Festival Beach Community Garden

Today, we’re starting a new series of entries to showcase areas and activities in the garden, past and present.

There’s a lot happening in the garden from the physical structures being created to the efforts to educate others about gardening.

For this series, we’ll start at one of the main features of our garden – the main pedestrian gate which welcomes gardeners, volunteers, and visitors into Festival Beach Community Garden.  It will also serve as a welcome to our series, giving us entrance to explore what’s inside the garden.

Below Daniel, the creator of the garden gate, shares his thoughts on the entrance and tells us more about the composition of the door from a carpentry and artist’s perspective.  Daniel said that in designing the gate, he tried to keep in mind a few factors. He wanted it to be big enough for people to pass through comfortably, but also wanted to keep the costs down and the engineering required from becoming too much.

The rest of this entry is from Daniel –    

The door dimensions are 49 3/4 by 99 inches. I chose one inch thickness for the boards to result in two inches overall thickness which is a little more than commercial exterior doors. The wood is Eastern Texas Aromatic Cedar. It was milled by Stephen Wusterhausen at Environmental Mill in Elgin. It is a hardwood with a reputation for stability and weather resistance, is attractive and is grown here in Texas.

I drew different shapes and asked for feedback from various members. Nick liked the semicircle a lot. So it was.

At first it wasn’t to be as tall as it is but the boards were a little longer than I was expecting. In talking with John he said tall is good. I therefore maximized the height.

As for the construction itself, the main slab consists of tongue and grooved 1 x 8 1/2 s edge glued. Then drawn and cut out. The rails and wrap on the other side are laminated with waterproof adhesive to the slab. Any joint within the rails and wrap were biscuit joined. These aspects and screwing as opposed to nails all add together for maximum durability. All bevels were hand planed.

The front (Waller side) was left rough sawn with a passing of coarse sandpaper to remove fibers. The front was to be as simple as possible with the verticality of the boards to emphasize tallness. The rear of the slab had been planed smooth for maximum effectiveness of the glue bonding between the slab and rails.

The window feature is a combination of safety and aesthetics. The safety aspects are to see what’s on the other side during operation and to reduce the wind affect which can be considerable on a big door. The aesthetic is somewhat personal as I’ve always loved the art of Maxfield-Parrish and his enchanting landscapes and characters. I’ve wished I could walk into his paintings and experience such worlds. As I walk up to the gate I see an image through the window. To me it is as a painting and upon opening the door I get to ‘enter the painting’. Alternatively the window is the exact shape and proportion of the door and is placed in a way to give the impression of a tunnel with the window being the far end. This has shades of Alice in Wonderland. Whichever suits your fancy.

How to unlock the door from either side without a key was not immediately apparent. The sliding slab of steel with a hole for the combo lock was chosen.  The large dimension of 3/8 by 2 1/2 inches was chosen for strength over the 2 1/2 gap between the door and post. This large gap serves two purposes.  One is for the lock to have room toflip over and the other is to avoid pinched hands or fingers from a windblown door. There is a threaded rod bolted through the slab with the wooden handles bored out and screwed directly on.

The space from the ground to door bottom is 3 inches. Enough to avoid feet from being pinched by a windblown door but close enough for security. I leveled the ground to that 3 inches throughout the entire door swing for the same reason.

All of the wood has been generously coated with an Australian timber oil which is mainly linseed oil with UV screen and some amber coloring to add to the richness of the color and to inhibit graying.

Thanks to Nick and Will for helping dig holes and setting the posts and again to Nick the next weekend for helping to load up and hanging the door.

The chimes are recycled xylophone bars chosen in a mode I picked out on a keyboard. They’re tied up with recycled guitar strings. I have other notes available if we’d like to change modes sometime.

How long did it take to make it? My involvement was close to 40 hrs of actually doing things plus Nick and Will’s involvement.

That’s the little story of the gate.

Yesterday a group of 8 from SMU Alternative Breaks, a student organization at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, volunteered at the garden helping us pull weeds, mulch, turn compost, and more. The group is spending their Fall Break doing direct service at community gardens in Austin and learning about building healthy communities, sustainability, and increasing access to healthy food. FBCG thanks the students for giving their time to help our community.

On Saturday, October 13, 9am -11am come visit Festival Beach Garden, see the space, participate in the monthly work day and then stay for this FREE workshop at 11:30AM.

This workshop will teach participants about the biological processes that turn dirt into soil and the impact of tap water on soil organisms. Topics will include: the differences between dirt and soil; the five functions of soil; the relationship between living soil and healthy plants; and the chemicals found in tap water. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of ways to minimize use of tap water and harvest and store rainwater.

Katherine Pace is an historian with extensive background in permaculture garden design and urban food production. In addition to volunteering with food justice organizations in Australia and California, she has designed, installed, and maintained “guerilla” community gardens on city lands. She has also designed and installed gardens at the offices of various community organizations, and she has built low-tech rainwater and gray water systems at private residences.

This workshop is free and open to the public. RSVP’s will help us ensure we have enough hand-outs. Workshop will be held in English with Spanish translation available.

For more info or to RSVP please contact tk: tikisone@gmail.com.