So blessed to have had the opportunity to co-create this beautiful floral and herbal medicinal mandala with a group of amazing women!
The whole mandala was planted with edible and medicinal flowers, herbs and vegetation. 90% of the vegetation are perennials such as mug wort, calendula, lemon balm, Violet, thyme, hyssop, strawberries, lemon verbena, dandelions, kale, chives, artichoke and left a couple of arches for seasonal vegetation such as beets, pumpkins, borage and chili!
All of that space’s top soil was removed during renovation, leaving a heavy clayish, nutrient-depleted soil with no weeds growing in some places. Rather than working on our existing soil, we decided to start building our own top soil from hay, peatmoss, and cow dung!
Peat moss is a dead fibrous material composed primarily of moss that forms in peat bogs as mosses and other living material decompose. I’m not a big fan of peat moss and prefer to work with compost soil instead because peat moss is a non-renewable resource that takes thousands of years to form. It is gone for millennia once extracted. Harvesting it emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and even allows methane to escape. We chose peat moss over compost in this case because peat moss decomposes much more slowly than soil. It can hold many times its weight in moisture and release it when plant roots require it. It increases the organic matter content of the soil, which breaks down and releases nutrients. Furthermore, it keeps nutrients from being washed away by water, which reduces and slows the decomposition of compacted soil and improves drainage in dense clay soils.
The peat moss was then combined with hay, which is dried plant material such as grasses, clover, or alfalfa which is a good source of vitamins and minerals on its own! Using hay as mulch has some surprising benefits! it will start to compost, increasing organic matter and creating a rich layer of nutrients for your plants. The compaction of hay will make it harder for weeds to grow thus reducing weeding . They also retain around 25% of moisture and protect tender seedlings from temperature extreme and direct strong sunlight to its roots!
Time to layer our mixture! To begin pumping in nutrients and life, we tilted the garden soil a little bit and added our layer of fermented cow dung. We then spread 2 thick layers of our mix on top of the garden soil and cow dung. Watering the mixture thoroughly at the beginning is essential especially with peat moss for it absorbs a lot of water before being able to retain and release it bit by bit!
The design and companion planting of the plants/herbs/flowers of the mandala was made depending on the shape, colors & seasonality !
