May 2022, Linda is gesturing toward the site of a native, pollinator garden that was planned as a show piece for neighbors who are walking by.
The main goals behind the decision to take on this project were to demonstrate what is possible on urban, vacant ground and to share the experience with our neighborhood, city and beyond! Welcome to our story.
Seeds of Life Gardens is a project of Linda Chubbuck and Stan Slaughter in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The two residential lots once had houses that were damaged by flooding from the adjacent creek. The houses and all utilities were removed and the lots became effectively orphans. Stan and Linda negotiated with the City of Lee’s Summit and eventually became to owners of the lots. Stan is an employee of Missouri Organic Recycling. As he and Linda started the process of transforming the lots into productive gardens, the idea for the Climate Friendly Yard Makeover was born. In early 2022, Missouri Organic agreed to sponsor a contest to recruit two more homeowners. The winners were announced on Earth Day, 2022 and the process began.
With no water service and the prohibition of fencing due to FEMA flood regulations, the lots are not a typical yard, of course, but being on a heavily used walking route in the neighborhood, there’s lots of visibility and educational value.
Berming the lots to slow, spread and soak all the rain into our soil
These are the fresh cut berms on the north lot and the south lot. View the berming video Here
Farmer Dan Krull and Jacob Canyon helped out by planting about 15 trees. Apples, plums, cherries and pears formed the basics of the food forest on the south lot. It really helps when your friends are experts! This happened the third week of April 2022. The grass is steadily being replaced by native plants and mulch between the trees.
Spring ‘22 brought a flurry of activity as Linda prepared a wildflower garden with cardboard and planted baby plants there. We also bought a goodly number of trees and shrubs to plant, like a row of nine barks on front of the north lot and hazelnuts along the south of the south lot as a border. See our video of the 2022 year here
With compost, water and time the south lot garden became productive in ‘2023. From the planting of asparagus to the first tall fronds, kale and pole beans were a big success. Cucumbers, squash and tomatoes also thrived. With no water service on-site Stan devised a system with his truck and barrel of water, a pump and garden hose to keep the garden growing. See that video here
Other delights from the Seeds of Life Gardens were cicada skeletons, Fairie houses, Asian pears, Skullcap flowers. Elderberries and Sunflowers. Planting seeds always brings surprises as life takes over and does what it does.
We’ve had some major challenges at Seeds of Life. Removing invasive Bermuda grass is important for us because it’s on the curb strip of both lots and can escape and take over the land. I’ve dug it out and tarped it to kill it. There’s still a large “escaped” patch on the south lot and more work to do. Watch this video on removing this invasive.
Planning out the garden is critical! On the right is a native plant design from Will Gibson of DTE Services. That plan selects the plants, colors, density and many other factors to give us a GORGEOUS Native Garden. On the left is a map we generated by measuring the lot, the berms, the path and other features so we would know where to put all those plants. Will’s plan called for over 500 sets which can cost between $3 and $6 per set. We had to economize and only plant the 120 plants we could afford this year. BUT it’s great to have the plan to refer to as we work toward this colorful, natural garden.
We built this planting table to grow the many native plants we wanted from seed. It’s fully enclosed in wire because we have birds, squirrels and ground squirrels that have damaged our plantings in the past. The big doors give us easy access and the planter is light enough to move easily with two people. Linda explains here.
Here are the videos for the raised bed build-Apply Dog food, Building lasage raised beds, Dave adds Mushroom blocks, Lasagne leaves, Shovel soil up…The Missouri Organic products we used in this build were-Nature Wise Compost, Green Frontier Compost, Just Char, and Soil Restoration. All are available HERE