Polyculture

For Christmas I got the book Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and gleaned a lot of good ideas for use on our garden.  I decided that this year I would take half of our 8 x 28 plot in the community garden and use some of the principles in his book.  The other half of the plot will be gardened as usual.  I started with sheet mulching the space in early February.  I slashed down the weeds in place and covered with a layer of manure and bedding from our rabbits.  Next came a covering of newspaper and cardboard topped with finished compost and topsoil.  I emptied a few bags of leaves as the final layer.  The whole things was pretty tall and even after a thorough dousing with water the wind stripped most of the leaves away.

Ideally I would have done the sheet mulching in the fall so it would have a few months to decompose in place and really enrich the soil, but my gardening is always about making compromises.  So, after it sat a month, the weather here in Georgia declared an EARLY spring and I decided to proceed with planting seeds.  I decided to follow the outline for a polyculture planting found in Hemenway’s book.  Simply put, polyculture is plant

Aquaponics set-up

When a neighbor moved last year, we inherited his aquaponics set-up.  It’s been sitting on our front porch unused since then.  We finally got a new liner for the fish tank, painted both sections, and got the flood and drain system (mostly) working.  We need to wait until the temperatures are consistently warmer before adding the fish, but, for now, our goldfish has moved into the tank.  He’s loving all the space!  Yesterday I put some seedlings in the grow bed – tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and basil.  They probably won’t really thrive until we get some fish in the tank, but at least they are getting a start.

For those who don’t know about aquaponics, it is a hybrid system blending hydroponics and aquaculture (or fish farming).  Fish are raised in a relatively high population in a tank.  Water from that tank is pumped into a grow bed – basically a raised bed filled with an alternative growing medium like perlite, rock wool, or gravel.  Although the plants do not have soil to support them the water pumped in from the fish tank contains valuable nutrients.  The plants roots, in turn, filter and clean the water.  Once the grow bed floods the water begins to drain back into the tank – freshly cleaned.

Rabbits and Worms

I had two pet rabbits growing up – a white dwarf named Speedy and a black dwarf named Harley.  Bones’ family kept rabbits that occasionally “disappeared.”  One night she asked why their fried chicken looked different, after that the family stopped keeping rabbits.  I am not opposed to raising rabbits for meat.  For a small homestead trying to be self-sustaining, raising meat rabbits actually makes a lot of sense.  Rabbits are relatively inexpensive to raise and they reproduce like, well… rabbits.  I suspect that our family will raise rabbits for meat one day.  Just not yet.

In January we got two rabbits.  I was very clear that these two are pets.  They came to us already spayed and neutered – one male and one female – Cinnamon and Nutmeg.  I love having them around.  Ella Grace and the kids I nanny very much enjoy feeding them and playing with them during the day.  Nutmeg is especially bonded to me and we both enjoy sitting quietly together while I stroke him.  They live on our back deck in a mansion of an enclosure that also came with them.  Having them has confirmed for me that any animal we intend to raise to be eaten one day cannot live that closely to our house.  I will surely bond with the animal.  We will need a bigger property where livestock can be raised apart from the household giving me some physical and emotional distance.

Their pet status, however, does not mean they do not contribute to the working life of our small homestead.  Cinnamon and Nutmeg produce, prolifically, valuable inputs for our garden and help us reduce our overall waste production.  I give them many of our kitchen scraps – carrot tops, stalks from greens and lettuce, turnip and beet tops, extra herbs and bits of fruit.   Our garden is currently producing far more lettuce and greens than we can eat and the bunnies get all the extra.  When I weed the garden, I keep the weeds I know the bunnies can eat as food for them – grasses, chickweed, henbit, wild strawberries, dandelions and plantain.  The rabbits are happy to consume everything I bring to them, and I am gratified not to waste those scraps.  The rabbits came to us on a strictly pelleted diet and I gradually converted them to a mostly fresh diet.  They still get a small portion of pellets but they primarily eat our scraps and weeds/grasses I gather on our twice daily dog walks.

My system for managing their waste has evolved.  It started with keeping a litter box in their cage that I emptied a couple times a week into a compost bucket.  The rabbits were accustomed to the litter from their previous home.  This was okay at first and not too offensive smelling in the winter, but as the temperature has begun to rise so has the smell.  I tried using more straw for bedding to keep down the odor, but the rabbits scattered it and began pooping everywhere which made a huge mess and smell.  Finally it occurred to me to figure out a way to put worm bins under their cage.  Their cage is 3 levels so I decided to take away the bottom level from their use and stick two bins in for worm composting.  I filled the bins 1/3 full with some wormy dirt and straw.  The rabbits and worms have done the rest of the work for me!  I feed the rabbits on the level directly above the worm bins, since the rabbits seem to do most of their bathrooming while they eat.  Everything falls into the worm bin and the worms graciously turn it into beautiful compost.  Periodically the bins fill up so I partially empty them, take the compost to the garden, and add a few more worms, if needed.  The smell is drastically reduced, I only have to do minimal sweeping of rabbit mess around the cage, and I get a wonderful byproduct in the compost.

Odds and ends

In May I quit my full time job. It feels like a step forward. Which seems odd given the financial limits that places on us. Still… I think we are moving in the right direction. The best and most important part of staying home is that I get to spend precious time with my daughter rather than missing out on so much of her daily life. The move has also allowed me to work on certification as a doula and begin to build a business as a doula. It’s something I have wanted to do for sometime and I’m thrilled to be starting. I have already attended my first birth and absolutely loved it.

We are conitnuing to collect the skills and knowledge we will need when we have our own place someday. HB got her own colony of bees this spring and built a top bar hive for them. It didn’t go quite as planned – the bees didn’t quite settle into the top bar hive (but they did stay in a regular hive box) but it was a good learning experience. We continue to be involved with the farm here and our own garden plot. My garden was not a roaring success this year, but I did have some small victories. Whereas last year the squash beetles killed all my squash, this year I was abe to harvest 4 butternut squash and a canatloupe. Some of our tomatoes actually survived this year and EG was able to eat her fill and then some of the cherry tomatoes. I need to get out there and plant some fall crops soon, plus I’ve got sweet potatoes to dig up.

For the first time we ordered a whole lamb from Nature’s Harmony Farm. They often offer half a pig, but I always seem to miss out. We picked up the lamb from the butcher this past weekend and decided to keep all the parts. I’ve never eaten organ meats before, but maybe it will be a new and exciting adventure!

Hoop House

Plans for the winter garden are coming along, though slowly.  HB found the skeleton of a hoop house for us (I’ll let her tell you about that) and is working out how to encase it in plastic. 

The peas, broccoli and onions and all growing nicely.  Still thinking about what else I might add.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

It’s time to trim my herbs back for the winter and hang them to dry.  Our front yard herb garden did quite well this year.  Not everything made it, but it was still productive.  

Today I harvested Basil, Sage, Taragon, Lavendar and Rosemary for drying.  Everything but the basil should come back next year.  

Next I rinsed each bundle of herbs in cool water and laid them out on towels to dry.

After drying each bundle gets hung to fully dry out for a few days.

As the bundles dry, I will use the mortal and pestle to grind them and then store in airtight containers.

Some will be mixed and packaged for gifts.  The rest will liven up our meals this winter!

Cooking high quality meals for my family is a huge priority for me.  I am very particular about the food we eat and the quality of the ingredients that go into our meals.  I want my family to eat the best, not only because it tastes superior but also because it is better for our bodies, better for my toddler’s developing body and mind, better for the environment, better for the local economy, just better all around. 

That said, it is hard to get a great meal on the table every night without spending hours in the kitchen and exceeding our budget.  Some things help though, I have a partner who understands how important it is to me to have the time to cook for us (and, of course, who appreciates the results!).  I also live in a big city where there are lots of options for quality food.  There are at least a dozen farmer’s markets where I can buy organic, locally grown produce, dairy, and meat.  I could probably go to a different market each day of the week.  I also live in a community that values local food and supports a 5 acre oragnic farm.  I get a weekly share of produce grown, literally, in my backyard.  I have a small plot in a community garden where I grow some of our produce and have turned our front yard into completely edible landscaping.

Last night we were able to have an entirely locally grown meal.  I roasted a whole chicken from a Georgia farm along with some African Squash from the CSA.  Seasoning was sage, rosemary, and tarragon from my front yard herb garden.  We also had cider braised greens with cider made from Georgia apples and mixed greens and garlic from the CSA.  It was a meal I was proud to be able to put on the table, knowing it would nourish my family well.  Today, we will have chicken salad with the leftovers served on lettuce bought from a local farmer friend, radishes from the CSA, and green onions from my garden.  Save the mayo (I’ll learn to make that soon), it will be another all local meal.

Fall Planting

Cool weather is on its way.  We’re still in the 80′s and 90′s here in Georgia, but you can feel a shift in the air with cooler mornings and a break in the humidity.  I took advantage of the cool morning and tried to get a start on fall planting.  My garden was rather pitiful this summer.  I don’t think I got a single tomato that didn’t rot on the vine before I picked it.  And the weeds certainly got the better of me.  Whoever decided to plant morning glories is no longer my friend!  Still, Baby Grace and I dug up probably 20+ pounds of sweet potatoes earlier this week and the peanuts are also growing strong.  I can’t wait to harvest those!   I’m hoping for a better fall.

 

Peanut bush

Peanuts!

I got two long rows of multiplying onion sets in the ground.  A neighbor gave the sets to me from stock her grandfather has been cultivating for years.  Here are her instructions for caring for the onions:

1. Plant now
2. Eat the green shoots all fall, winter & spring.
3. In spring they’ll bloom. When the blooms dry up, dig the bulbs
(there will be more than you put in = multiplying), pull off the green
stuff & store bulbs till fall
4. Repeat

Also: eat the whole onion in fall, winter, spring — but don’t eat
them all or you’ll have eaten all your stock!

Onion rows

I also planted some stray sweet potatoes (I think!) that I found sprouting in our root cellar.  It’s probably a bit late to plant them; but it doesn’t hurt to put them in and see what happens.  And for Baby Grace, lover of all things with peas, I planted two rows of peas – English Peas and Sugar Snap Peas.

HB stayed busy with bee care this weekend.  She checked the hives to see if new supers needed to be added, changed out the beetle traps, and made note of the hive conditions.  A month or so ago she and a friend captured a swarm to add to the apiary.  That swarm is now happily living in its new hive and HB reports that they seem quite settled and productive in the hive box. 

HB checking the hive