Dead Zone

So last year I began experimenting with sheet mulching and had very high hopes. Now, 6 months later I am reporting back. Unfortunately it is with mixed results. The partial success is that the sod is, in fact, dead. The partial failure lies in the fact that the mulch material is not [...]

HOA Permaculture

If you haven’t picked up on the recurring theme of the past several months, I am planning a small scale forest garden something bigger than a permaculture fruit tree guild but certainly less elaborate than the ones Robert Hart created almost 30 years ago that have received some coverage of late. I guess I [...]

Sunny Fuel and Chickens

This morning Mia and I were searching for some alternative starch sources for an acquaintance with an allergy to potatoes, and I jumped to Wikipedia to verify that Sunchokes were Asteraceae (yes) and there have been some updates to the entry. One of them was espousing the virtues of Sunchokes as an ethanol crop. The [...]

Garden Detail

So I wanted to break down my gardens in a little more detail. When I describe everything I am growing in my yard a common first question is “do you have any lawn left?” I do-alot. While the lawn as an expanse is dwindling annually, it will always be there for the [...]

HOA meets CSA

So as the realization that the farm is at least 3, and probably 5+ years out sinks in I have refused to let that get me into a funk. Those 3 to 5 years are an opportunity for me to learn, experiment, and grow in an environment that is both safe and challenging: the [...]

Garden: June Wk 1

Right. So the Big Mission this year was control for the backyard. Last year we left for a 2 week trip to Alaska in Mid June, only to return to a jungle of weeds that we never got in front of. The backyard was not a pleasant place, and we have vowed [...]

Living the Dream

For now we are bunkering down in Johnson Creek. I just finished building 7 tomato teepes out of 7′ sticks of bamboo for most of my 30+ tomato plants (look for a post on the blog soon). We have been eatin salad for lunch/dinner for the past week straight from our garden [...]