you want the third best compost in the world. My compost and garden are full of worms and worm castings. I want you to know I did not buy one worm and I get the worms to come to me as well as the beneficial insects. Work smarter not harder people. This is easy and fun for your kids. My 4 Year old Ben loves digging for the worms. Over the years my family and friends have enjoyed the fruits of my labor and I have enjoyed benefiting from the return on my investment. Great returns and a little investment of effort, time, patience and dirt cheap to build.