1. Feed soil life.
2. Protect soil life and structure.

As you know healthy soil = healthy plants = nourishing food = good health.  Plants in sterile soil perform poorly. Unhealthy plants are more prone to pest and disease problems, just as unhealthy food leaves us more prone to disease and malnourishment.

So what are superb soils? They feel crumbly and moist. They smell earthy. Their structure is open allowing movement of air, water and nutrients to plant roots. They are full of diverse and abundant life.

You may have read the previous soil post about soils in June: 5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Soil and Grow Better Food http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/5-simple-ways-to-improve-your-soil-and.html. In that post I recommended to:

1. Open the Soil
2. Feed the Soil
3. Add Organic Matter to the Soil
4. Mulch the Soil
5. Water Deeply

This is exactly what we need to be doing. I wanted to add some extra information here about why.

Did you know most plants have root extenders …..?!

Plants in real soil – superb alive soils – are supported by the web of life in the soil, in particular, fungus. Did you know that 90% of plants rely on fungus to access most of the nutrients and moisture they need – the fungal filaments are like root extensions. They go finer, further and deeper than roots could ever go.  So plants and fungus live in symbiosis – a mutually supportive relationship – and plants in this relationship are stronger and more resilient.

Why gardening in the ground is so important…

This plant-fungus relationship is why I recommend, wherever possible, to grow food in the ground and work to improve the aliveness of soils. (Understandably this not as easily achieved in balcony gardens and areas of soil contamination). The importance of connecting with soil life also explains why raised garden beds that are disconnected from actual soil can limit the vitality of your garden soils and plants.

How to create soil aliveness?

The base of the soil food web is organic matter.  More organic matter = more soil life. The two main things that support beneficial bacterial and fungal growth in the soil are: organic matter and protection from the elements, this also supports the flourishing of the entire soil food web.

What damages good soil?

• tillage damages the fungi – it severs the fungal threads
• fungicides and pesticides kill the good fungus, bacterias and bugs
• lack of organic matter – no food for soil life
• no soil protection – over-exposure to sun, rain and wind kills soil life

5 Simple Strategies to Feed and Protect Soils

Here are some natural and simple ways to feed soil life, protect soil structure and tend the soil:

1. Activate your soil with compost. 
I have a range of compost systems on the go, but I really love the simplicity and portability of the movable compost bins. I take them to an area that need a real boost, compost there for a while, attracting a zone of soil aliveness, then moving the bin on to another spot, but leaving the compost there to spread out, mulch over and make a new garden. There are also a number of herbs you can add into a compost to activate it. Read about these here: http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/improve-your-soil-with-herbs.html

Movable compost bin and worm tower – creating soil life hot spots.

2. Add compost worms to your garden ecosystem.
One way to do this is by installing simple worm towers throughout your garden, taking the benefits of worms and worm castings directly into your garden soil. It creates nutrient rich zones, and zones of soil aliveness. Visit my previous post about worm towers:
http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/a-quick-and-super-easy-way-to-turn-food.html and another which links to  the 7 minute film showing you how to do it.
http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/film-5-how-to-make-worm-tower.html

3. Add organic matter, compost and leafy greens to garden beds – in a no-till way.
Making no-dig gardens feeds and protects soils and creates a great environment for your soil life to thrive. This helps so much to support a thriving vegetable garden. By using the no-dig garden method rather than digging it into the soil protects the soil structure. Visit my previous post to see how to make a no-dig garden:
http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/morags-simple-successful-no-dig-garden.html

4. Plant deep rooted plants
I plant comfrey around the edge of the garden and beside the compost. The thick penetrating roots accumulate nutrients from deep in the soil and bring them to the surface. You can then use comfrey leaves as an excellent compost activator, to make a potent homemade comfrey fertiliser (http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/film-3-how-to-make-comfrey-tea-with.html), to add organic matter and nutrients into the soil layer while making a no-dig garden, or just to chop and drop. Also fruit trees with comfrey nearby seem to do better.

Comfrey

5. Regularly chop and drop organic matter.
I am often wandering around the garden, chopping back surplus growth and tossing it around trees and garden beds to feed and protect soil life. It’s amazing how quickly it breaks down and gets taken into the soil. Because having enough organic matter is so vital, I actually grow plants especially for this purpose such as the comfrey, Queensland arrowroot, lemongrass and pigeon pea – but many other plants can be used too, such as the abundant mulberry or pumpkin leaves.

Old pumpkin vines as chop and drop mulch.

In and around the veggie garden I mostly use mulch – a seedfree grass hay that is easy to work with around the little plants.

Thick layers of mulch get drawn rapidly into our soils.

I also recommend using cover crops (living mulch) to cover bare soils, open soils, add organic matter and renew areas.

DEFINITIONS: 

Bacteria – single celled organisms that are the most abundant microbes in the soil. 

Fungal filaments – the fine white threads called mycelium you can see in healthy soil. We need this mycorrhizal fungi (symbiotic relationship between the plant and fungus) – 90% of plants rely on it. It increases plant strength, increases water uptake, absorbs minerals & nutrients and in addition stores 1/3 of soil carbon.

(Interestingly, mycorrhizal fungi does not form relationships with the Cruciferae family (eg mustard, broccoli), Chenopodiaceae (eg spinach, beets) and Proteaceae (banksia, macadamia). Fungal numbers drop in the soil with these plants, same as when the soil is left bare and exposed.)

Protozoa – single cell organisms that eat bacterias and release nitrogen to plants. 

Nematodes – microscopic wormlike creatures, that are the most numerous multi-celled things on Earth and an essential part of healthy soil ecosystems. They are found in every conceivable habitat from the deepest ocean to the highest mountain. They feed on bacteria, fungi, algae, small invertebrates and other nematodes. Gardeners immediately think of root knot nematodes, and cringe in fear when they hear their name mentioned. Having root knot nematodes are an indicator that your soil ecology is out of balance – adding more organic matter, compost and moisture can usually help regain the balance, as well as planting a crop of brassicas that are more resistant to the root knot nematodes – particularly the mustard varieties.

The post The 2 Best Things You Can Do To Simply Create Superb Soils for Superbly Healthy Food appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Seedballing is an ancient technique from Egypt, China and the Romans and renewed in the 1940’s by the late, Masanobu Fukuoka, who is considered the founder of Natural Farming, and an inspiration for permaculture Fukuoka used seedballs extensively to rehabilitate damaged lands and practice no-till farming. 

The mix we use is:
5 parts clay
1 part compost
big handful of seed

We mix the clay and compost together with the seeds until a firm ball can be made. I try to keep the balls just bigger than a 10c piece and allow them to dry before distributing them.

The idea is that the seeds are protected inside the seedball from birds, rats and other seed-eating creatures until the rain comes and moistens the clay. The seed makes the most of this moisture and then the compost nutrients help it to continue to grow.

You can read more about seedballs on a previous posts: Muddy hands, happy hearts: seedballs for healthy soils and diversity and A Wonderfully Easy and Fun Way to Seed a Garden: Seedballing with Nature Kids

You might want to explore more about this no-till approach to farming. A good place to start are the books by Masanobu Fukuoka: 
– One Straw Revolution
– The Natural Way of Farming
– Sowing Seeds in the Desert: Natural Farming, Global Restoration, and Ultimate Food Security

The post Film #9: How to Make Seedballs – Create a Self-Seeding Garden and Regenerate Landscapes appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

“Biochar may represent the single most important initiative for humanity’s environmental future. The biochar approach provides a uniquely powerful solution, for it allows us to address food security, the fuel crisis, and the climate problem, and all in an immensely practical manner. ”  

Prof. Tim Flannery, Australian of the Year

Biochar is a type of charcoal, a carbon-rich material produced by burning biomass in the absence of oxygen – slow pyrolysis.  (Image: Hans Erken)

Simple home-made biochar maker – the flame cap kiln. Design and Photo: Hans Erken

Boichar made in the the flame cap kiln. Design and Photo: Hans Erken

THE BENEFITS OF BIOCHAR

THE USES OF BIOCHAR

How to activate your Biochar  (Image: The Biochar Project)

LEARN TO MAKE & USE BIOCHAR

BIOCHAR WORKSHOP
Teacher: Hans Erken, Earthcare Enterprises
When: August 20, from 10am – 4pm
Where:The workshop will be at Maleny in the morning to see Han’s innovative technologies and learn how to use and cook with biochar, and we’ll move to Crystal Waters in the afternoon to learn how to make biochar.
Who: Anyone interested in biochar for growing and cooking
Cost: $85, includes a lovely lunch
Bookings: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/permaculture-life-series-biochar-how-to-make-and-use-tickets-26626576808

About the workshop:
I have been fascinated for some time with biochar and have wanted to learn how to make it. I’ve invited Hans Erken, a local biochar enthusiast innovator to lead a workshop with the Ethos Foundation to share with us what it’s all about. He will explore:

• what is biochar
• the benefits of biochar
• ways to use biochar in the garden
• how can you use the energy created during biochar production
• how do you make biochar while cooking
• how do you make biochar on a small and medium scale

Making biochar in the flame cap kiln: Image and design: Hans Erken

Here are some photos from the workshop he ran in 2012. Biochar Workshop Images

Meet Hans Erken and see a little bit of what you will learn in this 2 minute clip:

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BIOCHAR

Biochar – DPI NSW
What is Biochar? – Biochar International Initiative
Biochar Basics – ANZ Biochar Researchers Network
Soil and Water Benefits of Biochar – US Biochar Initiative
Biochar Project – Australia 
55 Uses of Biochar

The post Improve Your Garden Soil and Food Quality with Home-made Biochar & cook with it too! appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

I have comfrey growing in various places throughout the garden – under fruit trees, near the compost, on the edge of the kitchen garden – an a couple in the midst of things like this one.

How to Make Comfrey Tea in under 5 minutes

Step 1: Collect comfrey leaves
Step 2: Tear up leaves into lidded bin
Step 3: Cover with water
Step 4: Wait for 6 weeks
Step 5: Dilute 1:10 with water.

I regularly harvest leaves and turn them into comfrey tea – a simple method using just comfrey and water in a lidded bin.

Comfrey leaves ripped up with water are covered with water then let steep for about 6 weeks – giving them a stir every now and then.

For more information:

If you enjoyed that, take a look at my other short films:

Film #1: Our Permaculture Life: My Permaculture Garden (33 mins)

The post Film #3: How to Make Comfrey Tea with Morag Gamble (4:52mins) appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

1. Open the Soil
2. Feed the Soil
3. Add Organic Matter to the Soil
4. Mulch the Soil
5. Water Deeply

I mulch very thickly in the subtropics.

I know that in some places it’s not possible, but wherever you can, grow in connection with the soil. Get your gardens into the ground and keep your veggie gardens in contact with natural soil – activate it!  Do this and growing food will:

• become easier (living soil supports healthy plants which are less prone to pests and disease ),
• be cheaper (less external fertilisers and amendments) and
• be more nutritious (healthy plants in good soil are more nutrient dense)

All in all it becomes a far more laid back, peaceful and healthier way of gardening. It really doesn’t even take that much effort or time to do these five things.

1. Open the soil

I regularly walk around with my garden fork and open the soil amongst the plants, and on the upper side of a garden bed (if on a slope). This ensures that any moisture falling on the garden has far more chance to penetrate than runoff. By opening, I simply mean plunging in the tines of fork and gently levering, not lifting or turning the soil.

Opening the soil with my favourite old garden fork.

2. Feed the Soil

Concentrate on feeding the soil and activating the soil life, rather than feeding the plants.  A healthy soil will be the best environment for flourishing veggies. A few good ways:

• grow comfrey – chop and drop leaves around the garden, make a natural fertiliser – they draw nutrients and minerals from deep down.
• add compost when making new beds, and top-dress regularly
• install worm towers to keep improving the soil from below.

Quick sketch of my little worm tower – an upturned pot on the top helps to keep out the insects and animals.

3.  Add Organic Matter to The Soil

Organic matter in the soil acts like a sponge. Typically Australian soils are low in organic matter, and as plants grow and are harvested, vegetable gardens need it replenished. Compost is one of the best ways to add organic matter to the soil, so is regularly adding mulch and doing the ‘chop and drop’.

Have compost systems everywhere throughout the garden.

4. Mulch the Soil

5. Water Deeply

Your plants will be healthier, more resilient and more nutritious.

The post 5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Soil and Grow Better Food appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Evan and I most recently met with Vandana Shiva in Indonesia.

Vandana is one of the world’s most prominent environmental advocates. She is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, anti-globalisation author and tireless campaigner for seed freedom – a clear and loud voice for Earth Democracy – calling for seed sovereignty, water sovereignty, food sovereignty and land sovereignty. 

To provide a place where people can come to immerse themselves deeply to learn about these ways of seeing the world, the paradigm shift needed and to gain practical skills, she has created the Earth University in India, connected to Schumacher College. She encourages us all to become activists for Earth Democracy…

“Become the seeds of change in any place in the food web which is so rich and complex – become a seedsaver, an organic farmer, an activist, a chef, a nutritionist …”

Back in 1992, I was volunteering in the Himalayas at the Ladakh Project with Helena Norbert-Hodge of ISEC and Vandana came up to Ladakh for a week to help establish a community seed-saving project. I watched as the mothers and grandmothers of the community were so empowered by her – they mobilised their community networks and created the seed exchange network within just a few months.

Since then I have crossed paths with Vandana on many occasions – at Schumacher College in England, and more recently at the launch of Slow Food Bali’s community seed saving project.

I look forward to spending the evening with Vandana surrounded by my dear earth activist friends.  Who knows what will emerge from a gathering like this.

Maia and Hugh also attended Vanadana’s talk at Slow Food Bali’s seed project launch.

• The Vandana Shiva Reader (2014)
• Making Peace with the Earth (2012)
• Soil not Oil (2007)
• Earth Democracy (2005)
• Stolen Harvest (2000)
• Monoculture of the Mind (1993)

The post Making Peace with the Earth and Becoming Seeds of Change appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Drying the first batch of seedballs today for the inaugural seedball slingshot games.

My boys, in particular, love getting muddy too – any day they get the chance to smear themselves all over with mud is a happy day.

Always looking for the next muddy puddle. A muddy day is a happy day!

I have to admit, my gardening hands and nails are always needing a good scrub. My clothes are typically dark ‘serviceable’ colours (thanks Mum for that word!) or vibrant patterns – that way no-one can tell if I may have smeared a muddy hand. I’ve tried, but I can never wear pale colours – it just doesn’t work, especially with a 2 year old who loves cuddling with muddy hands.

Anyway today I had another muddy adventure….

Seedballs

You won’t believe how much fun I had making seedballs and experimenting with slingshot designs using bamboo and cuttings of weed trees. We’re getting ready to make a whole lot more with kids on Monday for our ‘Inaugural Seedball Slingshot Games’ – a holiday activity of the Nature Kids program I run. I made about 100 little sample ones today that dried quickly on the verandah rail.

These little seedballs are filled with seeds of flowers, legumes, beneficial insect attractors, and organic matter building plants.

Already half of them are down our block already. Hugh was super keen to help test and refine my slingshot designs. Even his trumpet teacher gave us some excellent ideas, as well as our WWOOFer, a visitor, Evan…. I am beginning to wonder if the adults are going to be just a little too helpful on Monday. Perhaps I should create a special grown-ups ‘sling-off’ to satisfy the childhood reminiscing of slingshot fun (safely of course, always directed away from others!)

We will be making hundreds of seedballs to send out into the Ethos Farm area to help improve the soil and add diversity. We are adding seeds for this season which help to add nitrogen, build organic matter, open up the soil, and attract bees and other beneficial insects.  Because they are being spread immediately and not into an arid area, they don’t need to be dried. We just need to make the consistency strong enough to withstand being thrown out. There will be some rains very soon to water them in.

Where did seedballing come from?

Seedballing is an ancient technique from Egypt, China and the Romans and renewed in the 1940’s by the late, Masanobu Fukuoka, who is considered the founder of Natural Farming, and an inspiration for permaculture, used seedballs extensively to rehabilitate damaged lands and practice no-till farming. 

Seedballing – working with nature

I like the gentle philosophy behind seedballs – following the lead from how seeding works in nature. Seeds fall to rest on the ground and germinate when the conditions are right. Plants don’t dig their seeds in. 

Digging, according to Fukuoka, disturbs the soil ecosystem (adds oxygen, tears apart mycelia mats, stimulates weeds, etc).  So he designed a method that would both protect the seeds and protect the soil. The seeds are already planted in the ball (protected from predators) and they stay there dormant until the conditions are right. Typically, the plants that survive the first year are the right plants for that place and time.

I have spent much time observing the plants in my garden – identifying what grows well without much help from me, what things come back year after year, what things flourish with primarily being watered by the rain. These are the plants which form the core structure of my edible landscape.

Seedballs are a mix of clay, compost and seeds. Roll them into little balls, dry them, then distribute them in the landscape to wait for water to come and release their potential.

Seedballs: how to make them (a brief intro)

There are many ways to make seedballs. Those for use in harsh environments need to be far more robustly made. Usually they are dried for 24-28 hours before use.

My simple mix was:

• 5 parts clay
• 1 part compost
• 1 part seeds
• and a little water to make the right consistency

I found some good reddish clay in the cut out the back of our house. The compost heap is always ready with some of the good stuff, and my place is bursting with seeds of all kinds.

I found some great clay just out my back door.  The cut behind the house needs to be retained and planted up – but I’m so glad we hadn’t done that job yet

Some recipes suggest more compost, but my clay had a fair bit of organic matter mixed with it already, and together this created a really stable ball consistency that held together even when catapulted.

Word of caution: It is important only to use appropriate seeds in seedballs and not spread invasive weeds, or disrupt native habitats with non-native species. Please roll the seeds into these balls with care, and with clear consciousness of where they are going to be distributed.

Seedballs are sometimes called seed bombs, but the non-violent person in me can’t call them that. They are not destructive bombs, but little balls of potential abundance awaiting activation, to help regenerate the soil.

Answer: Dr Seuss rhyme from One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

The post Muddy hands, happy hearts: seedballs for healthy soils and diversity appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Our family loves pumpkin season. Each year, we harvest dozens of beautiful big pumpkin fruits from our permaculture garden. But why wait for that moment when the fruit is ripe –  there is so much more to a pumpkin plant than just the fruit, and more of the fruit itself can be used.

If you have wondrously creeping pumpkin vine why not give these ideas a go:

1. Eat the pumpkin leaves

Immediately you have so so much more food growing in your garden!

Young leaves are a great dark leafy green. Use them in anything you would add silverbeet to. The prickles disappear in heat within in a minute or so.

I also steam lightly and them in use them  as a wonderful gluten free wrap. Lay out a leaf, add some rice or quinoa, vegetables, then wrap it up and then dip in satay sauce or plain tamari. Yummm!

Edible pumpkin leaves – the young ones are nice, even when they are large like this.  I leave the crusty old ones.

2. Eat the pumpkin shoots

The growing tips of pumpkin vines are excellent in a stir fry. I even toss them into soup, quiche, anything really that needs greens. Taking the tips of the vines is a great way to stop the vine taking over your garden.

Edible pumpkin shoots

3. Eat the pumpkin flowers

Pumpkin flowers are delicious – one of the many edible flowers in my garden. I like to add the pumkin flower to salads or a stir-fry. You could batter and fry them, but I prefer to keep things as simple as fresh as I can. Typically it’s a good idea to harvest the male flowers since the female flower is where the pumpkin develops.

Pumpkin flowers are a delicacy – typically too delicate to find in the stores.  You really need harvest them from your own garden or community garden plot.

Female pumpkin flower – you can tell because it has the baby pumpkin at the base of the flower.

Female pumpkin flower also has this clasp inside.

Eat mostly the male pumpkin flowers – found at the end of a long stalk.

Inside the male pumpkin flower is the single stamen – quite different from the female flower above.

4. Eat the pumpkin seeds

Scoop out the seeds and heat them them on a hot plate until they are crispy  (I use my sandwich press – takes only a couple of minutes). Add a splash of tamari – mmmm!

5. Eat the pumpkin skin

I love pumpkin skin on roast pumpkin, but also toss it into my pumpkin soup (the softer skins). Actually you can just chop the whole pumpkin up for soup – seeds, skin and all.

Pumpkin skin is edible and adds a lovely nutty flavour.

6. Pumpkin vines create shade

In the hot months, I encourage the self-seeding the pumpkin vines to grow up and over our chicken enclosure to provide shade. The pumpkins die back letting the sun in during cooler months.

The pumpkin vines create great shade for the chickens.

7. Make mulch from pumpkin vines

If the tendrils start taking over and you simply cannot eat that many shoots or leaves, then chop them back and use them as mulch. Great too for a chop and drop mulch under fruit trees, or adding to a compost.

Great handfuls of pumpkin vines rot down to a great mulch in the food forest garden. Here I interplanted with cranberry spinach and sweet potato (both grown for their edible leaves).

After all the pumpkin abundance has finished, I like to leave a couple of the fully ripe (possibly overripe) pumpkins in the garden. These provide the source of next year’s crop.  The pumpkin fruit is naturally designed to nourish the seeds for new growth – so just let it rot down and it provides the perfect soil environment.  Next season, if your pumpkins come up where you don’t want them, transplant them early.

The post 7 Ways to Use All of Your Pumpkin Plant appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

You can eat the young leaves of Yacon anytime while you are waiting for the tubers to form.

Here are a few examples of extra food that I see in my garden:

1. Young pumpkin leaves are edible –  I use these a spinach alternative, stir-fry or lightly steam – the roughness goes. The young shoots and flowers are also edible, and of course the seeds.
2. Sweet potato shoots and young leaves are edible.
3. Beetroot and carrot leaves are very edible in raw.
4. Many perennial leafy ‘greens’ – red hibiscus spinach, sorrell
5. Choko vines – leaves, young shoots and roots are also edible, as well as their edible fruits.
6. The young leaves of yacon – these are edible cooked up as a green
7. Edible canna (Canna edulis) – young shoots as well as the rhizomes.
8. Mustard spinach – as well as the leaves, the young flower stalks, flowers, seeds are edible.

Pumpkin is a self-seeding annual. I eat pumpkin leaves, young shoots and flowers – but I leave the female flowers like this one if I want to get pumpkins later.

It’s quite possible to at least double the food you think you are growing simply by changing our perception of what is food. 

There are so many edible perennials to choose from. In a previous post, INCREDIBLE EDIBLE PERENNIALS, I suggested a list of easy ones to get warm gardens started and how to use them. 

Edible perennials are at the heart of a successful permaculture garden – and are definitely at the core of my garden. These plants live for many years, are abundant, bring diversity and resilience to the garden, and they largely take care of themselves.
Even though I regularly give away big bucket of cuttings at my free community talks, the garden still looks abundant. This is the beauty of edible perennials – they just keep giving and the regular trimming actually keeps them looking good.

Amongst the perennials, I love to grow super-hardy and self-seeding vegetables and herbs. Together with the perennials, they form the structure of my garden. Amongst these plant the more sensitive and short term varieties.

Now that we are coming to the end of the warm season, I am carving out areas in the garden abundance to put in some cooler season plants – using these perennials to build up organic matter in the soil, and to provide protection for the new young plants.

The tuscan kale is still going strong – even after the recent hot weather knocked the silver beet about.  Kale is so tolerant and adaptable. The new shoots that form on the main stalk can be carefully sliced off and planted too.

 

 

Red Hibiscus Spinach is a delightful edible perennial which adds so much vibrant colour and leaf contrast to the garden.

The long green & red chillies keep coming back each year. They grow abundantly without care under the shade of the bananas.

The cassava is growing well in the food forest – in an area nothing much else would grow. I am expecting a good cop this year. Meanwhile I sometimes use the young leaves – I cook them and discard the water first, then add them to whatever dish I am preparing – stir-fry, eggy-bake, soup…

Madagascar bean is an abundant perennial plant that produces large amounts of purple spotted lima-type beans.  I wait until they have gone completely dry and brown on the vine before harvesting. These make a super-hearty protein rich meal.

This weeping rosemary, hanging over my terrace wall, is a favourite herb in my cooking, along with the oregano and thyme planted next to it.

 

There is a density to my garden – lots of food, little space for weeks – huge amounts of food, fibre, fodder, mulch, medicine … Here turmeric, pumpkin, sweet potato, comfrey, taro, bacon and banana are all doing wonderfully well in this food forest terrace – as are the interspersed dwarf citrus

 

Citrus does well at my place – I have limes, lemonades, a variety of mandarins, lemons and oranges, ruby grapefruit, and the Buddha’s hand. The lime tree is full at the moment. I use fresh lime in so many things – salads, stir fries, juices, in soda water. I also rub it on fruit to stop it browning.

 

The post Abundance in the garden – simply growing more food than you can possibly eat by yourself. appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

The plants are thriving – my first job will be to manage that abundance.  My first attempt was trimming back some plants over the pathways – these cuttings I took to the children’s workshop on Saturday.

Before I went on holidays, I added extra mulch and opened the soil a bit with a garden fork to allow moisture to percolate more easily.  In a previous post, Holiday Garden, I talked about how I prepared the garden. It worked.

I had hoped of course for a little bit more summer rain to help the salad seedlings to thrive – some have some haven’t. Enough survived.

What also worked was the weed suppressing ability of my no-dig gardens.  I have very little weeding work to do after a month – mostly a bit of trimming around the paths and edges.  It’s great!  Not having to weed saves a lot of time in the garden. Of course there’s the odd weed that comes through, but these seem weakened and easy to pull out.  If you want to give it a try, I posted the instructions earlier this month – My Simple and Successful No-Dig Garden Method

Eggplant in the new no-dig garden area – hooray, no weeds!

Here are just some of the plants that are looking great after a month of no care and no watering. Building soil fertility, integrating water harvesting features, mulching very well and choosing hardy plants really do make a difference.

The spectacular flowering amaranth – very drought tolerant.

The structure of Brazilian Spinach prevents wilt.

The incredibly hardy Society Garlic growing here amongst the Brazilian Spinach.

Japanese Mint is thriving under the shade of the Navel Orange

The Lemonbalm is flourishing too in the semi-shaded positions.

The Lemon Myrtle has grown so well it needs a haircut. I like to keep the new growth low where I can easily harvest it

Madagascar Bean – an immature pod. I wait until these are brown and dry, then harvest the lovely purple spotted dry bean inside the pod and use it like a lima bean.

The vine of the Madagascar Bean – so abundant it grew too heavy for the trellis.  This needs attention!

New pumpkins are emerging. That’s good – I recently finished eating the last crop. These self seed. The vines are offering some nice young green leaves and flowers for dinner too (but not these female flowers).

Welsh Onion is such a hardy plant. It almost always is upstanding! This Welsh Onion plant I first started growing 23 years ago. I keep dividing and spreading it.  I have it all over the garden and have given away so many. In this spot, it is surrounded by parsley.

Pelargonium in the really really dry spot – I appreciate it’s ability to grow in such harsh conditions.

Pigeon pea flourishes in the dry spots too. It has after all grown in India for over 3000 years and providing a dried pea that is used in dahl.

Red hibiscus spinach is starting to bush out nicely. I enjoyed this thoroughly in a stir fry tonight.

The Rosella bushes are coming along too – also a drought-hardy hibiscus. I am looking forward to making some rosella tea.

The Mexican tarragon is thriving. A lot of this will be going to a daylong herb workshop I am doing at Northey Street City Farm in a couple of weeks.

I am so impressed by this tuscan kale – it is perfect!  It’s roots were covered with a lot of mulch. Another kale in spot that was too dry and had less mulch is almost all bug eaten.

The hardy Peruvian ground apple – Yacon. The young leaves are edible while we wait for the root to form. In winter, the top will die back and we can harvest the sweet roots.

I am so keen to get in and start work, but I think it’s really important first – before getting in with a flurry of activity – to stay in observation mode for a little while longer. I am assessing where the garden is – how all the plants are doing, how the system has evolved, what gaps are there, what problems are happening, what are the priority tasks, what new structures are needed, where could I put in my new herb crops, what needs changing, where will the children’s new gardens go, where can they build their treehouse…

I love the process of keeping the design alive – evolving and adapting to the changing conditions and needs.

Happy gardening everyone!

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