Category Archives: Permaculture

Cardboard Paths

Posted on April 3, 2015 | 5 comments

Today is the perfect day to lay garden paths. I try every year to define walking paths so we don’t compress the soil when harvesting.

I have the best of intentions at the start of the season. Then I get ~~distracted by the boys~~ lazy and the weeds and plants eventually take over.

The garden turns into a beautiful jungle.

When I designed the kitchen garden this year, I drew up a grid with paths. Each square has a group of plants designed to work together all season. Even though the patches will be bigger and a square foot, I’m using the same basic idea.

Marigolds everywhere.

Borage in almost every square.

Garlic sprinkled throughout.

Today is perfect for defining these planned paths because it’s a little rainy and there’s almost no wind.

Why cardboard?

It’s everywhere and free if you know a friend who’s moving, order anything from Amazon or ask the grocery store to save their boxes. Of course, you won’t want to use coated or heavily inked cardboard.
It’s biodegradable. It will decompose within 3 months…perfect for the garden season.
It will hold water and keep it where it is needed: in your garden.
It’s worm food. Worms love munching on it. They munch away and their waste makes an awesome soil amendment. They aerate and drain the soil making it an ideal gardening environment.
It’s function stacking and making use of renewable resources. Permaculture at work.

I’ve already laid out the paths I want. The next step is to cut the cardboard to size and secure with landscaping staples. I’m not sure I will cover with wood chips. I think the cardboard will be enough of a barrier.

I’m not too worried about how it will look either. It’s more important that it works.

The sun is hiding today
Masked by a sky that’s gray
Rain looms

The wind is quiet and light
The grass turned green overnight
Spring blooms

5 Comments

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge, Garden Stories, Permaculture, Writing

All About that Borage

Posted on April 1, 2015 | 5 comments

Yesterday, we planted borage in our kitchen garden, the strawberry patch, the vineyard and the fedge.

The chickens had been moving over the kitchen garden all winter, scratching, eating and fertilizing the ground. My spade slid into the soil with no resistance.

We decided to plant borage everywhere this year. It proved to be a successful trap crop in the never ending war against the dreaded Japanese beetle.

The beautiful, purple herb lured the garden curse away from our other plants. The pests could not resist it’s dusky purple flowers.

I had two eager planting partners. Jake and Joe were quite the team.

They used new garden tools they got as an early Easter gift. Joe loosened up the soil with his little rake, Jake sprinkled powdered egg shells over the roughed up patch and they both dropped seeds and covered them with a layer of dirt.

While Boots basked in the warm glow of the sun, we were all hard at work digging and raking and planting.

The planting did not keep their attention for long. Joe found a caterpillar and, not to be outdone by his brother, Jake found a worm.

While I finished planting seeds, the boys huddled around their prizes, trying to figure out what to feed them.

Or, rather, who to feed them to.

A lovely day for planting
For sowing many seeds
The sun shown down so brightly
A gorgeous day indeed

5 Comments

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge, Garden Stories, Joe the Bug Hunter, Life, Permaculture, Writing

Sprouts Springing

Posted on March 3, 2015 | 6 comments

Last week I started the first round of tomatoes, and the second round of peppers.

Two flats of everything from plain ol’ beefsteak to Mr. Stripey.

I’m happy to report that some seeds have transformed into seedlings, popping up through the soil.

We have some tomatoes…

…and a few first round peppers peeping.

The first round cabbage were the first seedlings to emerge, followed closely by the pepperoncinis. I’m hoping that this year will be the year for peppers. The past two years have been very disappointing in the pepper department.

Happy little seedlings
All planted in a row
Green and spindly, fragile
But stronger as they grow

Later this week I’ll be kicking off round two of the tomatoes, some basil and a half flat of broccoli.

Seed (see planting guide)	Ind.	Dir.	Rnd 1	Rnd 2
Habanero	x		2/18	2/24
Sweet Bell Pepper	x		2/18	2/24
Habanero	x		2/18	2/24
Sweet Ital. Pepper	x		2/18	2/24
Cabbage	x		2/18	2/24
Jalapeno	x		2/18	2/24
Pepperoncini	x		2/18	2/24
Ground Cherry	x		2/24	1st week Mar
Beef Steak	x		2/24	1st week Mar
Rutgers	x		2/24	1st week Mar
Black Prince	x		2/24	1st week Mar
Mr. Stripey	x		2/24	1st week Mar
Burgess Climbing	x		2/24	1st week Mar
Heirloom Rainbow	x		2/24	1st week Mar
Basil	x		1st week Mar	NA
Broccoli	x		1st week Mar	NA

6 Comments

Posted in Food, Garden Stories, Permaculture, Writing

On Your Mark, Get Set…

Posted on February 18, 2015 | 6 comments

Per my carefully planned schedule, I’m a little late getting the first round of seeds started.

Last year, I stressed out and panicked anytime I was behind schedule.

This year, I’ve vowed to just “go with the flow” and not worry too much about missing a date here and there.

The garden will grow whether I’m on time or not.

I started the first round of seeds today. I used a store brand seed starting mix that I caught on sale, but will probably make my own this year as well.

I set up the trays, filled them with the mix and pulled out my stack of seeds.

Cabbage
Jalapeno
Pepperoncini
Habanero
Sweet Chocolate Pepper
Sweet Pepper

Joe was supposed to be napping.

But, when he tiptoed out of his room and saw the dirt and the seeds…he asked if he could help too.

How could I deny him?

The process took a bit longer than normal with my little gardener helping…but I didn’t mind.

He had come just in time to put the seeds in, so I gave him a measuring spoon and carefully counted out three seeds per cell. He dumped them in, making a “bloop” or a “pshhh” sound each time.

Once all of the seeds were in, we used the same measuring spoon to sprinkle a thin layer of soil over the top, just covering the seeds.

Then it was time to water them.

We had to be careful not to get too carried away with the water, so I filled a small dish and gave Joe a “squirter” (a syringe used for Children’s Tylenol). He had a blast!

Joe was not quite ready to relinquish his “squirter” when we were done watering the seeds.

I took the tray downstairs, turned on the seedling heat mat and switched on the grow light.

Once they sprout and get their second set of true leaves, we’ll transport them over to our neighbor’s greenhouse. Hopefully by then it will no longer be brutally cold, and we’ll be able to start seeds on a larger scale in the greenhouse.

Peppers and cabbage
Deliciously sweet and hot
Colorful and crisp

6 Comments

Posted in Garden Stories, Permaculture, Writing

Garden Sketches

Posted on January 14, 2015 | 5 comments

I’ve sketched out the gardens
I’ve colored them in
I’m getting excited
To finally begin

There’s broccoli and carrots
Some cabbage and sprouts
Squash, beans and okra
And lettuce, no doubt

We’ll tend to the fruit trees
We’ll trim and we’ll prune
We’ll plant more companions
For pests there’s no room

The borage so purple
The marigolds, bright
Together these warriors
Will win the pest fight

The plans are completed
And now with great speed
I’ll look through the flyers
And pick out my seeds!

5 Comments

Posted in 13 Skills, Garden Stories, Life, Permaculture, Preparedness, Writing

Kitchen Garden 2015

Posted on January 12, 2015 | 4 comments

While there will be some changes, the 2015 kitchen garden will be look a lot like the one we planted in 2014.

Here are the few changes I will be making.

Planting Schedule
I need to get seeds started and in the ground much earlier than I did last year. I only had a table top with two grow lights…so space was limited. This year…I’ll have a whole greenhouse (or maybe half a greenhouse, but still)!

As I mentioned in a previous post, my neighbors have constructed a greenhouse out of their in-ground pool and have graciously offered seed-starting space for us to use.

Just to give you an idea of how awesome this is, last week when it was 25* outside, it was 47* inside their greenhouse. This means that we will be able to get seeds started on a much larger scale than last year.

Since I will have more space, I’ll be able to start earlier, so that at transplant time, the seedlings are really strong. I downloaded the 2015 Planting Dates for my area from the Farmer’s Almanac website. I’ll use this as a guide, but bump up the start dates for tomatoes and peppers.

Stagger Planting
We didn’t figure stagger planting into the plans so that we had way too many tomatoes and way too much lettuce and other leafy greens at the same time.

Our chickens definitely benefited from this mistake, but we’d like to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labors as well.

Having more space in the greenhouse will mean that we can do a better job with staggering the starts and transplants.

Planning for Volunteers
While we meticulously planned for almost everything else, we did not take into account the crazy number of volunteer tomatoes we would have.

What we should have done, as soon as these little seedlings appeared, is dig them up and move them to the swale or some other place, adding even more diversity to our gardens.

What we did do was let them take over or get taken over by other food producing plants and herbs.

Clear Pathways
The overgrowth of weeds and vegetable plants completely took over the few clear pathways I had marked out.

Rather than using something to keep down the weeds and provide easy access to the veggies and herbs, I used a few pieces of concrete, spaced just close enough together to step across…and allow grass, weeds and thistles to grow in between.

This year, I’ll have to do something else and I think I’ll take a page out of Marjory Wildcraft’s book and use pieces of plywood to evenly distribute weight and avoid compressing the soil too much.

Companion planting was a hit last year…especially in keeping the hornworms and Japanese beetles out, so I’ll keep the support groups much the same this year as last.

The Tomato Support Group
Tomatoes
Peppers
Carrots
Basil
Chives
Cilantro
Garlic
Oregano
Onions
Marigolds
Nasturtium
Yarrow
Lovage
Celery
Parsley

The Brassica Support Group
Cabbage
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Kale
Cauliflower
Carrots
Amaranth
Lovage
Shallots
Rosemary
Borage
Spinach
Geraniums
Nasturtiums
Dill
Sage
Garlic
Lettuce

Two-thousand fifteen
A good year for gardening
Just like every year

4 Comments

Posted in 13 Skills, Garden Stories, Permaculture, Writing

All Wrapped Up

Posted on October 23, 2014 | 2 comments

It’s just about the end of the year and I cannot see making any more progress on my 13 in 14 endeavor. We tackled quite a few of the skills, and we’ve accomplished much more than planned over the past year.

And now, a final review of the 13 Skills we planned to “master” in 2014.

1. Sewing – I did not sew a Halloween costume for the boys so the hem is the only project I’ve completed this year. I’m counting it. COMPLETE

I did, however, make an AWESOME turtle shell for Joe’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume.

2. Auto Upkeep – Complete fail here. I did not learn how, or even attempt to learn how, to change my oil. I know there is still time in the year…but it’s not going to happen this year. FAIL

3. Firearm Training – This weekend I am going to attend a Women on Target class with a good friend. I am extremely excited for and a little nervous about this class. IN PROGRESS

4. Wilderness Skills – Ray and Joe camped in the backyard one night. It was a great experience for Joe. He learned how to camp, clean up and that there are always snacks when camping. COMPLETE

5. Teaching – Still no space for learning downstairs, but I’ve realized that the space is more for me than for the boys. Our classroom is everywhere we go, and a quick check in for what Joe and Jake should be doing/learning at his age has shown me that we are doing a pretty darn good job. COMPLETE (and ongoing)

6. Reloading – Another fail…there’s always next year! FAIL

7. Health and Fitness – I do have a 5k in the running (pun intended). In December, I am going to participate in a Jingle Bell Run. Our team theme is “Santa and His Elves on the Shelf.” That is pretty much the extent of my health and fitness goal. We are still trying to eat better and the CSA and garden this year really helped with that. As COMPLETE as ~~it can~~ I am willing for it to be this year.

8. Raising Chickens – BEYOND complete. Still super stoked on how well these birds did and how awesome the chicken coop, designed by my husband and father-in-law, turned out. COMPLETE

9. Bee Keeping – This one is on hold for a few years per my previous update. COMPLETE (sort of)

10. Gardening – The two swales we put in have done a fantastic job holding water. We’ve barely had to water this year due to all of the rain and, with all of the trees we have planted, watering would have been a full-time job.

Next year, we need to research and do a better job of saving seeds. We’ve missed so many opportunities this year and we’re feeling a little bit silly that we will AGAIN be buying seeds next year. COMPLETE

11. Archery – Yeesh…yet another skill put off to next year. FAIL

12. Blogging – I’ve started watching 5 Minutes With Jack and am learning more about how to grow my blog audience as well as turn it into a little side business. IN PROGRESS

13. Canning – We canned mild salsa and plan to can some hot salsa. No pickled okra, beans or pickles this year but this is a huge improvement over last year. COMPLETE

Overall we completed 8 skills, 2 skills are in progress and we had 2 fails–which will be added to next year’s list.

Our goals are complete
In some areas we’ve failed
In most we’ve outshined

2 Comments

Posted in Adventures in Homesteading, Chickens!, Food, Garden Stories, Life, Permaculture, Preparedness, Writing

Immersion Learning

Posted on October 1, 2014 | 1 comment

I’m always a little uncomfortable with the word “homeschooling”. Even “home education” has lost its appeal…probably because of all the stereotypes associated with those terms.

Then I listened to an episode of The Survival Podcast and, as is often the case, it was exactly what I needed to hear.

The episode was an interview with Ben Hewitt on “unschooling” or as he calls it, “immersion learning“.

You may have heard that term before in the context of learning a second language or training for a new job. Instead of learning the principles and techniques in a vacuum, a person is placed into an environment where they directly apply what they learn in a real-world setting. Then, there is no question of “when will I use this” because…they just used it.

Immersion learning, in a way, is a lot like permaculture. First and foremost is observing interests and learning styles. Next up is engaging in activities that promote critical thinking, research skills and experimentation–skills that naturally lead to the development of good communication and conflict resolution.

All of this, for me, is theoretical. Sure, I’m observing the boys, listening to their interests and trying to use their interests as tool for educating them…but I’m not in the thick of it yet.

That being said, the approach makes sense. Unlike the classroom, there is no set curriculum, no grades, no classes. This may seem counter to that dogma that “kids need structure”. But it’s not. Kids do need structure…but not every kid needs the same type of structure.

If every child has their own style of learning-visual, hands-on, auditory, etc-isn’t it plausible that every child needs a different type of structure in their lives?

The school system does not have the resources to tailor learning and structure styles to every child. With 30 kids in the classroom, teachers need to be the same order and structure. I know this because I’ve experienced it when student teaching in college.

But, a parent can. Even if their child goes to public school and has to follow the set curriculum and rules. Even then, a parent can instill a love of learning and create an environment where their child can thrive and learn in their own specific way.

I’ve seen it. I’ve watched my sister-in-law and brother-in-law come home after work and sit and help their girls with homework…adhering to and explaining why the homework has to be done by the rules of the classroom. Then, explaining or showing them how it is relevant (or not) to real life.

When I worked full-time, I picked my son up from daycare and I was tired from a long day and a long commute. Since he was so young, I wasn’t thinking about school, much less homeschool. It was all I could do to cook dinner and make time to play with him and love on him.

Admittedly, I don’t know every situation a parent or child is in. I only know mine and what I’ve witnessed for those close to me.

My husband and I worked hard to pay off our debt and live within our means so I could be fortunate enough and able to stay at home with our kids. With two kids in my “classroom” I am able to customize the “curriculum” to their needs.

In those areas where I lack experience or knowledge, I can supplement by using others like my husband, family, friends, etc. to help teach both the kids and me something new. Something new…everyday.

I’m not going to call what I do and plan to do “homeschool” or even “home education” because we are not always going to be learning in the home. We are going to be immersing ourselves in the world around us and making what we learn relevant to everyday life.

1 Comment

Posted in Education, Garden Stories, Life, Permaculture

Looking Back

Posted on August 20, 2014 | 3 comments

As the 2014 summer gardening season heads into harvest, I’ve been thinking back over all our goals and plans. We’ve had triumphs and we’ve had sorrows, but overall, we’ve had a pretty good season.

Triumphs
Without a doubt our swales have been an enormous success. Adding these two ditches to our property has done wonders for our water retention. And, I think, they’ve really added beauty to the landscape.

The chickens, even though we’ve lost two, have also been a megahit on the homestead. Right now, I have 2.5 dozen eggs in the fridge collected in just under 5 days. And they don’t just provide food and entertainment, they are also awesome squash bug assassins.

Coop at sunset

Planning out the gardens and using polyculture principles was a big score. The borage attracted the bees needed to pollinate our veggies with the added benefit of distracting Japanese beetles with its beautiful purple flowers.

The dill helped delay the attack of squash bugs on our volunteer spay-corn and pumpkins. I also used it as a barrier on my kitchen garden to repel the dreaded tomato hornworm. And so far, we haven’t found any hornworms in our kitchen garden!

Our grapes and kiwi have grown and are doing well now that we have stretched them out over some wire.

The hops planted last year are flowering and growing quickly, and all of the hops we planted this year have broken ground. Next year, we should have a bumper crop.

Compared to last year, we’ve had some crazy bean success. We planted the purple pole bean, a green variety and bush beans. The bush beans have beat out the pole beans by far, so for the fall garden, I planted only bush beans.

Purple pole beans

Fall garden bush beans

The roses and strawberries exploded. Even the Japanese beatles had no chance against these monster shrubs.

And finally, our cats – Boots and Echo – have terminated the mice problem in our garage and they are working on the rest of the property now.

Sorrows
Even though we had a great pumpkin and spay-corn crop this year, we still lost almost all of the zucchini, acorn, summer, pattypan and pumpkins that I planted to the squash bugs. The chickens are now feasting among the wreckage.

The broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower we planted succombed to the dreaded cabbage looper. We ended up pulling out all of the plants and feeding them to the chickens, so it wasn’t a complete waste. We have a second chance with the fall crop.

We had some other, minor fails. Plants that never really took off like peppers and brussel sprouts. Herbs that didn’t make it like rosemary and basil. But overall, we’ve had a great season so far.

Next up: Canning tomatoes.

Beautiful success
The garden has been awesome
Can’t wait til the fall

3 Comments

Posted in Garden Stories, Permaculture, Preparedness, Writing

They’re Back…

Posted on July 10, 2014 | 2 comments

While wandering through the garden yesterday, I noticed that the volunteer squash leaves were looking a little droopy. Upon looking closer, I noticed that there were holes in the leaves. I looked at the Jerusalem artichoke and saw something that made my stomach drop.

The Japanese beetle.

Droopy, yellowing squash leaves

These ants are on the artichoke cleaning up after the beetles. They are attracted to the ‘scent’ the beetles leave behind after munching on the leaves.

The destruction these beetles caused last year still haunts me. Our attack plan, while satisfying and effective at ridding the gardens of these pests, was more defense than offense; and, while we didn’t lose any plants to the beasts of destruction, we did lose a lot of production and growth.

After we saw the beetles on the squash and artichokes, we picked them off and fed them to the chickens and then wandered around to see where else they had infiltrated.

In the kitchen garden they were all over the borage. I smiled at this, actually smiled because it told me that the borage was doing it’s job as a trap crop! Sure, it’s beautiful and edible, but that is not the main reason we planted it. We planted it to trap evil sprites like the Japanese beetle and keep them from destroying our produce.

Japanese beetle feasting on the borage

Out in the swale, the beetles were tearing up the weeds, but that is preferable to them being all over our gardens. There were one or two in the fedge, on the aronia of course, and a couple in the vineyard.

Newly installed bean trellis – beetle free

Vineyard – Hops

Beetle-free blackberries in the fedge

And so, armed with the bug vacuum and my trusty bug hunter at my side, we will be patrolling the gardens a couple of times a day, sucking up these nuisances and feeding them to the chickens.