I’ve learned to think ahead with my garden this year. I planned most of 2020 between November and February of this year. I got first dibs on all the seeds I wanted, but even then, I was late to the party getting a lot of the permaculture plants I was hoping to add. Last weekend, …
Garden Update Old fence removed, new fence incomplete. It’s been an exceedingly wet week. We’re currently under a flood warning from yesterday (Sat) until Thursday. It’s wet, there’s standing water in the yard that has me slightly concerned for the state of the shrubs. A bigger headache right now is the lack of fencing. I’m …
The tulips are going out in a blaze of glory with these towering yellow sentinels. Bleeding hearts bloom strongly, but I don’t quite see what’ll come next. Neighborhood Blooms Things are starting to thin out a bit in my beds, but the neighborhood is still going strong. The grape hyacinth in particular might be a …
Last week, I decided that Asian dwarf shrimp might be a great enterprise for the homestead. And I still mostly think that. But as I’ve been doing my research, I keep running into what could be an absolute deal-breaker in practice. Shrimp can be extremely finicky about water chemistry. This might force me to violate …
I got lucky this weekend. We had a “polar vortex” sweep through the midwest, and lows well below freezing were predicted for my region overnight on Friday. Unfortunately, I don’t have any frost blankets, and my plants have almost all started leafing out, so I was extremely nervous. Luckily, Saturday morning, I woke up to …
I’ve started the process of picking my first line of business for the homestead. This spring has been incredibly productive, and I’ve made a lot of progress getting things growing on the land. In a few years, the hedge should be stunningly beautiful and create mounds of fresh fruit each year. Even sooner, the vegetables …
Temperature is falling, the wind is blowing and we’ll get a freeze tonight. But the sun is out and the tulips are glorious. The forsythia still have a few petals, but they’re pretty much done and I think it’s the last week for daffodils. The new violets are blooming beautifully, more frustratingly, so the creeping …
The spring flowers have started to really shine and weeding has started for the year. Friday Flowers Gardening Update Prairie Bed The last plants are finally in. 21 purple prairie clover, little bluestem and indain grass have been added to the bed. I can see that I’ll want to add more to the bed this …
We didn’t have the best weather this week, but we made good progress just the same. We managed to put in some big things. One of which was rather huge. Friday Flowers Garden Update Food Hedge I still have one shipment outstanding, but all of my other perennials have arrived for this year’s plantings. We …
Perhaps one of the simplest and most elegant examples of permaculture principles was the three sisters of North America. A traditional combination of squash, beans, and corn in a single planting that was utilized throughout pre-Colombian America. The symbiosis of the 3 plants is quite dramatic and really informative. How the Three Sisters works Beans …