(This is post is mostly for ourselves - sometimes we need a motivational boost or a pat on the back.)
So the month-long project to set the groundwork for urban nano-farming and for better curb appeal is mostly done. A recap of the completed tasks:
And the hero of this story is Tig, who worked tirelessly to check off each item on the list.
We had disconnected the outdoor spigot in fall of 2005. It wasn’t a big deal last year - we just ignored our dried out lawn and let our garden go to weeds. Aside from the occasional five gallon bucket of water hauled from the basement utility sink, we’ve been relying on on our 2-3 rain barrels for 95% of our outdoor watering. Now that we have little vegetable seedlings, Tig is carefully managing the rainwater use, trying to stretch it out and avoiding using municipal water as much as he can. He checks the weather constantly on the internet and reminds me how long it’s been between rains.
I originally thought that water conservation meant buying lots of rain barrels and installing a drip irrigation system. However, Tig stumbled upon a book called Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. The book cites examples of lush gardens in New Mexico that require minimal watering. I was fascinated by the possibilities. Here are some notes on some of the techniques listed in the book. We’re going to try a few of them and see how it works.
Continue reading “Avoiding Municipal Water - Permaculture Notes” »
After ripping up our entire front lawn to put in garden beds, we still had a lot of unsightly brown dirt everywhere. Looking for ideas, we took a tour of a neighbor’s backyard and noticed that they had planted clover seeds in their garden paths and mulched with straw.
Later, I read in Gaia’s Garden that clover can serve as a perennial groundcover for garden paths: “The greenery suppresses weeds, the shade holds moisture in the soil, the blossoms attrach beneficial insects, and nitrogen fixed by the clover boosts the growth of other crops.” What a perfect solution, we thought. That way, we don’t have to plant and mow grass, and we’ll still get some greenery in our garden paths.
Continue reading “Cover Cropping and Mulching the Pathways” »
After taking notes on water conservation and permaculture, I convinced Tig to take a chance and put in fish scale swales by the nectarine and peach trees. Below is a picture of a semi circle-trench dug around the tree. We dug about 1 foot down and made sure the bottom was level all around. This nectarine tree isn’t doing so great. We have a 50-50 chance of either improving the situation or killing the poor tree.
Continue reading “Putting in Fish Scale Swales” »
