Inner City Farmer

Every part of this process has presented me with some unique challenges so it came as no surprise when I ran into a couple hiccups during the plastering phase. The biggest challenge was that my base coat cracked pretty severely. The problem, as it turned out, was that my clay, the stuff I have been digging right out of my back yard, is extremely “expansive,” that is, as it dries, it shrinks a great deal. So as happy as I was after we got the first coat on during the initial workshop, most of the walls ended up looking like this:

To remedy this, we changed from using a powdery bank sand to a much coarser sand for the second layer, and yet, alas, the limited amount of that layer we were able to apply (I very unwisely schedule my last work party the day after we had a real party that nearly lasted until breakfast) cracked almost as badly. It was time to make a drastic change. So for the last couple batches I have switched from using one part sand and one part clay (as we did on the first coat) to TWO parts sands and one part clay. As a general rule, the less clay you have in your mix the less cracking you can expect. I have also upped the amount of fine straw in the mix from three-quarters of a part to one whole part, and that too has helped. The patches I have applied in the last couple days look pretty good with very minimal cracking.

One other obstacle I faced after applying the first coat was mold. On the lower half of the walls several small patches of a hairy white mold appeared. To prevent this from happening, I had sprayed some peroxide over the light clay straw, and evidently it didn’t work so well. This time I used some Borax, which I applied using a sprayer. This seems to have done the trick, and because you’re supposed to wet the walls before you add the plaster I have gone ahead and applied this solution to every inch of the plastered walls.

Now my only remaining obstacle is time. There’s less then two weeks to go before the final plastering workshop (led by Tempe Sikora) and I need to finish the second coat. I am hoping to host a work party during the day this Wednesday, but anyone who is interested in the fun but messy art of earthen plastering is welcome to stop by anytime to help out.

While I was busy insulating the future Man Cave with light clay straw, I made an interesting discovery. One of the batches of clay slip I was using contained too much organic matter, particularly straw, so I dumped it on the ground and didn’t think twice about it until several days had passed and I noticed little shoots of grass sprouting from the dirt. Big whoop, right?

Well, this was very exciting for me because my backyard is a barren wasteland. First, my free-ranging chickens ate every single green thing that came out of the ground. Then, I exacerbated the problem when I chopped down every single “trash tree” (mostly hackberries and lugustrums) so that all the little fruit trees I planted would get more sunlight. The exposed dirt got continually baked by the brutal Texas sun and what little rain came simply trickled through. My yard had effectively become a desert.

I have no desire for a putting-green backyard made out of finely manicured Bermuda grass, but I would like to create a green and healthy space. So the grass that arose from the clay slip I dumped on the ground got me pretty excited, so excited that I decided to recreate the accidental triumph all over my back yard. Basically, I took several bales of moldy and rotting straw that had been stored outside and gotten wet and I spread it all over the place. On top of the straw I shoveled some dirt from the many holes I have dug in other spots, and I occasionally wet it all down with a hose. The last rain storm we got certainly helped. Now little shoots of grass are coming up everywhere! It is a wonderful sight to behold.

I am such a greenhorn at being a green thumb that I am blown away by the results of my little experiment. To experienced gardeners my “experiment” is almost certainly a common practice: use mulch to help retain the moisture in your soil.

By any measure the earthen plaster workshop I hosted this past weekend was a great success. Those who enrolled in the course learned a great deal and made lasting connections with each other, the instructor Gayle Borst furthered the cause of her organization Design Build Live, and I finally got the help I had been seeking for so long.

When I first started using natural building techniques to remodel my adjoining garage, I imagined I would be getting some help along the way, but I had never actually received any until the past several weeks. That might explain why it has taken a year to get to this point. But then suddenly over the course of the past two weeks the rooms went from looking like this:

to looking like this:

To get ready for the workshop I worked around the clock, installing “Mexican trim” (two by fours) around the windows and doors, patching holes in the ceiling with new sheetrock, and gathering materials and tools. My neighbor Kieran Sikdar was an incredible help, dropping in to give me a hand at the most opportune times, for example, when I had to nail a four-foot by five-foot piece of sheetrock that weighed a ton to the ceiling.

And then on Saturday morning the cavalry arrived. Most of that morning was spent discussing the preparation of materials, but once we started plastering in the afternoon we didn’t stop until late in the evening. Pizza and beer encouraged several of the more determined workshoppers (Martina and Aaron) to stay and we slung mud until nearly ten o’clock.

On Sunday, Norm Ballinger and Kathy from the workshop stopped by to help out, and in just a couple of hours we had finished applying the base coat. I am now letting it dry and contemplating how to most effectively apply the plaster to the reed matting that’s now on the ceiling. We tried adding some perlite to the mix so it wouldn’t weigh as much but the perlite prevented the plaster from oozing through the reeds and grabbing onto the sheetrock on the other side so I think in the future I’m going to stick with the regular mix. As soon as we can find some scaffolding we’re going to plan a work party to finish the ceiling and then it will be time to apply the finish coat to the walls.

The room already has a special feel to it, captured best, I believe, by this picture I took on Sunday afternoon:

Those interested in seeing all the photographs taken this weekend can go here.