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?

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...