Carla of A Mellow Life, graciously asked about the layout of our garden. That’s actually kind of a tricky question because we have attempted to make most of our lot into garden space. We have several seating areas throughout the garden, raised beds, a fire pit and a couple of more formal gardening plots. The two more formal/defined spots incorporate square foot gardening and permaculture. Take a look:

Spiral Garden with walkway

Lawn, such as it was, is dead after being solarized under a sheet of black plastic. Weed mats paths in. Looking east. Layout inspired  by the “keyhole” gardens in the book “Gaia’s Garden” by Toby Hemenway. A must read, in my humble opinion.

Niki “helping” while David digs holes for teepee legs.

The finished teepee, made from four sitka spruce branches. I got the idea from Sunset magazine. One side left open so that we can go inside.

Planting the pole beans.

Teepee with rice straw mulch covering sugar pea, egalite pole beans and Progress #9 shelling peas. The idea is that the plants will climb up the sides, which are covered with bird netting, and form an edible, leafy bower.

Tomato plants planted. Covered with sheets tonight since it’s their first night “out”. Supposed to get down to 40F.

Really enjoyed the simplicity of making my own paper pots today using the ‘Paper Potter’ from www.netherwalloptrading.com for the seeds I have been sowing today. Have now put the seeds in for an ever growing list, the extras are
Chives
Red sorrel
Chili
Carrot (nantes)
Tomato (country taste) beef steak
Celery (lathorn) self blanching and string less
Lovage

There are several others also, but will get to those another day. I have some more lemon grass rooting and bought some elephant garlic too. Oh and the horse radish! Of course there was the rhubarb….what can I say, I just can’t go into a garden centre and come out with what I went in for, it just doesn’t happen and I’m sure I’m not alone in that! The temptation to try new things is over whelming.

The problem with this situation is that you have to find somewhere to put the plants later, but we have a lot of as yet unused space and the vegetable garden in now beyond its border and moving up the lawn with each year. Less mowing and more growing, that could be a new slogan for me. Think I’ll ‘tweet’ that one, moving forward towards permaculture.

The book I am reading is called Gaia’s Garden, a guide to home-scale permaculture by Toby Hemenway, It was recommended to me and is proving to be a inspiring read, even the forward by John Todd. How I wish I had had teachers like him. He tells of a fabulous experiment, done by filling a glass jar with samples from three or more water sources, seal on the lid, turn it upside down, leave on a sunny window ledge and watch life evolve. He says he has had his for years, and now I want to try this and watch a micro world evolve.  Well,  I believe it to be  worthwhile read,  even if you aren’t into gardening.

Well, I may have not spelled that quite correctly but it’s a concept to be found in Gaia’s Garden.  I’m away from my own dear garden but am busy working in the yard here at my parents’ home.  If you read BrightHaven Times, you will know that I am away for a while. 

We’re working on cleaning up around the Old Homestead, dragging dead branches, uprooting well-established weeds, shoveling horse poop and moving compost piles.  We rather thought of using the dead branches in some permaculture activity.  The hugel-kulter is a pile of branches, 6-8 feet in length, and about 2 feet high.  Stomp the branches down to a depth of about one foot and then cover with compost, garden soil and other soil amendments.  As the wood breaks down, it creates what is called a swale.  This swale actually holds water in the soil.  It’s a great way to use any dead branches in the yard that are too large for the compost pile. 

So, check around your yard.  Look for any extra materials you can use.  Has anyone tried this method?  I’d love to hear how it worked for you!

Here is a scan of the zone gardening diagram from the book Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway

When we think of zone gardening or landscaping, the first thought is of temperature zones 1/2/3 and so forth.  I have been reading Gaia’s Garden this week and found an idea that struck me with both its astuteness and its simplicity.  It is the principle of zone gardening.  So, what is zone gardening?  Take a look at this article to get an easy to read idea and I will tell you what I understand so far of zone 1.  Zone 1 is the area of your garden that is easiest to reach and most convenient to the household.  Your kitchen herbs and flowers should be found in this area.  Vegetables such as cucumbers, peppers, small tomato bushes, summer squash and so forth can also be incorporated into this zone.  As for our home, our clothesline was situated way back in what seemed to be zone 4 or 5, making utilizing it an unnecessary chore.  I love hanging clothes on the line, the yard is mine, why shouldn’t this be something convenient for me?

While browsing a magazine, I came upon a photograph picturing the  couple’s clothesline smack dab in the middle of their flower bed.  It didn’t take away from the beauty of their gardens and even added a quaint charm.  What an easy thing to move the line 50 feet and reap  a great level of convenience!

Resources

http://www.permaculture.net

Zone 2 — The Yard:  This is the area just oustide your home. It is a common space used to host dandelions and the various adventures of chipmunks, robins, rabbits, and more …

Zone 3 — The Farm:  This is the area close to home and still familiar. Things may not be completely related to your home-space and this area may be more independant than others.

Zone 4 — The Wilderness:  … for all that is more distant and separate from your immediate surroundings. An area you will visit often and use for many purposes. In the end, you will return home.

Zone 1 — Home:  Everything you keep close. Everything that directly relates to the everyday. Also the Pc.Net Main Page.

Miscellaneous:  (All else that complements the above.)

ETHICS AND PRINCIPLES OF PERMACULTURE

2. Connect. Use relative location: Place elements in ways that create useful relationships and time-saving connections among all parts. The number of connections among elements creates a healthy, diverse ecosystem, not the number of elements.

Hi! My special season’s greetings to you and the people who are special to you and best wishes to you all for a happy and peaceful New Year. 

I’m celebrating that the Pohutukawa trees I planted earlier this year are in bloom in time for Christmas. The drifts of white in the collage are the carrot weed flowers (wild carrot) which proliferate in the paddocks at this time of the year.  The cattle love the flower heads and the pukeko gouge and gorge on the roots.

The grandkids and their school-mates sang a neat New Zealand Christmas carol at their end-of-year playcentre and school prize-giving ceremonies - A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree http://folksong.org.nz/nzchristmas/pukeko.html which is sung  to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Enjoy our Kiwi down-under spirit.

It felt hotter outside than the official 20C today. The ground is dry and surface cracks indicate the need for rain. Never-the-less, early summer is here and this gardening month is busy with successive sowings, cultivation and harvesting.    

I checked the growth of my potatoes planted 30 September.  The Kowiniwini, Urenika and Maori  heritage potatoes are about to burst into flower. I was somewhat surprised to find the Swift (early variety for Xmas ) potatoes are almost ready to be harvested. Two-year-old Grandson who became an expert ‘tato inspector last year, inducted baby brother in the art of choosing the biggest and the best ‘tato for dinner tonight. He also picked the very first tiny courgette of the season (as you do) when you’re a connoisseur of baby vegetables. The early potato crop probably thrived because of the thick applications of mulch. The soil around the plants was friable, warm and moist despite no watering and drying conditions. We are careful how we use water because our domestic water supply is from rainwater collection. We pump water from the stream to the troughs for the animals. So gardening for me must be about conserving moisture and mulching. Our predominantly clay soil becomes rock hard in the summer – digging is a no go – hence I follow a permacultural approach to diversity and building up soil to encourage worms and beneficial insects.   

The Calendula are making a great show among the potatoes. With that in mind today, I filled gaps among the other vegetables with more heat-loving flowers as companion  plants - Rudbeckia, Zinnia and French Marigolds. That should make the friendly insects giddy with delight (or confused should the pests have pesky intentions).  November here is a great month for flowers – I use different edible flowers in salads and drinks.  

I under-planted the sweet corn with a long green cucumber – my Dad used to do this as a living mulch so I though I’d give it a try this year as well as letting pumpkins sprawl under the corn plants.  I could have used beans – but I have these growing elsewhere. My last tasks today were to plant Sweet Peppers and to stake Beefsteak tomatoes – under-planted with Sweet Basil of course as I have visions of home-made pesto in mind.

Hibernation is over – I can’t ignore the buzzing in my garden anymore.  The plum trees are smothered with blossom and bees each determined to get its quota of pollen. It’s a wonderful sight and this spring I’m looking with fresh eyes. Recently I was able to locate The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter for my mother whose health is declining. It is a book she’d read long ago in her youth and one she wanted to read again. A soldier wounded during WWI looks outwards as he finds inner strength and peacefulness after he undertakes to care for the Bee Master’s bees.  As the garden is fruitful because of the bees so life becomes meaningful. I shouldn’t be surprised that spring is well and truly arrived here.  The harbinger daffodils have finished, but the calendula, broad beans, borage and lavender also planted as companion plants under my fruit trees are showing off their colours and too are exciting the bees. The buds on the apple, quince and peach trees are bursting - quite the visual feast. Which reminds me - I must get busy with camera.  

“Planting an orchard is potentially one of the best investments you could ever make. It’s an investment in your health (keeping in mind that our current western shop diets contain only 3 of the 8 polysaccharides essential for a strong immune system and that they’re actually only present in tree ripened fruit!) and the health of your family, … it’s an investment in your mental, emotional and spiritual health, it’s an investment in the health and future of the planet.” Kay Baxter, 2002          

I visited the Koanga Institute last week and as usual, I was inspired by the maturity of the development of their permacultural design of a multi-storied garden. Koanga has built up a rich ecosystem and variety of vegetables, fruits and flowers by sowing and saving heritage seeds and plants. I can’t help but reflect how my gardening techniques and views have changed since I first planted silverbeet and lettuce seedlings in a small, carefully tended weed-free plot. I wanted more fresh food for my children and so over time, I’ve learned to garden without digging and of the importance of creating natural diversity.

“An ecological garden has many layers, from a low herb layer through shrubs and small trees to the large overstory. Each layer can contain ornamental species, varieties for food and other human uses, wildlife plants, and flora for building soil and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Together the layers provide diverse habitat, many products, and plenty of visual interest.” (T. Hemenway. (2000). Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture. p. 26).

Organically grown vegetable seeds were the reason for my visit. I like growing different varieties and so buy heirloom seeds with the view to saving my own seeds from plants grown in my garden. For winter crops this year, I’ve sown: Winter Lettuce (wavy fingers for picking through winter), Nutty Celery Apium graveolens (nutty taste, disease resistant, can pick by the stalk through winter), Purple Sprouting Broccoli Brassica oleracea, Salad Pea Pisum sativum (low growing, tasty shellout peas and edible tendrils), White Belgium Carrot (large, sweet taste, fast growing, good in a warm climate), Manglebeet Beta vulgaris (sweet, mild taste, large orange root vegetable).