I'm so excited!! I went to a permaculture workshop today!
I already lost some of you. No worries, I'll explain.
Permaculture is the idea of planning your garden/landscape so that plants work together and it's somewhat self sustaining with a bit of tweaking on the gardener's part.
I like to think of it as gardening with, rather than against, nature.
For example, around my apple tree I will have a gooseberry bush, some spinach, comfrey, chives, sage, and garlic. Each plants helps out the others around them. It's a community of food.
Get it? If not, you better use google.
Basically I learned what to plant under and around my fruit trees and how to make as much of my yard as possible into an edible food forest. I'm so excited. And wishing I had more money. Slowly, slowly we are getting there. But I'm impatient and want it NOW.
I'm hoping to get something in the ground that will save my lettuce. Poor lettuce is being eaten away-maybe by ants. Ants hate lavender and peppermint so I might plant those nearby. Ants traps are cheaper, but think of the children!
In all likelihood I will never be able to move to out into the sticks and that's probably a good thing. I still don't know what we'd do for money. I really believe that every single person can grow some of their own food. If they have a yard, they can grow at least half. My goal is to grow 80-90% of all my family's produce (I'm not ready to give up bananas) and maybe even some of our grains. And I'm determined to find the best way to do that. Square foot, french intensive, permaculture... I'm trying them all. And my hope is to glean some knowledge to share and maybe motivate a few more people to plant some carrots. Maybe even bring currants back into vogue!
Labels: gardening, permaculture, urban homesteading