It’s that time of year again, the time of year when every gardener feels the thrill of shopping for seeds. Okay, that statement is true, but the whole truth is that most gardeners are ready to feel the thrill of flipping through a seed catalog 365 days a year. What makes the time of year between deep winter and the beginning of spring special is … Continue reading Seeds, Seeds, Seeds!!!
You may have noticed an itch, a little wiggle somewhere back behind the stacks of to-do lists and whirring routines in your quotidian mind as of late (at least in the northern hemisphere), something that makes you notice the sweetness in your food a little more, an ever so subtle suggestion that running through fresh grass without shoes on might be the exact prescription for … Continue reading Spring: a state of mind
So I found a skeleton in my closet yesterday. Well, not really a skeleton in that they weren’t dead, but it seems that I ‘misplaced’ a paper sack of potatoes that I planned to use for seed this spring in a dusty corner. Now, looking at the facts here, it’s the middle of March, not long after a new moon. I could very easily claim … Continue reading Optimism and Forgotten Potatoes
If you need a primer on what black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are, peruse the background write up I posted a few weeks back and then join us below. As I mentioned before, black soldier flies, particularly in their larval state, are tireless, delightful eating machines specializing in the avid consumption things that most people find revolting. Yes, they are nightmare fuel, but ridiculously useful … Continue reading Black Soldier Fly Larva BioDigestor! (BSFL pt 2)
I recently went to help a friend install some more growing beds for perennial and annual vegetable production. One of the most exciting things that we got into the ground once we had the new beds shaped and amended with compost was asparagus crowns. Asparagus is a perennial, meaning that once its root system is established in the soil, it will continue to produce year … Continue reading How to Plant Asparagus Crowns
This Saturday, I had the pleasure of going to what a local permaculture organization calls a permablitz. During a permablitz, members of the local permaculture community converge on the home or property of one of their fellow members with shovels, picks rakes, and other tools to spend one or both days of a weekend installing all kinds of water harvesting, soil improving and food growing … Continue reading Permablitz Adventure Saturday!
Ever since my time as a Peace Corps volunteer, I have been intrigued in the potential for growing mushrooms as a food source. Over the last several years, the work of a very dedicated few self-taught mycologists and fermentation gurus (like Paul Stamets, Jeff Chilton, Peter McCoy, Sandor Katz, Daniel Reyes and Tradd Cotter to name a few) has pushed the mysterious, bordering on miraculous, … Continue reading Down the Mushroom path!
Here’s one of my favorite old sheet mulch installations from some old photos. Before: And After: Since I moved into my new community garden plot last fall, I have been trying to scrounge, gather, or acquire, by mostly legal means, the materials to lay down a sheet mulch. I’m not talking about some Johnny-come-lately sheet mulch that the established bermuda grass is going to laugh … Continue reading Sheet Mulch is the BEST MULCH!!!
Welcome! First off, I would to wish everyone in the Northern Hemisphere a cozy and warm holiday season full of friends, family and love. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, I still wish you the friends, family and love, but here’s hopin’ you manage to find all of those things on a sunny beach with sand between your toes. Now, down to business. (serious … Continue reading C is for Carbon
This is the first post in my new blog about my study into our place in the buzzing, vibrant biological world. Continue reading Why we are here
