You are here: Home / Archives for gardening

Permaculture works

By April 19, 2013
nasturtium

Based on the latest maps from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it appears that the eastern third of the country should be in good shape this year insofar as rainfall is concerned. For someone saddled with completely infertile soil, that’s good news. In my opinion, it’s bad enough to have to deal with unending amendment of the soil, without having to feel guilty because I’m watering all the time! I just closed the spigot on my rain barrel last week, with hopes … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Permaculture, Transition Tagged With:

100 days of real food

By November 6, 2012
Lisa Leake's breakfast for her guests included whole-wheat crepes, "Ranier" cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and melon. Photo: 100 Days of Real Food

I can't help but be impressed and inspired by the family behind the 100 Days of Real Food blog. After considering the extent to which our country (and to a lesser but still appreciable extent the rest of the world) is dependent on highly processed food, Lisa and Jason Leake, along with their then 3 and 5-year old daughters, vowed to go 100 days without those processed foods, eating "real food" instead. Taking the plunge pledge Their original pledge said that what you can eat are Whole … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Food Tagged With: , , ,

The tomato incident

By September 19, 2012
Tomato Harvest

I was in my greenhouse the other day, watering some enormous tomato plants. These plants are massive — well over my head and still going strong. They're planted in a raised bed, with about thirty of them shoulder-to-shoulder in close quarters. It’s literally a tomato jungle. They're lush, full, heavy with tomatoes and the pride of any gardener. Enter my friend, who upon seeing this eye-candy, says “You can’t grow tomatoes like this. They will never survive.” After a pause to do a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gardening, Transition Tagged With: , ,

But will she lay? Review of Keeping Chickens

By September 18, 2012
A Rhode Island Red Chicken

For the past two years gardening has been my great obsession. I've planted fruit trees, vegetables, and flowers, with great hopes for how beautiful and nourishing they'll be both now and in the years to come. I've even taken on beekeeping and have one beehive near my back porch. The only things missing are chickens. I yearn for a few hens to provide me with fresh eggs as well as manure for the garden. Every time I look at the insects devouring my kale patch, I imagine how chickens would … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

A GMO is a GMO is a GMO

By August 30, 2012
Image: David Dees Illustration.

Quick: name the one issue about which Democrats, Republicans and even Independents all agree.  No, not alpaca farms. Yes, I know everyone would like to have one, and yes, baby alpacas are cuter than the dickens.  Try again. What’s that? Everybody agrees  genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that food processing companies put on our kitchen tables should be labeled? Is that your answer? Well, when you’re right, you’re right, and you are SO-O-O right. Please understand that the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Fruit pickin’

By August 21, 2012
Peaches

The idea of eating locally and in-season just makes sense. Foods that grow locally are produced in the very same environment in which we're nested. Thus it’s quite likely that they contain the essential micro-nutrients which, quite naturally, work well for us. The “in-season” concept, in fact, makes more and more sense when we start to really study nature. Think about it: in the spring, after a long winter’s nap, Mother Nature cranks out voluminous amounts of milk and eggs — … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arts, Food Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country

By July 26, 2012
Sunflower woodcut

Peter Bane’s handbook, while not quite encyclopedic, is nothing if not authoritative. I can honestly say, without fear of exaggeration, that I hold my head a little higher as I stride about my miniscule fiefdom, now that I’ve read The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country. The stones Bane leaves unturned are few and far between. Once you’ve digested the author’s ruminations on mapping, patterns, and garden elements, perennials, water, soil, plants, crops, seeds, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Reviews Tagged With: , ,

A solar flair

By July 16, 2012
sunshine

Nietzsche said that we were all Hyperboreans. I’d say that if our culture were any more alienated from Nature, he’d have been better advised to call us all extraterrestrials. We are, frankly, so removed from Nature that it’s hard to take seriously our claim to be a vital part of the planet. More worrisome is the fact that most people don’t even recognize the alienation. If asked, they tell you that they love Nature — evidenced by some weekend camping trips and occasional walks … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: , , , , ,

The time for action

By July 5, 2012
Clothes pins

I don’t meet many people these days who still think that “things are fine” with the US economy — or that “recovery is right around the corner." The light-bulbs are coming on for people and they're beginning to realize that the current state of affairs is, as David Wann says, The New Normal. The Emperor really has no clothes. We’ve consumed our way past peak resources and the descent has begun. On the other hand, I don’t meet many people who do much more about this than merely … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economy, Re-skilling, Transition Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Two words to win the presidency: food freedom

By June 13, 2012
pickling

This past weekend I attended the state meeting of VICFA, the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association. Hosted at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms, this casual potluck held under a shade tree included a gathering of, as Salatin put it, "fierce loose canons" all of whom hold passionate convictions about his or her God given right to choose what to eat, what to produce and how to buy and sell such foods. The mission of the organization is to, "promote and preserve unregulated … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Food, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,