Kale Chips
O.k, so I probably planted way too much kale. I was excited about growing it and had no idea just how prolific it would be. I was trying to get creative about ways to cook and share the kale and I hit upon kale chips. If you haven’t tried them before, I highly recommend this tasty and healthy snack.
Green Wall/Bird Feeder
Elisa Yon discovered an interesting project by a Mona Hatoum called The Hanging Garden. For this project Hatoum filled 770 jute sacks with seeds to create a 10 metre wall. These sacks sprouted transforming this imposing barricade.
Bombs Away
We spent this weekend creating some seed bombs. If you haven’t made your own bombs before. It’s quite simple, you can use this recipe provided by Andrea Bellamy on her blog Heavy Petal or check out this video by UK guerilla gardener, Richard Reynolds. The basic ingredients are clay, seeds and compost.
Nets
Meaghen Buckley created a series of nets along the rusted steel elements on the edge of the Lab. She crocheted both natural and synthetic fibres into large asymmetrical shapes creating different tension points in the net which allows for the wind to move freely in and through.
Homes for Bees
Chelsea Trousdell, one of our regular volunteers at the Lab brought some untreated fir to make homes for mason bees. If you aren’t familiar with mason bees, they are a dark metallic blue/green colour and resemble black flies. They are solitary insects that nest near each other but do not share a nest or hive. Females seek out holes in wood to use as a nest. Once the eggs are laid they will plug up the holes using mud, hence the name mason bee. These active pollinators are great for vegetable gardens and they are non-aggressive.
Upcoming Workshop: Sunday July 24th
Please join Duncan Martin and his chickens from Duncan’s Backyard Henhouses for an afternoon at the Bulkhead Lab. Duncan will be leading informal demonstrations and discussions on the basics of proper care and keeping of small urban flocks of hens. This interactive session will invite participants to discover best practices for keeping small flocks of hens in their own backyards.
Seed Bomb Making at the Bulkhead Lab
Join us for some seed bomb making at the Bulkhead Lab. We will form clay, compost and seeds into small “bombs” to be lobbed at The Games are Open, a large-scale sculpture of a bulldozer created by Berlin-based artists Köbberling and Kaltwasser. Constructed out of wheat board this sculpture is intended to slowly decompose over time, eventually becoming a plant nursery. The seed bombs will contribute to this burgeoning ecosystem.
