The best way for me to combat the cold weather? Snuggle inside my warm house with a book. Better yet, increase my knowledge base.
I attended a Kaw Permaculture Collaborative in Lawrence, Kansas last weekend and it got me to thinking (again) about permaculture. So this past week I’ve been learning a great deal about it. It’s a huge topic, not just limited to gardening, and its three core ethics are:
- Care of the earth
- Care of people
- Fair share
Now I could probably fill pages on what exactly that means, but I’ve narrowed it down to what is important to me and what I’ve started to do with the Deadly Nightshade Garden over the past few years. For me, permaculture is about creating an ecosystem, where I increase the bounty of the garden (and the output) through organic methods, encouraging the earth and the beneficial insects and yes, even the weeds, to behave in their natural way – while giving us a LOT of food.
No chemicals, no non-organic fertilizers, and as little effort/time as possible invested in the system.
And let’s face it, it is possible. I proved it this last year. I spent about fifteen hours TOTAL in my garden and it gave me nearly 200 pounds of produce. Most of those fifteen hours were spent gathering and planting. And honestly, if I had spent just a few hours more, simply gathering more of what I had grown, I would have had at least 20-30 pounds more of food.
My goal for 2011 is to produce at least 600 pounds of produce. It will mean more hours outside. I might even have to use some of those rain barrels we installed to water plants (something I neglected to do most of this year). I might even weed more than…well…twice in the growing season this time.
In California there is a family who farms their 1/4 acre ‘farm’ in the suburbs. The Dervaes family consists of a mom and dad, and three grown children. Most of their living comes from producing heirloom/gourmet fruits and vegetables and selling it to local markets and high-end restaurants. They produce on average of 6,000 pounds of produce on their 1/4 acre patch. And actually, only 1/5 acre is farmed.
So, if I’ve got 1/3 of an acre, far more than they do (although I don’t have their level of expertise…yet), what can I manage to accomplish?
Something tells me that my 2011 600 pound goal is completely reasonable.
This morning I am learning about mesophilic and thermophilic composting. If you compost, you most likely use the mesophilic method which carries with it a whole range of do’s and dont’s on what you can add to the pile. With thermophilic composting, very little is off limits, you can even compost meat scraps and…human manure. The key is getting the right temperatures in the compost and holding them there for a length of time that enables the heat to kill off the nasties that no one wants in compost or eventually…our food.
I have also learned the double-dig method and will be applying it to the north side of our front lawn next year. Goodbye grass, I can’t eat you so you will just have to go.
For 2011 I hope to:
- See our nine newly planted blueberry bushes thrive
- Plant ten red currant bushes
- Get our first real harvest from the Granny Smith apple tree
- Remove half of the grass (at least) from the front yard and transform it into usable food production
- Double or even triple the output from the back yard raised beds
- Sell some of our produce at the farmer’s market
- Get a big freezer to store more produce (collards, peas, zucchini, etc) in.
I would love to take one of the great courses offered out there and get a permaculture design certificate, but I think that finances dictate that it has to be a ‘teach thyself’ certificate for now. Thank goodness for several great books on the subject and YouTube videos.
Back to learning!
