permaculture steps

Another three months, another entry. I'm not giving up yet. Here is a photo from the Mark Shepard led workshop on keyline water swale layout. This was an unusually cool day in late spring. A large turnout, at around 30 people. We are in our field just after Bob had planted the oats and hay mix. The concept is that swales are cut in along contour lines to catch any water that may flow overland, and in areas where water is concentrating toward a gully, slope the swales away from the gully to spread the water back out and give it more time to soak in.

These swales are also where you plant trees and other perennials so they get a bit more water without irrigation. Any future row crops will have to be planted along the contour lines, between the ditches. We'll actually cut in the ditches this September, after the oats are taken and the hay has hopefully taken hold.

first graft success

Well, I took a workshop on grafting apple trees this spring, and thought I needed more practice, but it looks like my first one took. We'll see as the season progresses. I bought some deer repellent vials to clip on my trees. Let's hope they work. This workshop was put on by midfex, and I thought it was a good, no nonsense practical event. The midfex members are quite open to sharing their knowledge, and their scions.

the energy descent

I'm reading a good on permaculture. It's not a detailed "plant this here, and that there, and lay out your water collection this way" kind of book. It is a design philosophy overview. It was written in 2002, and is still way ahead of me in thinking through the things we need to do to figure out living in a world where we slowly transition off of the fossil fuel buzz we've been on for really only a few decades. Today's sharing: Reduce, reuse, recycle always sounded like a neat, tidy mantra to help you figure out the right thing to do in life choices. Well, the author goes this two better, and I hadn't even heard this till reading this 9 year old book. refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle. Damn, I was feeling all righteous green by at least filling the recycling tub each week, and I'm doing the least useful thing on the list. He starts with refusing to consume at all, and finding another way to accomplish your goal. The main thrust of this section of the book is that we are so immersed in the addiction to fossil fuel powered life that we can't even see the alternatives we could be doing. This book is very dense in ideas and observations on moving to a sustainable life, but it's also pretty spare on writing style, so it doesn't bog you down, although I'll need to read it again to catch more of the insights that went past me while I was mulling over the ones that caught me first.

sprouts up 2011!

Here are the sprouts. Here we have peppers and some impatiens on the left. We usually buy impatiens plants at the home supply store, but we collected seeds last year, and are doing these from those seeds. Should save a lot of money if they work out.

And here are some of the tomatoes. This is second try on the tomatoes. I did something wrong on the first batch, they died. These look like they will be fine.

Put up rabbit fence and repaired the deer fence this past weekend, so things are slowly getting in gear. Bought some CPM ( composted poultry manure) and spread it on the strawberries, hopefully at the right dosage. We are winging it! CPM has a lingering stench- be sure to wear clothes you plan to wash right away if you get too familiar with the bags. Also planted my first two apple tree graft experiments. I don't think my graft technique is too good yet, so I will not be surprised if they don't take.

sleeping garden

Here is a what kept us busy most of last summer, rebuilding the sunroom on the south side of the house. Got lucky and was able to find excellent carpenters to keep me out of trouble. Aaron helped with design and material selection, and I enjoyed working with him. I'll post photos of the finished product when it's finished. Got it closed in before the snow blew last fall, but plenty to do inside this winter. Insulation, wiring, and wall covering proceeded slowly.

Here is a shot of our main garden, with a bit of the deer fence still clinging to the wire we strung it to. That'll need some fixing before our plants sprout. This is from February, and as I write it's now March, but the sun is higher, the snow is leaving. I just planted our next crop of tomatoes, peppers, and onions in the basement today. A couple more weeks, and I will do some of our broccoli, a few other peppers. The wheel turns, and we are heading in to the next growing season. First in the ground will actually be potatoes, but we aren't quite to the point of saving our own seed potatoes.

another mystery of nature

This summer, our yard in wisconsin got decimated as shown. Overnight, something ripped up the sod, and left no tracks we could find. At first we thought feral pigs, which are beginning to spread in Wisconsin, but they would have left tracks. Neighbor says they suspect skunks going after grubs, but damn, I don't want to get sprayed by the behemoth that left this carnage.

The impatiens that ate Cincinatti

Not sure what mutation transpired in the back yard here, but we have this hulking Impatiens towering over the normal sized ones in this pot. Anyone ever seen this happen before?