Despite of the cold weather, we kept on working at the construction site of the Agrocité in Agnettes!
Last wednesday we built a dry-stone wall consisting out of reused stones which we had collected from different construction sites in the surrounding area.
Our first 100% recycled tricycle! Come to try it on 21 February at the Repair Cafe!
RECYCLAB will be having an open door event on Friday and Saturday the 4-5 July at Colombes, boulevard d’Achères.
This Eco- Solidarity Platform introduces new strategies for the revitalisation of urban waste through ecological and socially responsible production. It is a space of co-production and work sharing between ‘makers’ of any kind (designers, architects, tinkerers, students, technologists) and a network of local actors. The space is equipped with power tools, a fablab, kitchen, offices and a large terrace under the canopy of a row of trees.
AGROCITE will also host open door events on the 5-6 July, 4-12 Rue Jules Michelet.
Come to see the garden, participate in guided walks, ateliers, discussions and score yourself a bargain in the grand trash and treasure market where nothing is lost, all is transformed! In this marketplace the currency is ‘trash’ and one person’s trash is another’s treasure! Bring along an object, whether it be a special recipe, crafts, clothes, furniture or something you’ve baked, and exchange it for another.
Agrocité is coming to life! We are finally using the building for one of its original purposes: as a greenhouse!
Currently growing is a selection of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage and lettuce! With new seeds sprouting each day, you can really watch life unfurl before your eyes..
This week, we had a parade of bicycles in the garden. Within the Mechanical Sundays event offered by the association “Colombes à vélo”, bocycle tinkering specialists offered their services to anyone who wanted to learn how to repair his bike. In the garden, it was a pretty sight: the neighborhood kids with wrenches, gardeners repairing their bikes, a team of residents and AAA members who attempted a first test water pump driven by a pedal mechanism. Stay tuned … Thus, ten bikes were repaired, belonging to the neighborhood and elsewhere, who went away with a smile. In addition, in the shared garden, gardeners were busy weeding, composting, planting winter vegetables. In parallel, Yvon Pradier, from Nature Ecology, worked on the farm to prepare us a quality earthworm vermicompost. The school garden has also received an overhaul, necessary because it was temporarily crowded after the start of construction.
This week, hands-on workshop was devoted to gardening in the “lasagna method”. This technique enriches poor soil through organic gardening, and involves reusing waste such as cardboard, cut branches and leftover vegetables from the market, and use them in layers on the plot to grow: from the least decomposed on the bottom to the more decomposed on the uppermost layer. This allows for a highly nutritious substrate that can reconstruct the humus soil and avoid, by smothering weeds, the bulk of the weeding. We can even install a vegetable garden where there is no land on the concrete.
On this occasion three lasagna were carried out, one in the educational garden, and the other two on the Agrolab. The stack of layers followed this order: thick cardboard, twigs, dried grasses (in our case the result of weeding the garden), green waste market, shredded paper and cardboard, compost, enriched earth and vermicompost.
We have directly planted tomato plants, squash, pumpkins and squash (you can not sow directly in the lasagna, it takes little plants which are already a little developed). We can thus see how the plants react, compared to conventional planting in the garden soil.
We enjoyed the beautiful weather this Saturday to make good progress on the plantations in the Agrolab. There are now three parcels of 12x4m fully planted. The pole beans of Soissons, who had already reached a considerable height and felt quite cramped in their small pots, were transplanted in the ground. Helped by the people, we have fabricated bamboo structures to stake the beans. We took advantage of the space inside the “V” formed by the structure to plant potatoes and test a form of crop intensification. Plots 2 and 3 are mostly planted in potatoes (Ratte and vitelotte): so we can expect a good harvest in the fall. Also on the menu this Saturday plantations: marmande tomatoes, sweet peppers of the Landes, the giant Italian parsley, white chard and celeriac.
As for the shared garden, it really takes shape thanks to the people who come every Saturday gardening their plots. William was the first harvest of the garden plot on his Michelet: fine (and good) radishes!
A waiting list was opened for the allocation of plots, for all those that have been run are now occupied.
This last Saturday, despite the rain, you came in great numbers to participate in the compost workshop. For the occasion, we received Yvon, master composter from Nature Ecology . He has given us the recipe for good compost: the secret is in the balance between green waste and brown waste. The green waste is of nitrogenous matter (vegetable peelings, grass, cut flowers) while the wastes are brown on the other very rich in carbon (untreated cardboard, small wood, coffee grounds). Thus, we followed this basic rule to form the compost from the Michelet garden: we had green waste from the Marcellin Berthelot market, peelings from a Cameroonian restaurant nearby, and what each had set aside during this week in anticipation of workshop. For balance, we asked the cafe across the street to give us his coffee waste and we had gleaned cartons and branches of vines, which were the brown waste. In the afternoon we also saw a new manufacturing equipment for the garden: a composter in pallets, with three compartments, one of which already completed, so the result of this workshop was very informative.
Remember, the compost is manufactured in the long run, your various peelings are always welcome!
