Creating a Tank Garden
If you watched Geoff Lawton’s DVD “Introduction to Permaculture Design” you would have seen Geoff take you on a tour of a typical Permaculture Garden as he wandered through a number of circular corrugated iron garden beds. We spoke with the owner of the property, Elisabeth Hansen to get a better understanding and some tips on how to build and maintain a successful garden bed using this method of food production.
Tank Gardens have been around for many years but it wasn’t until the recent introduction of plastic water tanks that hit the market that farmers and people with conventional tanks began to upgrade to the newer models. There were plenty of old tanks going straight to the tip. Elisabeth who is a Permaculture teacher saw the potential of recycling the old water tanks into her garden. She organised a deal with the tank installer to buy the scrap tanks for a modest fee. Her husband Mark would use an electric angle grinder to cut a very large 50.000 litre tank into smaller sections that could be reassembled into smaller garden tanks. The tanks are essentially hoops that have no base or bottom, allowing earth worms to circulate freely underground.
Assembling your tanks and placing them into position is one thing but filling them with suitable soil to create an organic garden is another matter all together. “We have a cow and calf and chickens to provide manure but you need a lot of compost and garden scraps to fill a tank garden.” Elisabeth says any organic matter can be placed into the tank. Branches, prunings, cardboard boxes, straw, leaf matter, cow and chicken manure and any form of organic matter is ideal. Larger objects like palm fronds and tree branches will take a lot longer to break down so a better solution needs to be found.
“We put a large garden mulcher in the centre of the tank and started creating mulch almost immediately.” says Elisabeth. The larger 12 Horsepower petrol driven mulchers are more efficient than the small electric mulchers which tend to break down and clog.
Creating a compost heap is unnecessary in the sub tropics where she lives as there is already sufficient moisture in the air to break down organic materials directly in the garden tanks. Elisabeth has quite a number of tanks in her sprawling Permaculture garden.
“The tanks also prevent a number of smaller marsupials like bandicoots from eating your vegetables.” say Elisabeth.
Elisabeth is a strong believer in introducing as much bio-diversity into your tank garden as possible. It all starts at the microbe level.
“Go for a walk in the forest or anywhere where nature is undisturbed and take soil samples from these places.” says Elisabeth, “and put your soil samples into your tank garden.” The microbes that are needed in your garden will multiply if the conditions are ripe and aid in those energy transfers and growth of your vegetables.
Elisabeths tank garden soils are teeming with microscopic life. Elisabeth reaches into her topsoil and grabs a heap to show me. Rich black soil is wriggling with lively earth worms.
“I’d like to put some of this under a microscope and see what’s there.” she says.
So once you have established your garden bed what other maintenance is needed? Apart from regular watering and picking vegetables, very little maintenance is needed.
What about turning the soil over?
“Oh no! You never do that!” says Elisabeth. “That’s a no no!”
“Why not?”
Elisabeth insists that its like taking a giant shovel and picking up our house with people and contents in it and turning it over. It destroys the natural order. “By ploughing or digging over the soil, we are destroying the complex food web. The microscopic organisational structure that supports the natural order and interconnection.
“I never dig over the soil in the tanks.” says Elisabeth. “and I never walk or compact the garden beds.” The idea is to keep the soil loose and moist in texture. A layer of straw mulch keeps the topsoil cool and moist and speeds up the growth of soil organisms – the engine drivers in an organic garden.
The tank should also not be too big. Your arm should be able to reach into the centre and pick any vegetable as needed. Fresh seedlings can be popped into the garden bed on a regular basis by parting the mulch layer and disturbing the garden bed as little as possible.
As Geoff Lawton regularly says “Its not about feeding the plants – but feeding the soil.”
Hello..
How are you doing . Well my name is Mr.Bob the General manager of kenethcompany from IL. With regards i will like to make some purchase of (garden tank) in your company but i will like to know if you having such item in your company so that i can start with the purchase as soon as possible because my company in need of the (garden tank) urgent.
Secondly i will like to know if you do accept credit card for payment and if you also accept check for payment . so that as am purchasing the unit i can start making arrangement for payment .Hope to hear from you .
Sorry Mr Bob, we don’t make or sell tank gardens. You will have to seek another supplier.