For anyone interested in my former post/question, this is the response I received from the SF victory garden itself (well, actually a person who worked on it...) Hi Samantha,
The material used to make the beds and the fences surrounding the garden were made form rice straw wattles. They made and distributed by a company called Earthsavers in Yolo County, CA. Here's the link to their web site. http://www.earth-savers.com/index.html. The wattles worked well for their purpose in the SF Victory Garden because it was a temporary installation. I doubt that they would be a good choice for North Eastern, OH. They worked well in CA because w get little to no rain from June - October. I imagine that they would break down faster in you region. The Victory Garden also had a lot of foot traffic, and the straw wattles were very inviting for young children to walk on, which compacted them very quickly. The wattles where also inviting habitat for mice. The wattles do have they're advantages. They are: 1) easy to install 2)allow flexibility in bed shape and size 3)asthetically pleasing 4)inexpensive 5)biodegradable 6)great for mulch when they begin to break down. I imagine that if they were used in a permanent garden they would have to be replaced about once a year. They would probably work better for perennial beds in the community garden setting. Best, Kelsey --- On Thu, 1/8/09, Andrea Jadwin <[email protected]> wrote: From: Andrea Jadwin <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Waddles for beds To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected], "William Maynard" <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, January 8, 2009, 6:50 PM Apologies is this link has already been posted. I've learned from one of the VG project managers that the wattles used in the San Francisco Victory Garden are constructed from rice straw. Here's a link to the company that manufactures and distributes them. http://www.earth-savers.com/index.html The project was a collaboration between local organizations and Slow Food National Some photos are available at http://www.sfvictorygardens.org/cityhall.html Andrea Jadwin San Francisco Garden Resource Organization (SFGRO) On Jan 7, 2009, at 4:59 PM, Samantha Provencio wrote: Thank you to all who helped me get to the bottom of this. (Before posting I had checked the PBS site, e-mailed and googled the garden...all to no avail, the video is not online yet, and there is no description of the materials used online). I am "gardening" my treelawn this year and this may be the perfect temporary raised bed to keep the roots out of the road salt tainted soil... This is a fantastic group of gardeners --- On Wed, 1/7/09, William Maynard <[email protected]> wrote: From: William Maynard <[email protected]> Subject: [Community_garden] Waddles for beds To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 12:21 PM waddles are used in construction as a way to contain sediment from newly graded ground at construction sites. they are "snakes" of straw bound together with a plastic mesh or burlap. they collect the sediment when it rains and then are discarded. over time they do go flat as they decompose as they are only built to last about 6 months during the rainy season.. burlap could be added to help make then last a bit longer. for short term projects like the one in SF.. works fine... you could always add more wattles to the old ones most likely the waddles were a condition placed on the temporary garden by the city to keep soil out of the storm drainage system. see info on wattles here http://www.specialtysupply.com/wattles.asp bill -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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