Thanks to the reader who pointed out that the authors had been switched on two of the books. The correct infomation is:
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield
Happy reading.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Friday, December 14, 2007
I did not get my final picture of the finished sheet mulched garden taken in time and mother nature slipped in a snow storm. 11" of fluffy white takes me into nesting mode and my gardening will be done from my rocking chair for the winter. Here are some books I have been reading:
- Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke, with Eric Toensmeier - A very comprehensive and detailed study of permaculture. The first volume is more of the science behind permaculture and my botanist partner is enjoying it thouroughly. I am working my way through the second volume which gives you the practical side. Very good chapters on planing, well described processes. A little overwhelming, but an excellent two volume reference set.
- Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Patrick Whitefield - An excellent, and more manageable manual on forest gardening. I found this one at the library as I was working through volume two of Edible Forest Gardens. It helped solidify a lot of concepts and bring them home.
- How to Make a Forest Garden by Toby Hemenway - Another excellent read and a good companion with the others. I always find that having several different approaches to the same subject helps me wrap my mind around the concepts and understand more. You also gather more plant lists, resource ideas, etc.
- Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community by Heather C. Flores - A very fun read, think Birkenstocks and Portland, Oregon. Took me back a bit. It is though, a very timely book and has a very can do attitude about changing your yard, big or small, into a food producing mini farm. Lots of great ideas and information.
- Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden by Lee Reich - This is a mouth watering look at some very interesting fruit, most of them are old standards in some part of the world, many native here in the US, that have simply fallen out of fashion or did not catch on. Not a large selection of plants, but good information about taste, uses, cultivation, propagation and cultivars. I'm beginning to wonder if my yard is large enough and if the neighbors would mind if I planted a few trees and bushes on their side of the fence. Hey, I would share the harvest!
Planning is so confusing at first. I have the layout of the existing property and buildings, we are compiling lists of what we want to plant, we have big plans of removing the driveway, moving the really ugly shed with the rotting floor, we have a large dying maple to remove, the hemlocks are infested with woolly adelgids and are slowly dying. The hardest part for me is thinking in years, in thinking in succession as plants grow and the micro climates change. I'm sure it will come down to plan, plant, see what happens, move things, learn from mistakes, try other things. After all, isn't that what mother nature does?
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Winter gardening and forest gardening
No winter gardening this year. We finished the sheet mulched new garden bed too late to plant even garlic. We were eating kale and Swiss chard up until a few weeks ago, then an Arctic blast took them out. But next year...
Making a vegetable seed list and creating a seed starting schedule for plants to start planting in May. I am not as familiar with Connecticut growing seasons and only have three years of experience. We were gardening in a community garden and were not allowed in until about the third week of May. Cool weather crops can be started outside earlier. In Portland, OR I used to plant peas on Feb 1st. They would take their time poking their heads out and sometimes sit about 1" high for weeks. But we always had the earliest peas! I will plant peas around March 1st and just see what happens.
Our long term goal is a small forest garden (little or no grass to mow!). So we are in the planing stages of designing an edible garden including fruit trees, bushes and plants. This requires much more thought, research and dreaming than I ever imagined. Next time I will list some of the great resources we have been using.
Other projects include removing the cracked asphalt driveway, converting some of it to garden and creating a new double parking area near the front. Looking for low cost permeable solutions. I really want something we can grow a low, hardy ground cover in and still park on during all weather. Living where we get regular snow falls does add a shoveling issue to the plan. Currently our front walk is grass and shoveling snow is fun there as well. I am concerned about contaminants left in the soil under the pavement. Several crops of something like alfalfa, a dynamic accumulator, should help. Regular mowing and composting (for non food plants) I think will work. Then heavy mulching with fresh materials and then planting fruit trees and bushes.
Time to again pick up the gardening books, dream and plan...
Making a vegetable seed list and creating a seed starting schedule for plants to start planting in May. I am not as familiar with Connecticut growing seasons and only have three years of experience. We were gardening in a community garden and were not allowed in until about the third week of May. Cool weather crops can be started outside earlier. In Portland, OR I used to plant peas on Feb 1st. They would take their time poking their heads out and sometimes sit about 1" high for weeks. But we always had the earliest peas! I will plant peas around March 1st and just see what happens.
Our long term goal is a small forest garden (little or no grass to mow!). So we are in the planing stages of designing an edible garden including fruit trees, bushes and plants. This requires much more thought, research and dreaming than I ever imagined. Next time I will list some of the great resources we have been using.
Other projects include removing the cracked asphalt driveway, converting some of it to garden and creating a new double parking area near the front. Looking for low cost permeable solutions. I really want something we can grow a low, hardy ground cover in and still park on during all weather. Living where we get regular snow falls does add a shoveling issue to the plan. Currently our front walk is grass and shoveling snow is fun there as well. I am concerned about contaminants left in the soil under the pavement. Several crops of something like alfalfa, a dynamic accumulator, should help. Regular mowing and composting (for non food plants) I think will work. Then heavy mulching with fresh materials and then planting fruit trees and bushes.
Time to again pick up the gardening books, dream and plan...
Monday, November 26, 2007
Remineralizing your land.
Here is the garden in an early stage. We laid down about 800 sq. ft. of cardboard and at this stage we have all our compost, clippings from fall clean up around the yard, organic cow manure and stone dust. We ended up getting two large loads of leaves, part maple, part oak and part unknown all partially chopped. Thank goodness for the leaves. We now have about 2 feet of mulch with straw on top.I started hearing about adding minerals to your soil by spreading rock dust a couple of years ago. For more information take a look at www.remineralize.org website. Lots of research and resources there.
We had two tons of stone dust (the local name) delivered after I picked up a sample and did the sediment test. We took some of the sample, added water in a jar, shook it up and let it settle. The particle size varies from fine dust to ~1/8" size pieces. We plan on spreading over the whole property. Yes, shovel full by shovel full. The idea is that the minerals add trace nutrients for plant and soil health. One theory is that if we could re-mineralize the world, we could stop global warming. I cannot spread that much dust, so I will work on making my little area give back to the earth.
The good news is that you do not have to do this every year, with the variance in particle size, and the amount we are spreading (2 tons for a .21 acre lot), we should not have to do this again for many years. The minerals slowly get broken down and used over the years. I am watching for results in the established flower and shrub areas since we will have some history by next spring.
This garden is temporary, as we will be redesigning the whole yard into a forest garden and sun availability will be changing as we go. I plan on converting at least as big an area next fall by sheet mulching. There is also the driveway to remove and replant, trees to remove, invasive ground covers to eradicate and the list goes on. I find it hard to think in 5-10-25 years and beyond. But one area at a time!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Permaculture Gardening in the City
(Near Hartford, CT) Finally, we own a home again. City lot, just under a quarter acre, just the right amount for two women who work full time! Our dream is a food based forest garden. The previous owner had created a beautiful yard, but mostly flowers. Her vegetable beds were small and too close to a maple tree...too much shade and too many happy roots popping up into the beds. Luckily she was 100% organic.
June 2007 - Moved in and our first garden project was to create a compost heap. I am always amazed at how much composting kitchen waste can cut down on what we place in the garbage can. I've been watching the sun patterns and planning the changes to the garden. We have a community garden spot already planted with tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, okra, peas, tomatillas, kohlrabi, kale, swiss chard, spinach, carrots, lettuce, garlic, basil, parsley and more.
We lost the leafy things to weeds. It is hard t0 keep up on weeding when moving.
We did use cardboard, newspaper and straw to cover paths and mulch the larger plants. Everything is looking good.
July 2007 - Starting to harvest goodies from our garden. Herbs, peas, beans and some salad greens. Can't wait to have a garden in the back yard.
August 2007 - First of the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Yum. We've started to prune the overgrown bushes in the front yard. Rhododendrons, azaleas and spirea. My plan is to get all bushes pruned by fall. It is very dry and warm.
Sept 2007 - Making tomato sauce, I love the rich smell as it cooks down. The weather is still very dry and clear. Everything is starting to show signs of stress. I've resorted to watering the rhodies in the back under the trees. They are fairly new plants (that's a guess) and are not looking very strong. Water, mulch and some trimming to let more light in should help.
October 2007 - Replacing all the windows in the house has taken precedence over sheet mulching the new garden space. In fact this project has taken over! We have received some rain and the grass is growing again.
November 2007 - Windows are in. Fall is late and all our leaves have not fallen. Two maples are bright red, one is yellow and if you stand in the front yard, you may think it is the middle of summer. This maple is still green. Starting to yellow around the edges. But it is time to build the new vegetable garden. I'm a little concerned because the weather has changed, we are freezing most nights and the breakdown of the mulch will be slowed down by the cold. Well, it will finish composting in the spring!
I saved all the cardboard from moving and used this to create a 750 sq. ft. garden, layering this directly over the grass and overlapping well. I choose to leave most the staples (there were lots) figuring that the rusting metal would add iron. After wetting the cardboard, we layered on the following:
About a yard of compost/leaves/grass mixture (all I had available). We also mowed and mulched up the leaves from our yard and our neighbor's yard. Just volunteer to mow your neighbors yard and dispose of all his leaves and then watch his face!
Clippings from dead flowers, the last of the bush trimmings, and leaves from a large patch of comfrey. Comfrey is a dynamic accumulator, it pulls up minerals and such and stores them in the leaves. I plan on using cuttings throughout the summer to enhance some other areas of the yard.
Dehydrated cow manure. I am looking for a source of manure locally as well as a pickup I can borrow.
Stone dust. I'll talk about how using rock or stone dust to re-mineralize is good for the garden in a later blog.
On top of this 1-2" layer we spread two loads of lightly chopped leaves. One load was mostly maple and the other mostly oak. I know where the leaves came from and they are free of fertilizer and pesticides. I considered gathering from the curb in our neighborhood, but you never know what is in the piles. We ended up with about 1-2 feet of leaves. We've been wetting this area as we go.
As a top dressing we are placing straw. Just peeling off 2-4" "books" and placing on top of the area.
We just got the leaves spread, it is to rain tonight, so by the weekend I should get the straw down.
I'll post pictures and report on how it settles and breaks down as we go.
June 2007 - Moved in and our first garden project was to create a compost heap. I am always amazed at how much composting kitchen waste can cut down on what we place in the garbage can. I've been watching the sun patterns and planning the changes to the garden. We have a community garden spot already planted with tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, okra, peas, tomatillas, kohlrabi, kale, swiss chard, spinach, carrots, lettuce, garlic, basil, parsley and more.
We lost the leafy things to weeds. It is hard t0 keep up on weeding when moving.
We did use cardboard, newspaper and straw to cover paths and mulch the larger plants. Everything is looking good.
July 2007 - Starting to harvest goodies from our garden. Herbs, peas, beans and some salad greens. Can't wait to have a garden in the back yard.
August 2007 - First of the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Yum. We've started to prune the overgrown bushes in the front yard. Rhododendrons, azaleas and spirea. My plan is to get all bushes pruned by fall. It is very dry and warm.
Sept 2007 - Making tomato sauce, I love the rich smell as it cooks down. The weather is still very dry and clear. Everything is starting to show signs of stress. I've resorted to watering the rhodies in the back under the trees. They are fairly new plants (that's a guess) and are not looking very strong. Water, mulch and some trimming to let more light in should help.
October 2007 - Replacing all the windows in the house has taken precedence over sheet mulching the new garden space. In fact this project has taken over! We have received some rain and the grass is growing again.
November 2007 - Windows are in. Fall is late and all our leaves have not fallen. Two maples are bright red, one is yellow and if you stand in the front yard, you may think it is the middle of summer. This maple is still green. Starting to yellow around the edges. But it is time to build the new vegetable garden. I'm a little concerned because the weather has changed, we are freezing most nights and the breakdown of the mulch will be slowed down by the cold. Well, it will finish composting in the spring!
I saved all the cardboard from moving and used this to create a 750 sq. ft. garden, layering this directly over the grass and overlapping well. I choose to leave most the staples (there were lots) figuring that the rusting metal would add iron. After wetting the cardboard, we layered on the following:
About a yard of compost/leaves/grass mixture (all I had available). We also mowed and mulched up the leaves from our yard and our neighbor's yard. Just volunteer to mow your neighbors yard and dispose of all his leaves and then watch his face!
Clippings from dead flowers, the last of the bush trimmings, and leaves from a large patch of comfrey. Comfrey is a dynamic accumulator, it pulls up minerals and such and stores them in the leaves. I plan on using cuttings throughout the summer to enhance some other areas of the yard.
Dehydrated cow manure. I am looking for a source of manure locally as well as a pickup I can borrow.
Stone dust. I'll talk about how using rock or stone dust to re-mineralize is good for the garden in a later blog.
On top of this 1-2" layer we spread two loads of lightly chopped leaves. One load was mostly maple and the other mostly oak. I know where the leaves came from and they are free of fertilizer and pesticides. I considered gathering from the curb in our neighborhood, but you never know what is in the piles. We ended up with about 1-2 feet of leaves. We've been wetting this area as we go.
As a top dressing we are placing straw. Just peeling off 2-4" "books" and placing on top of the area.
We just got the leaves spread, it is to rain tonight, so by the weekend I should get the straw down.
I'll post pictures and report on how it settles and breaks down as we go.
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