Addendum to Greenhouse Coverings
September 5, 2020

Ultraviolet light basics

About a billion years ago ancient plant ancestors called algae formed or came to this planet and started to multiply. Their energy making activities created oxygen gas as part of the photosynthetic process. This gas became part of the protective layer called the atmosphere that blocked out most of the life destroying ultraviolet rays hitting the earth. It also allowed the proliferation of lifeforms that depended on oxygen to breathe and survive. The dominance of plants continues to this day. Plants and algae create, maintain, and protect the conditions to make life viable on our planet.

Most of us cannot see the light waves that are not in the visible spectrum. What we can see with our eyes is a tiny portion of what is happening. We see red orange yellow green blue and violet. Plus the mixtures of colors like pink magenta and turquoise. Scientists investigating the properties of light found that there was something happening at the extreme ends of the rainbow of light. Above the purple violet was something else – they called this ultra violet. Ultra meaning more than/extremely/excessive, like Ultra man! Beyond the red part of the rainbow they found another kind of wave – they called this infrared. Infra meaning below.

As the scientists made more observations, they discovered a wider range of waves in this electromagnetic spectrum that is the energy reaching the earth from the sun. They identified waves of energy with super short wavelengths like gamma rays and x rays. Waves that were so short and tiny and full of energy that they could easily penetrate bodies of living organisms. Scientists found waves of energy with long wavelengths, like microwaves and radio waves.

Over time, we have harnessed and made use of the physical properties of these waves: x rays at the doctors to see past the muscles but see the dense bones; microwaves in the kitchen to excite the water molecules and heat up your supper; microwaves for radar to detect motion and measure movement and velocity; radio waves for radios, mobile phones, wireless networks; infrared waves for night vision scopes and heat seeking missiles.

Of the ultraviolet rays of light hitting the earth from the sun, much of it is absorbed by the atmosphere composed of nitrogen and oxygen gas. This is good, because otherwise most of life on land would be dead. The UV waves that do make it through can break chemical bonds and damage cells in humans. This is why we ask you gardeners to wear sun protection. Long sleeved shirts and a nice wide brimmed sun hat, not a baseball cap. Otherwise the tips of the ears and back of the neck are uncovered and often susceptible to skin cancer melanomas. Folks with darker skin can produce more natural sunblock which is melanin, they do not burn so easily. Fairer folks ought to wear sun block and reapply accordingly. Otherwise the sunblock wears off with time, and the sun’s UV rays start baking the skin cell/sunblock residue matrix. But UV light is not all bad. Vitamin D is made when your skin is exposed to the sunlight and that little bit of UV; Vitamin D helps you absorb calcium, magnesium, and phosphate. It also helps your immune system and protects you against disease. So some sun is good for you.

In the garden we also harness UV light for its beneficial qualities. In a pond system we will use a UV light alongside the filter to kill the algal spores in the water. This keeps the pond water nice and clear and not green. UV light is also used to disinfect and treat water at the wastewater treatment plant before discharging it or before it is channeled to the recycled water stream. In entomology class we collected scorpions at night by shining a hand held black light while wandering around the desert. Scorpions fluoresce and glow in response to the UV light, and are easy to catch this way.

So back to coverings. Glass has the excellent light transmission. It absorbs and blocks all of the shorter wavelength UV rays (UV-B) but lets in most of the longer wavelength UV rays (UV-A). The plants in the glass greenhouse get all the light they need to proceed with photosynthesis. Glass, composed of sand, limestone, and sodium carbonate, is great stuff!

In a poly film covering, however, the plastic covering is composed of long chains of carbon and hydrogen; it degrades and breaks down in the presence of ultraviolet light. Before long the plastic is discolored, cracking and falling apart. Therefore, a chemical compound that absorbs the UV radiation is added to the plastic in the process of manufacture to prolong its life. These are similar compounds as found in sunblock and cosmetics. This way, your plastic greenhouse holds up over time, and you can grow happy plants.

Yes it looks nice and neat. The enclosure probably keeps some of the animals from urinating or defecating close to the tree also. And, you may be able to sit on the edge and eat your lunch there on a sunny day. But, how would you like it if your most important interface – where the base of your trunk meets the earth and soil – is damp and wet all the time? Covered and piled up with rock and gravel and dust and dead leaves and weeds. Trapped and held in with nowhere to go.

Sometimes trees fall down and hurt people and property. Occasionally they fall down and miss everything all around ‘em. Often, the cause is natural – they are old and sick, they are growing unbalanced in the loose sand, el nino storms are strong and water has saturated the soil. Other times, human care and maintenance may play a role in the outcome. Hard to say. What is important is that while you are working and playing around these massive huge creatures, you pay attention and watch out. Lest a broken branch fall and hurt you. Do you see the hanging limb caught in the crotch here? Imagine it comes loose and tumbles down. If you are a gardener – best to caution tape and cone off the area until the arborists can come and take care of the problem.

You plant a big tree in a small space. It ain’t ever gonna fit right. It ain’t ever gonna stop growing till it dies. It ain’t ever gonna mature at 15’, more like 80’ then start growing sideways. As the tree grows, roots swell, and the sidewalk cracks. Gotta fix it. So you bring in the jackhammers and forms and bags of concrete. The reciprocating saw cuts the roots in the ground real good, and the saw blades are cheap. You cut the roots off clean and level. Some of the roots you cut are the fine fibrous roots in the upper surface. Down lower, you cut some of the larger thicker anchoring roots five six inches thick to almost a foot wide. Then you pour the concrete over the top. Once the new concrete is screeded and dry, nobody hardly even takes a second look.
But like Gus says, “the damage has been done”. It might take five years, ten years, twenty years before the tree succumbs, fails, and falls. By then people are blaming the weather or the canker disease or something else. More likely if you were a real detective you could trace it to the big root cuts, or the big pruning topping cuts, performed years before. That is where the disease got in. That is when the rot started. So design and plant with size and proportion in mind. The ol gardener refrain goes –
“Right plant right place”.

The tree planters. They do it with the best of intentions. But the follow up is so so. They think “We are saving the earth and planting trees. We are going to protect you (the tree). You are going to grow up straight and tall. We are going to make sure of that by binding you nice and tight!” But they forget to come back and loosen the straps or the bars or the cage or the grate. They forget that as a tree grows, it gets bigger. They do not recognize that a tree needs to move, needs the wind to blow it back and forth, for its roots to grow strong and firm into the ground. So then one day, five years down the line, somebody finally removes the stakes and the ties that were too tight to begin with. And the first wind storm, the tree falls over because its roots never rooted on its own, never went looking for water on its own. It was dependent on external supports placed there by an undependable human. Oh well, better luck next time!

Girdling is when the tree gets sick and dies from strangulation. The conduction of water and nutrients gets stopped up and jammed. This can be from plastic rope that got tied around its trunk. This can be from a root in a container that went around and around until it choked itself. This can be from a piece of wire that would not let go. If you care for your trees, this does not happen. Loosen the ties. Prune the circling roots.

If you view a tree as a thing, as an object, not as a living creature, then you will treat it as such. You may see the trunk as a fire hydrant, and be unaware that dogs are burning the tree with their nitrogenous waste stream, burning it until the bark peels off. You may use the tree basin like a trash can or an oversized ash tray which it resembles. You may plant a tree too close to the house because you thought it was like a sculpture that would always stay the same size. You may fill a tree cavity full of concrete because you figured the problem was one of hardware – like the tile and the grout, the shower tub and the caulk, or the drywall and the spackle for the nail hole Most of these things, most of these treatments, the tree just accepts and tolerates, and keeps on growing!

The bud union is where the tree was budded. That is to say the bottom part (the rootstock) is one plant, chosen for its disease resistance, its ability to dwarf the size of the tree, or other qualities. The upper part is another individual plant (a bud), chosen for its pretty flowers or tasty fruits. The two were stuck or taped together back in the day, and now they grow together as one. Where they meet is often a bump of a swollen scar. The union. You can commonly observe this on flowering cherry trees, roses, and fruit trees.
A weak V shaped crotch is a tight narrow angle between the two trunks. It occurs commonly on the sweet gum tree Liquidambar. Sweet gums have the maple looking leaves and a fruit that resembles a small mace ball with spikes all over it. It has a fruit that will pop your bicycle tire’s inner tube. When your crotch is narrow like that, the growing bark becomes rolled inwards with the years, eventually resulting in a a weak crotch that is prone to splitting. When you put a two hundred pound arborist climbing in the tree pushing hard at that junction then kaboom – half of it breaks off and down goes the arborist. So be careful around them especially if they are rotten.

These days it is not fashionable to leave a stub. This is based more on aesthetics and cosmetics rather than health. Some people will say that if you leave that ‘dead wood’ stub it will attract fungal pests and infect the rest of the tree. Not really. The tree will usually compartmentalize that chunk, slowly suck out its nutrients, and let it die. Most any organism that lands and eats it will be a saprophytic dead material eater, not a live tissue eater. In the country farmers like to leave a little stub to hang a hat or a jacket or a tool, so that stuff don’t get lost in the bushes. But in town, it is best to leave no stubs for looks and for the standards…

Double leaders are tricky. If it is an older tree, and the crotch angle is U shaped and strong, then just leave it. Trees do not have to have only one strong leader, they can have two. But if it still a young tree, and the leaders are thin and not yet really developed, and you want to nip one of them, then go ahead.

Spurs. Once, a beginning gardener was asked to prune an apple tree in the springtime. He thought it was no big deal even though he had never done it before. He did not even ask for advice or look it up in a book or use the internet. He just went for it. He finished pruning and it looked real good. Most of the year went by. Then the client called to ask why there was no apples at all this year. Gardener felt a little bad, shrugged, and went to look up what spur wood looked like…

Here is a Magnolia tree that has been topped. What do you think? Does it look okay? Why would you top a tree? Did you know it is technically illegal to prune in this manner? And that you can be fined hundreds of dollars?

The three cut method is still a good and valid way to prune larger limbs off a tree. Only change in recent years is this: On the second cut, prune it right to the undercut, not a little aways like in the illustration. Straight shot to the cut, not letting it snap where the cuts are separated.

Couple of changes here. New standards recommend no fertilizer for the first year or so. Let the tree get used to the site first. And the backfill – use all the same local native soil you dug and excavated, not a 50/50 mix of native soil and organic matter. The logic and theory is that the tree will adapt and do best in the stuff it has to live in, not some compost leafy barky organic matter that is going to decompose and let the root ball subsides and sink deeper. This way the trunk base – soil interface does not get covered with dirt and soil and moisture and rot. Better to plant the tree a tiny bit high rather than low.

As we progress in our knowledge of trees as living organisms, we have made changes in how we treat them near our dwellings. We are emphasizing tree health over simply tree cosmetics. We are broadening our view of what an ornamental tree is, and what is ideal in a given landscape. We are seeing trees not only from an engineering model’s stand point, but also seeing a tree as a tree.

Have you ever seen a wild old plum, one planted by itself on the edge of a field? Have you seen how it is a dense thick tangle of trunks and branches crossing meshing and exhibiting a sort of mad exuberance? Well that is its natural wild form. Even the domesticated town plums would like to look like that a little bit, but most of the time us peoples don’t let them. “Stay in your little square!” So when we prune them hard in an effort to ‘correct their poor structure’, they fight back with a ton of new sprouts, thin woody upright sprouts on the branches, sprouts we call watersprouts.
The tree is filling out all the pruned-away empty space with energy producing leaves. It is filling in gaps in its canopy where light is being wasted. What we call “wrong’, ‘ugly’, ‘incorrect’ and ‘bad’, the tree knows as ‘good’. Good for survival, good for making food for itself.
Ornamentally speaking, sometimes a light natural prune is more beneficial over time than a heavy hard prune that will set you down a path where every year you are fighting to make the tree do what you want it to do. This instead of letting the tree do what it has done for the last hundred million years just fine, and just helping it along as a gardener to make it look its best.

HAND DRAWING LANDSCAPE DESIGN PLANS

Sometime I get people asking me
why y’all still draw by hand?
its so tedious, and slow
and if you make a mistake you gotta start all over again
why don’t you change up
get with the times
go digital
use computers
they are so much more
efficient, uniform, and perfect
compared to the human mind and hand

This is true
and we offer two courses at our community college
in landscape design
in the advanced class we get into some software
and click away at the screen
importing 3 d plants from a virtual warehouse
visualize a space while orbiting and zooming in and out
snapping lines of exact 8’ – 2 1/2” straight retaining walls with ease
these are good advancements, improvements
we evolve with the times, and the new clients’ expectations and wishes
I do not dispute this, nor its importance

On the other hand
we have many students who are
ex accountants ex chemists ex doctors ex IT specialists
ex software engineers ex architects ex ex ex
who have spent many many too many hours at the keyboard
and don’t really want that anymore, at least not all the time
they want a balance
they want to be with fluid nature not rigid culture
they want to know the world that functions as a web of connections
take a break from the boxy world of top down hierarchy
so they turn to plants, hoping for some new connections and friends
some sweet scents and down time
the last thing they want to do
is to sit back in that ergonomic chair, hooked up
or we have many students fresh out of high school
who have already spent countless months, perhaps years,
with shows and video games and movies and social media
probably more time with a screen than sleeping
probably more time with a screen than with people
so to get them to learn the basics of drafting, and the origin of the art and science of horticulture
we start at the beginning
we start with simple hands on objects and basic observation skills of the outside world
allow that process to take hold
and grow like a vine

Moreover
there is a warmth and person feel
that comes from a hand drawn picture
in the big architecture firms that can afford it
the renderings, the perspectives, look at how they beam
they are hand drawn, not machine drawn
a good artist can bust out a drawing
and exceed the speed of a computer’s drawing
a computer plan may have to be
photographed uploaded edited imaged cropped moved and saved
whereas the hand drawn plan is relatively simple to execute
paper, pen, straight edges and ruler

In addition
in those human drawn lines
there is emotion and manna and mana
embedded in the picture are a persons experiences and trials
maybe a person working through their traumas and fears
they are all there
its kinda meditative really, a drawing
a process with a defined start and finish
a relatively straight one, not one full of zig zag mazes and infinite scroll down loops

drawing by hand, there is less of an inclination or ability to
edit and change, save and redo, paste and track, copy and rename
it is more of ‘bang’ shot beginning to end
less of a strain on the mind doing the this or that, analysis, more this or that
nor is there as much the anxiety of a plan that seeks to be perfect
every little detail, perfect
yes a person did this, it might even have a tiny tiny mistake or two
the gist is that
we are drawing a plan, a preliminary idea, something to get us off the ground
something to ground us and root us, into the earth
thats all
we are not drawing the blueprints for a high tech science instrument to the milli milli accuracy
we are not designating the specifications for an advanced prototypic 3 billion dollar machine
we are just
making a garden

Plus
computer designs are good at the straight lines
not so good with the
the gentle curves or serrated edges or dynamic flows
that is part of garden design
thats the softness, the gentleness, the peacefulness
we seek in nature
maybe one day there will be cookie cutter factory designed gardens
custom clicked gardens
gardens you can just swoosh through the email and plop down
instant garden
one size fits all garden
rubber molded garden
eternal never changing garden
plastic never dying garden
really, is that what you really want?
ponder this a little bit longer, what you are getting into…
a garden is a personal thing, ya know…
it is a treaty a compact an agreement a covenant
between a sanctuary and people
it is installed by a contractor
maintained by a gardener
and designed by you
a visionary who can weave all the disparate elements together
and sink it down deep deep deep

So back to the hand drawn plans
you get to touch tools and learn their special function
tools that are not icons, tools you can touch
you get to make mistakes and crumple up the paper all mad
no you shouldn’t break the computer that cost 1000 dollars, throw it out the window
no matter how frustrated it makes you…
you get to see a vision in your mind travel through your nerves and muscles and become reality
you get to be actively engaged, whole body married to the creative process
the whole thing is so cool and fun
tactile, textured, full of vibrant colors
this is why we still
draw by hand
at least initially… in the first semester of class
yes I know, I am with you
I am not a luddite resister going around town in a horse pulled buggy
using a hand cranked flour mill and sitting around a wood fire
yes, the year is 2020…

Addendum
There is something else. In art and design classes they use this one book called Drawing on the right side of the brain. It challenges you to see things in different perspectives, as a way to balance the right and left spheres of your brain and become a better artist.

Well for those of you who did not grow up learning this stuff – the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side. Funky right? Also, the left brain is more associated with the analytical logical ‘rational’ side of behavior. What we think of more as ‘the head’. So science and math and languages. Theres the left brained engineer, investment banker. Leaders in big industries and tech, business. Whereas the right brain is more associated with creativity, intuition, visualization, spatial abilities – more ’the body or the gut or the heart’. So art and music, sports, poetry and stories. Not as much valued in our society today, materially speaking anyways. Besides sports. We are primarily a left brain dominated culture. A right handed culture.

Imagine the left brain sees the world as geometric shaped boxes, black lines on white paper. Squares and more squares. The right brain is full of beautiful colors, but not well structured. Splatters and stuff everywhere. Put the two of them together, and you have the world and life and a garden. That is the design. On many occasions scientists have visualized the solution to a problem by seeing images in their dreams. These are the scientists that have the left and right brain interface well bridged and working together.

Having come across this in high school, I am not sure of the research and source at this point, but simply retelling it as a point of interest. Back in the day they were investigating the brain and treating the mentally ill with whatever they could think of. One of the methods they came up with was cutting off sections of the brain, this was called a lobotomy. They hoped that in so doing they would be able to restore function and health in some way shape or form. In the course of these experiments, they did an interesting study of the right and left brains, stimulating parts of the brain and seeing what happened. When they stimulated the left side the patient articulated language normally, when the equivalent right side was stimulated they would cuss, ‘like a sailor’. That is to say, these cuss words in our vocabulary, normally avoided by most of us civilized folk in day to day life, come from another part of the brain. They are emotion charged and you might say primal, having to do with scatological or sexual phenomenon that is common to all animals. So these words serve a function beyond mere insults. Out of the right brain emerges a punctuation mark in the midst of chaos, expressing equalizing and decompressing the mind and the situation. Basically the right brain is a little bit repressed and neglected in our culture, and so in designing and drawing a plan, we hope to give it some light and find that balance. This is not to say that you should go around the house screaming profanities at the top of your lungs cause you are stimulating your right brain this way. Its just to recognize this tilted scale and bring it back up to level.

Site inventory:

So we looked at this site, and squared it off like a rectangle for the inventory, to make the first time easy and encouraging.  Just this part, not the L of the plant bed goin around the corner.  You can do the same at any spot.  Start to observe the plants and the basic elemental forces that surround them.

 

What do you see?

Plant wise, we see three princess flower bushes in the front, and about seven trees of Pittosporum tenuifolium kohukohu tawhiwhi as a hedge behind it.  A tree in the back corner coming from the neighbor is catalina ironwood, and underneath the ironwood some irisy looking things – chasmanthe.  On the ground are chips.

Water wise there are two irrigation boxes, one open with a purple headed quick coupler showing.  And another box not sure what is inside.  No visible signs of sprinklers or drip system, at least initially.

Hardscape wise there is a sitting wall retaining wall there on the right. Say about two feet tall or so.  And the blue metal fence behind it.  Lets look at it from another angle:

 

We took a compass reading.  If you were one of the princess flowers with your back to the pittosporum hedge, you would be facing east.  So it is pretty protected from the onshore wind with the hedge and the hill and houses back behind it.  It is not out in the open like full on southern exposure but not too shady either.  Protected.  Not a bad spot that is why these purple flowers are blooming and blooming and blooming.  Alright, goin in for a close look.  Heres one box.  Purple color indicates the water inside is recycled water.  Meaning that it was flushed out one time to the water and waste treatment plant, they cleaned and disinfected it, and now its back watering the landscape.  Not drinking water, recycled water for landscaping:

This the other:

And hope its okay to take a look.  ????.  Pass.

 

Go on up to the back, aha! Found a pop up sprinkler.  Not sure when it comes on…

 

Beneath the ironwood is a large metal cage.  It is part of the water system, a backflow prevention device.  We will illustrate the principle and practice at a future time.  For now keep an eye on it, once you have seen one, you will see them everywhere.  Parks, schools, museums, etc.

 

It would be nice to dig around in the soil and see what you are dealing with.  The day we went it was foggy.  The soil at the surface looked all wet.  But as soon as you dug down less than half an inch it was dry as a bone.  What does that mean?  When is a bone dry?  In the desert yes but usually it is moist and getting gnawed on by rodents for its calcium content.

Anyhow, when I went back later in the day to take pictures, even the surface had dried.  Like this – a thin layer of mulch, a little bit of sandy soil.  Should have had gloves on.  Sorry.  Safety first!

 

If you stand a little ways back you can then see the how the hardscape and the garden slope and irrigation run off would drain into a grate and catch basin.  The man hole cover there leads to the sewer:

 

So a rough drawing not to scale would look something like this:

Thats all for site inventory.  We will do them over and over again until you are intimate with the world and for all intensive purposes become a flowering plant.  Or a fern if that is your preference.

Now we are going to get a little bit more accurate and less rough.  When you set out to measure the yard, it is helpful bring some graph paper.  Overlay the space  with a grid with an x and y axis.  Bring your graph paper. Easiest to have two long tapes and stretch em out if possible.  Nice to work with a buddy system.  This way you will be able to measure existing plants and structures with ease.  We will use this brick raised bed as an example.  I see a metal post on the left, aeonium succulents all around, an echium that was pruned hard that did not or has not come back yet (the bare thing of all branches), a santolina the gray silver foliage plant on the right, and some wooden fencing.

So let’s stretch out the tapes.

 

 

Length is here.  Thirty feet!:

 

Width is here. Six feet ahhhh six inches.   Round up.  Close enough!

 

 

And lastly the height. Let’s say 10″ tall:

 

Now you can put this on your graph paper.  And write copious notes all around to try to remember this site.  Do note that I am drawing with a  thick sized sharpy marker for online communication and emphasis.  Don’t do like this in the real world!  Use a nice pencil or pen, not a marker.

 

Lets say we want to draw the existing metal pole in our plan.  You would look on the x axis of where it lines up.  Looks about 1′-4″ here.

Then along the y axis.  Looks like it lines up at about 4′ -2″.  What is the diameter of the pole?  Two inches?  Got it.  There you go…

 

So for every site, when you are doing your site survey and taking your measurements, just overlay, impose, layer a grid on top of it.  This will improve your accuracy and make sure things are drawn to scale.  Pick a nice origin (0,0) and go from there.  Start at a square corner, take it X and Y.  Even awkward diagonals and circles and curves are easier this way.

 

 

Now on to drafting.  And eventually transferring that drawing on graph paper and that rough sketch into a presentable form.

These are the basic tools you ought to have.  The white thing is an architects ruler, not an engineers ruler.  Make certain of that.  The little numbers on the ends should say things like “1/4, 1/8, 1/2, 3/16”, not “10, 20″ and so on.  Standard measurements not metric.  There’s two plastic triangles here:  one is a 45 45 90 degree triangle, the other is a 30 60 90 degree triangle.  I prefer the orange one for our class.  We will use it for an isometric drawing later in the semester.  The black ink pen is a specialized technical drawing pen for drafting purposes.  They run about 1.50 or 2 or 3 bucks, each.  They are good in that their ink dries right away so it doesn’t end up smearing your paper, and they usually dont bust out on you and leak link out the tip like some ball point pens do.  .5 or .8 mm are nice sizes for the pens.  Underneath is a drawing table.  The table should be able to fit paper that is 18″ x 24”.   Ideally you have a quiet studio space to work, maybe even a drafting table that tips up real cool like so you don’t get as bad neck strain.  But if you do not you will have to make do with a dining room table and its surface and edges.  Perhaps pad it with the piece of cardboard that comes with the pad of drawing paper.

 

Scale.  The whole idea of scale is that you cannot draw a garden life size on a huge piece of paper.  Sure that would be cool as a modern art project but it is not practical to show a clients such a thing. So we will shrink it down so that it fits on our piece of paper.  It must be accurate, to scale, so that a contractor can look at it and be able to figure out how big the deck you designed is, or how much concrete has to be brought in, and where to place so and so plant.  So get your ruler out and look at it.  Flip the triangular toblerone shaped ruler until until you find the one side that says 1/4 on one side and 1/8 on the other.  The 1/4″ scale goes from the right and proceeds left.  It is the lower row of numbers here that say 0 2 4 6 8 and so on.  Ignore the 46.  So if you want to draw something that is 8 feet long, start at the 0 and draw the line to the 8.  The bunch of fine lines to the right of the 0 are to indicate the inches within one foot at 1/4 inch scale.  It is a common mistake to start at the very right.  Do not make that mistake!  Start at the zero 0!!!

 

 

Heres the ruler on the left side with the 1/8 inch scale. This scale runs left to right.  Use the numbers on the top row this time.  Where it says 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and so on.  So an 1/8 scale is half the size of an 1/4 inch scale.  These are the two scales I am asking you to draw and practice for this lab.  You can fudge a little bit in the drawing when it comes to itty bitty inches.  Say if something is 14′-2″ you just go between the 14′ and the 15′.  Half way between the two is 14′-6″.  From 14′ to 14′-6″ you go about a third of the way and that is 14′-2″.  Engineers are like what!?  You landscape designers are so inaccurate!  It should be down to nearest .0001 mm!!  But this is a garden we are talking about.  If you are off by 2 or even 3 inches it is usually not that big a deal.  You can always make adjustment in the field by pushing a bit of dirt that way, adding half and inch, half and inch there and making up the difference.  On the drawing itself, the pencil or pen line is already as thick as an inch or two even in the garden.  So do not sweat it.  The minutiae.  Move on.

 

Here is an illustration of some of the scales on that same architect ruler you have.  It is depicting what 40′ looks like at various scales:

 

Okay lets draw.  We will start off with how you are not supposed to draw.  If you just tape your piece of paper on your drawing board all willy nilly then it will look like this.  Your lines will not be square with the paper.  Everything will be tilted as if it wants to slip off the side of the hill.

 

Then as you continue to draw the headhouse, you may be tempted to draw in all of the dimensions.  To be thorough, to show that you are doing a lot of work.  And the labels too!  It may look like this after a while of intensive work.

 

You are thinking I am going to go over the top and get extra credit.  What about if I put some plants in there too and hardscape and make the whole thing into a garden?!

 

You have now gone way too far over the top and it is time to start over.  Lets start at the beginning again.  Again?!  Crumple up the mistake and throw it to the compost and worms.  They love cellulose.  Fit your new sheet of paper to the drawing board by feeling along the edges so they all line up tight and square.  Tape em down.

Edge like this:

 

If you know the dimensions of the plan you are going to draw, a helpful hint is to cut out a piece of paper of the same size, and put it on the paper.  This way you can space it out so that is is centered and looks just right.  This is a good method if you have two or even three separate drawings all fitting on the same piece of 18″ x 24″ paper.  Layout.

 

Then you start to draw.  Make two dots, connect em.  Connect em in one smooth stroke one smooth breath.  No thinking just go.  By the way I am drawing with a fat sharpy permanent marker so that it shows up well on the screen.  On your drawing you should be using pencil.  Later we will go over it with an ink pen.  For now pencil.

Boom

 

You will be using the ruler as you go, to get the correct measurements on paper.  Sometimes I will run it along the top this way so that it is straight.  Make sure your T square is set firm against the edge of the board no wobbly actions, or else lines will turn out crooked.  Then its eraser marks and frustration and maybe ripped paper start over again.  So draw light pencil lines that are visible but do not put too much weight behind it.

 

You can also use the triangle like this if you do not want to have to move the T square from side to side then up down then side to side.  I did smudge the marker there.  You can avoid smudging by using the technical ink drawing pens, and also some people tape pennies underneath the T square so it is slight teeny bit elevated and smudges less.  So the ink does not get trapped underneath the hard flat edge.

 

So just take the dimensions I’ve given you and draw the figure.  I’ve simplified it here a bit but it is the same idea.  Draw the dimensions lines indicating the length and width.   Just those two are fine for our purposes.  Too many dimension lines will take away from the overall CLARITY and CONCISENESS of the drawing.  If a contractor wants to know how big the patio you have drawn is, they can pull out a ruler and measure it.  The drawing is to SCALE.

These extension lines indicate the extent of the dimension lines, the end points.  The termination point is indicated with arrowheads or a dash.  Choose your own style, just be consistent throughout your drawings and dont switch it up back and forth.  CONSISTENCY.

Finish the labelling and you are done.  Easy clear simple and concise.  That is what we are striving for.

Here is a student’s sample from last years.  Thank you Josephine!  Okay give it a shot.  Notice how the 1/4 inch scale is bigger than the 1/8 inch scale.  Those are doors swinging open.  If you were here I could show you the door to the back classroom, the door to the shop and garage, and the double doors that lead to our greenhouses.  Alas…

C’est tout!  Fini!  Hopefully not too bad for a first draft.

 

SAFETY

With regards to safety. Safety starts with awareness and your mind in sharp focus. A pair of kevlar chaps and carbon fiber hard hat and a thousand barricades will not help you if you are not present. You have to acknowledge that nature and the world we live in is dangerous, and can cause harm to you. This can happen if you are not careful, but can also happen because it is some crazy fluke. So you want to be prepared irregardless, and try to avoid getting hurt.

Hazards in gardening are many. The soil is full of bacteria. Some of it is helpful, others can get inside of you and try to take over and eat you alive. You will swell up with an infection, the bacteria will make their way into your blood, sepsis amputation and death are not far off. Lucky these days hospitals are equipped with antibiotics made from fungus and precisely other soil bacteria. Otherwise lights out. Many people who reminisce about the old times, or who have an idyllic vision of nature, often get into trouble because they want to put their bare hands in the soil and be one with mother earth. Maybe out in the country but in town it is right dirty and best to wear gloves. If you have an open wound for sure avoid contact with the soil. If you get an open wound or cut from a hori hori knife or a long barb of blackberry remember to wash it out good with soap and water. Not sloppy either wash it good.

Another common hazard is stinging insects. Around here the worst is yellow jackets that nest in the ground cause sometimes you don’t see em till its too late, you’ve already stepped on their nest and they come roaring out really mad. It really sucks when they go up your pant leg or chaps, are trapped, and really panic and sting and sting. Then you have to drop your drawers in the middle of the park and hope your underwear is not too unsightly. It would be a good idea to know if you are allergic to the venom. You can get tested by a doctor or wait and see if you have never been stung before. If you are allergic and persist in the great outdoors get an epi pen which is a shot of epinephrine which is adrenalin, so that you can inject yourself in the leg and not go into shock. Then get help. Just so you know bumblebees can sting also, as can of course honeybees. These are all insects in the colonial matriarchal clan called the hymenoptera. Ants are in this group too. Lucky here we do not have the stinging red ants in the south nor the massive conga paraponera bullet ants of the tropics. So before you go into a patch of ivy to weed it, observe to see if some yellow and black bugs are flying here and there. Watch where they are going. Preventive practices is a big part of being safe. Black widows are a concern too. So watch out for irrigation boxes and cleaning out the potting shed that hasnt been touched for a decade. Mostly with the spiders it is like with the moray eels, don’t just stick your hand down in some place some hole you cannot even see. Give em some warning, stir around with a stick. You are not superman or the widow whisperer.

Something along the lines of stinging things but human created is hypodermic needles. Around here there used to be a clean needle exchange. You bring in a dirty one, you get a clean one. Then it went to you bring in a dirty one, and they give you four clean ones. Now folks working on the street tell me its unlimited clean ones. So the needles, after being used to inject plant based chemicals, end up in the litter, in the ground. And if you are gardening, sweeping raking leaves and branches, that needle will likely end up jabbing you right in the hand as you go to pick it all up. So what do you do? Use a scoop shovel, use a rake, avoid contact. Bring a sharps container for such days. Until public health starts to care about you, you gotta care about yourself and take precautions.

Branches and trees are a big safety uh oh. Any tree worker can tell you stories. And stories. And stories. Its not that trees get mad and want to kill us, its just that they are so big and sometimes rotten and unpredictable. Yes physics and leverage and the lean are all important to know, but some trees… Eucalyptus in particular… Then when you are dragging branches or cutting a hairy trichome covered limb, you realize that wearing some eye protection does not make you a nerdy weenie, its just being safe. Like my buddy Gus says, “You only get one pair of eyeballs”. Haven’t heard of eyeball transplants or artificial AI eyes or stem cell grown eyes yet. Protect them. And hearing protection goes along with that too. Of course both Gus and I are probably a little guilty of this, and so do as we say, not as we do. So many good friends be jackhammering, shooting their 12 gauge, running that chainsaw, going to a rock concert, with no hearing protection at all. It takes a while but sooner or later. You are trying to talk to them. “Hey! Hey! Hey there you over there!” But nothing, they cant hear you no more! They see you motioning, and they smile back, but they are in a cloud. Sigh.

There is endless hazards working in the landscape and garden (rodent poo, human feces, poison oak, holes in uneven terrain, etc) and I won’t bore you with much more about safety. Just pay attention and dont rush things. I’ll finish this section with a story about an accident that occurred a couple of years back.

We went out to do our labs after lecture. The lab was pruning. One student went to prune the Lophostemon Brisbane box tree out front of our compound. He had a long 12’ fiberglass pole pruner and saw combo, and was pruning this tree from below. “I know what I am doing, I do this all the time”. Gus is supervising from a distance, sitting in his little electric cart. Then as the student pruned a small branch, it was falling down, he wanted to catch it. So he let go of the pole and the pole saw came down right on top of Gus’ head, hitting him square, luckily with the blunt part of the metal end not the sharp part, otherwise he would have died right then and there. Now Gus is one tough codger, born 1934, been through polio at 19, and been through all sorts of garden arborist diving fishing hunting accidents. So he took it like it was nuthin, still smiling and conversing with the students. Blood gushing and staining his white hair all red. I think some students were about to faint; we had some super competent nurses Nancy Lewis and Ana Trejo and Arete Nicholas as students in the class, and they luckily helped him out good. Scott took him to the hospital. If Gus was a wee bit younger he probably would’ve just shook it off and wrapped it with some duct tape and stayed to finish the job! So lessons were learned by everybody. No use blamin’. Gus learned to position himself a little further from the action, and wear a hard hat. The student learned not to let go of the pole saw. And I learned that I should tighten up the supervision and keep hammering on about the importance of safety.