About wooden pallets' toxicity

 

how to know if a pallet is safe: 

- no signs of spills or leakage of items

- stamps that can be found: 

IPPC logo, International Plant Protection Convention, prevent spreading of invasive species and plant disease, pallets have to be treated. They regulate so wood products ensure that they meet the specifications for international shipping. They require treatment by one of the following methods: 

1) Heat Treatment [HT] - heated for at least 30 min. at least at 132.8 °F /56° C -> Stamped with [HT]

2) Chemical Fumigation [MB] - fumigated with methyl bromide -> stamped with [MB], since March 2010 it has been banned.

3) Debarked [DB] - debarked under IPPC regulations, and many pallets have this stamp. Wood packaging materials must be debarked prior to being heat treated or fumigated to meet regulations. 

4) Kiln Dried [KD] - dried by steaming in order to bringing all wood products to moisture content levels that will be subject to minimal moisture-related damage.

- other stamps:

Europe:

EUR: EURO pallet this is the logo for the old system, not bad, but EPAL is better.

EPAL: European Pallet Association Logo

EUR + EPAL: EUR logo plus EPAL logo is good. EUROPE DOES NOT ALLOW CHEMICAL TREATMENT OF PALLETS.

International:

GB-FC0843 - Country code + Registration Number+

IPPC logo

+

DB-HT - Treatment code 

- do not use colored pallets, they are often used for chemicals

- what if there is no stamp or marking on the pallet? Most likely for domestic transport, and do not require an IPPC stamp because it is not for international transport. Most likely safe.

SUMMARY: 

To use: DB, HT, KD, EPAL

Not to use: MB, EUR, colored pallets

Working Day 8 ~ 19/11/23 ~ Time for PLANTS!

Today was the day we introduced the new additions generously given to us by the Botanische tuin Afrikaanderwijk <3 !!

We began like usual doing a little clean up job before then moving the plants from their temporary home on the Rib balcony to Shared Grounds. We decided to begin by grouping the plants according to their growing height, small low growers, medium height and tall, before then distributing them over the more open bed and trying to distribute them fairly evenly around the patch. We weeded out the ground a little bit, and were careful whilst opening up the soil to insert the new plants, trying to be as considerate as we could over the disruptions we were implementing. It also gave us a moment to reacquaint ourselves with the different species that we were bringing in, from ground covers, tall growing perennials, and bushy shrubs. 

We hope these new additions will introduce new layers and textures into the garden, bolstering the ecosystem chorus to a grand and complex form :)

Wood Carving Workshop with the PZI students ~ 14/11/2023

The other day we got visited by the students of the Piet Zwart Institute and wood carving enthusiast amateurista and tutor Bernd Krauß. This was our invitation:

"Shared Grounds invites you for an afternoon of wood carving in and amongst the shrubs and trees of the Gouwplein Park in Charlois. Over the last months we have been setting aside branches to whittle and now seems the moment! - perhaps you want to make a new walking stick, have a project in mind or just want to carve for the fun, feel very welcome to sit with us between the trees and return your wood clippings back to the soil in the process. You can make something for yourself, for another, or for the park (we can install them after we finish). We will have tools, decorative details and snacks ready to go, though please feel free to BYOK (bring your own knife :-) and anything else you might want to use."

The students and Bernd got to Rib after walking all the way from the city center. They were a bit unfortunate since it rained for most of their trek. Even though, even under heavy rain, they managed to find branches while moving their bodies through the city towards the south. After some snacks, tea and coffee we went for a stroll around Shared Grounds.

Our idea for the workshop was to have them carving in the garden, after every knife intrusion into the sticks, wooden bits and flakes falling into the ground of the park, re/integrating themselves [back] into the carbon cycles... But it was still raining, everyone was wet and tired so we collectively decided to carve inside at Rib. We laid a plastic tarp on the ground (to collect all the carved wood) and made a circle with white foldable chairs. While carving, we got to talk to the group and get a feeling of the dynamics and relationships that give life to the master program at the PZI. For the carving we used a wide range of tools, from simple kitchen knifes to the special carving blades and saw from Bernd. 

Most of the carvings went into the abstract realm, following and letting themselves be guided by the shape of the branches and their nots. Fully removing the bark, carving snaky silhouettes around the bark, poligonal cuttings, and soft handles for walking sticks. Some students took their sticks, others wanted them to be part of the garden.

It was a great evening in which we achieved to make a welcoming environment and to provide a bit of gezelligheid for the students. We hope to see their faces again, but this time with a bit of soil under their nostrils and fingertips while (maybe) collecting fallen leaves to compost?

[Next steps: introducing wood flakes + carved sticks in the garden.]

Working Day 7 ~ 3/11/2023 ~ Collecting leaves after the storm to make the most of their decay

We met again for an open working day on 3 November in the aftermaths of a huge storm in the Netherlands, which was still rippling away.

Whilst the last of the rain fell we began by going over the list of plants that we collected from the Botanische tuin Afrikaanderwijk, starting to collate information as to their growing particularities and specificities. It was nice to begin to get acquainted with our new species for Shared Grounds :)

Once the weather cleared up a bit we headed outside to surveyed the damage of the storm.  Luckily things were not as severe as they could have been - there were a few fallen branches, but mostly just a lot of the autumn leaves had been fast paced in falling to the ground, now forming a carpet of slowly decaying matter. To make the most of these leaking nutrients we decided to collect a lot of the leaves, focusing on the basketball field where likely the gemeente would eventually clean up, removing the leaves. 

Leaving leaves in a garden or green space has multiple positive effects. Firstly they create a natural mulch that helps to fertilise the soil as it breaks down. They also provide shelter for different animal and insect species, particularly over the cold Winter months. Leaf layers further help to retain soil moisture and warmth. For more information about the importance of leaving leaves as opposed to putting them in the bin this article from the Washington Post is really helpful - https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2015/OctNov/Gardening/Leave-the-Leaves

Once we collected the leaves up - many wheelbarrows full - we moved them to places underneath shrubs and trees at Shared Grounds, where they could slowly decompose and provide nutrients back to the plant root systems, and become Winter homes for the many insects that we had come to notice populate the park. It seems like an easy and fairly basic thing to do, though has many beneficial aspects - and another way for us to utilise decay and 'waste' in the garden, keeping it all onsite for another regeneration.

traditional rubbish collection was conducted too :)

mushrooms at Shared Grounds!

lots of leaves swept into the corners of the basketball court by the wind

collecting and spreading!

also placed in our Willow stump to decay and fill it with humus :)

ready to break down and fertilise the soil, and become homes for others :)

Some new species to introduce to Shared Grounds from the Botanische tuin Afrikaanderwijk!

We were very lucky to visit the Botanische tuin in Afrikaanderwijk to receive from them a number of plant species that we could introduce to boost the biodiversity of the park.

Melitta of BTA put aside for us a number of beautiful perennial and biannual plants or tree/shrub species, that are naturalised in the Rotterdam region, and Netherlands more broadly. They are all insect friendly pollinator plants, flowering profusely to provide food and shelter.

We were excited to work with BTA as they are a garden that has been in existence since 1923, collecting a large number of diverse species, that also take a particular interest in plants that have naturalised in Rotterdam, via means such as associated with the harbour system, or otherwise unknown, that they have just turned up in the region and made it their home.

When we were thinking to bring in some additional species to boost the biodiversity of Shared Grounds, we thought it would be a great opportunity to work with another local garden space that grows all the plants themselves, propagating from their own species. This also means that the plants are already used to the weather conditions of Rotterdam, hopefully resulting in a better chance of the plants establishing and surviving. 

We feel super happy to receive this generosity from BTA, we will plant these new additions at Shared Grounds soon :)

More information about the BTA can be found on their website - https://botanischetuinafrikaanderwijk.nl/en/

ready for collection

the list! :)

we also got a portion of their extensive pollinator seed mix :)

labels so we know what they are :)

the beautiful BTA

loaded up!

now at Rib :)