...today at Women Not Dabbling in Normal
Showing posts with label Permaculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Permaculture. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Companionable Companion Plants
I'm a born book-a-holic, yet I'm tryingggg to control my urge to spend money right now, and this primarily applies to the purchase of garden-related books.
Some of the books I've most enjoyed from the library include lists of plants that are beneficial when planted near each other, otherwise known as companion plants. I need a list I can mark with notations in ink and highlight with markers, so back to the computer I came, to find some resources from which to glean...and print.
I found, of course, myriad links! Thankfully, the concept of companion planting is not new and is being implemented by many gardeners. In encouraging diversity in a garden environment, flowers, herbs, and vegetables can populate a shared space with many benefits to each, not to mention the boost they provide in attracting beneficial insects and pollinators.
A related concept is the potager, or French Kitchen garden concept, which also features the advantageous and beautiful combining of edible plants and flowers. The subject of potager garden is what first led me to the discovery of one of the blogs on my blogroll...a favorite, of course...La Ferme de Sourrou. It's a treasure trove of potager discovery! If you love potagers, or if you're curious about them, you'll also not want to miss a site I just discovered today, called Everything French Gardening. What a beautiful article about companion planting and the role it's played in European gardens for such a long time now. You'll have SUCH a hard time leaving that page.... :)
The more we grow things, the more I anticipate the garden as an living community, humming with every sort of insect and pollinator, birds, butterflies, toads, turtles, lizards. I love to while away time working or observing growing things and the worlds that are around, beneath, and within them. It seems like each plant is the backbone of a robust parade of living creatures seen and unseen, and I love being a private audience as ants build civilizations, lizards court, and flying insects explore. (I'll pass on romanticizing about the poisionous snakes, though :))
I've had my fill of sterile landscaping and uneaten lawns tightly clipped and preserved with applications of chemicals and weeded with Roundup. We don't do that ourselves, but it's prevalent in our community. I suppose the older I've become, the more child-like my preferences have become...sort of a coming full circle to the wonder of childhood and its penchant for messy woodlands and riotous gardens rather than perfectly spherical boxwoods in wood mulch with nary a creature found hiding.
There are many things I look so forward to when we can plant next year, and one of those is exploring the lists of companion plants, especially since we hope to have bees by then, both mason bees and honeybees. I want pollinators to see our plants, and hum with glee at the banquet before them! Perusing these lists fills in my wish list of the necessities with unexpected possibilities of additional herbs and flowers and bee-loving plants. It gives me ideas for new pairings of ingredients in recipes, seasonings to play with, bouquets to fill Mason jars on the window ledge, flavorings for vinegars and pickles, bold and playful salad amendments.
Anyway, without further ado, here's only one of many, many lists to be found on a most basic of internet searches: Alphabetical List of Companion Plants
In our experiments creating our own backyard grocery store (for that's what a garden should be, right?), it's made all the more fun by learning to "play with our food." The addition of companion plants are not only beneficial to plant health, but can include so many combinations that any simple plot can become a diverse Wonderland...
:)
Some of the books I've most enjoyed from the library include lists of plants that are beneficial when planted near each other, otherwise known as companion plants. I need a list I can mark with notations in ink and highlight with markers, so back to the computer I came, to find some resources from which to glean...and print.
I found, of course, myriad links! Thankfully, the concept of companion planting is not new and is being implemented by many gardeners. In encouraging diversity in a garden environment, flowers, herbs, and vegetables can populate a shared space with many benefits to each, not to mention the boost they provide in attracting beneficial insects and pollinators.
A related concept is the potager, or French Kitchen garden concept, which also features the advantageous and beautiful combining of edible plants and flowers. The subject of potager garden is what first led me to the discovery of one of the blogs on my blogroll...a favorite, of course...La Ferme de Sourrou. It's a treasure trove of potager discovery! If you love potagers, or if you're curious about them, you'll also not want to miss a site I just discovered today, called Everything French Gardening. What a beautiful article about companion planting and the role it's played in European gardens for such a long time now. You'll have SUCH a hard time leaving that page.... :)
The more we grow things, the more I anticipate the garden as an living community, humming with every sort of insect and pollinator, birds, butterflies, toads, turtles, lizards. I love to while away time working or observing growing things and the worlds that are around, beneath, and within them. It seems like each plant is the backbone of a robust parade of living creatures seen and unseen, and I love being a private audience as ants build civilizations, lizards court, and flying insects explore. (I'll pass on romanticizing about the poisionous snakes, though :))
I've had my fill of sterile landscaping and uneaten lawns tightly clipped and preserved with applications of chemicals and weeded with Roundup. We don't do that ourselves, but it's prevalent in our community. I suppose the older I've become, the more child-like my preferences have become...sort of a coming full circle to the wonder of childhood and its penchant for messy woodlands and riotous gardens rather than perfectly spherical boxwoods in wood mulch with nary a creature found hiding.
There are many things I look so forward to when we can plant next year, and one of those is exploring the lists of companion plants, especially since we hope to have bees by then, both mason bees and honeybees. I want pollinators to see our plants, and hum with glee at the banquet before them! Perusing these lists fills in my wish list of the necessities with unexpected possibilities of additional herbs and flowers and bee-loving plants. It gives me ideas for new pairings of ingredients in recipes, seasonings to play with, bouquets to fill Mason jars on the window ledge, flavorings for vinegars and pickles, bold and playful salad amendments.
Anyway, without further ado, here's only one of many, many lists to be found on a most basic of internet searches: Alphabetical List of Companion Plants
In our experiments creating our own backyard grocery store (for that's what a garden should be, right?), it's made all the more fun by learning to "play with our food." The addition of companion plants are not only beneficial to plant health, but can include so many combinations that any simple plot can become a diverse Wonderland...
:)
Monday, February 4, 2008
Dust that Rocks
Restoring the mineral content of soil is the aim of proponents of applying rock dust as an amendment. It's not an entirely new idea, but is highly likely an idea whose time has come. I first read about rock dust, I believe, in PathToFreedom's site.
But the impetus of my post (this one) was having read the excellent latest entry (02/02/20008) on Stuart and Gabrielle's Permaculture In Brittany blog site about their own adventures finding an affordable source locally...local to Brittany, that is :) I love following their progress in adapting many approaches with a permaculture emphasis. You'll love seeing Stuart's search for a locala rock dust source. Looks like he hit the mother lode!
I'll be following this topic with interest, as scientific trials expand, per the article here.
According to the article
Here is Permaculture Magazine's article about Rock Dust.
And here is the link to the SEER Center, with testimonials.
And one final link, from Remineralize the Earth.
But the impetus of my post (this one) was having read the excellent latest entry (02/02/20008) on Stuart and Gabrielle's Permaculture In Brittany blog site about their own adventures finding an affordable source locally...local to Brittany, that is :) I love following their progress in adapting many approaches with a permaculture emphasis. You'll love seeing Stuart's search for a locala rock dust source. Looks like he hit the mother lode!
I'll be following this topic with interest, as scientific trials expand, per the article here.
According to the article
...The recognition of the healing powers of rock dust comes after a 20-year
campaign by two former schoolteachers, Cameron and Moira Thomson. They have been
battling to prove that rock dust can replace the minerals that have been lost to
the earth over the past 10,000 years and, as a result, rejuvenate the land and
halt climate change.
To prove their point, the couple have converted six
acres of open, infertile land in the Grampian foothills near Pitlochry into a
modern Eden. Using little more than rock dust mixed with compost, they have
created rich, deep soils capable of producing cabbages the size of footballs,
onions bigger than coconuts and gooseberries as big as plums...
...The couple say that the rock dust means that crops don't need water to
produce harvests of magnificent vegetables. 'It would be perfect for Third World
countries that are usually unable to grow crops because the land is so dry,' Ms
Thomson said. 'This could hold the solution for them'...
Here is Permaculture Magazine's article about Rock Dust.
And here is the link to the SEER Center, with testimonials.
And one final link, from Remineralize the Earth.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Permaculture
Oops, forgot to mention this in the update! We're really wanting to try to understand the permaculture concept and its applications for us better. I read one of Bill Mollison's books, and really need to get myself our own copy, since it's something we need to study to really grasp. I did a search for permaculture resources in Florida, and discovered that Dan and Cynthia Hemenway are in Florida and have a course of study online, through their Barking Frogs site.
It's cost prohibitive for us just now, but maybe not in the future. At any rate, I'd LOVE to know more! Just thought it was worth a mention.
Permaculture principles seem to really be a key to healthy soil and a beneficial design to promote a lot of diversity and abundance. I saw this online G Living video clip, called "Greening the Desert," which is an excellent example of how permaculture principles, when applied to even the most forbidding sites, can really transform the infertile to fertile. You've got to see it...amazing!
I'm also inspired by this reprinted article by Brad Lancaster I read some months ago, entitled "The Man Who Farms Water," about a Zimbabwean man who turned his small acreage in a desert-type area into a water-and-plant rich garden that meets his and his large family's needs.
Those reading roads led to many mentions of Masanobu Fukuoka, and this page of links. I first saw mention of his use of seed pellets on the Path to Freedom site, and I'm delighted to see that Stuart and Gabrielle at Permaculture in Brittany have made their own video (see their blog entry for Saturday, November 3, 2007) of their first attempts at making their own (kudos!!) I've not had the opportunity to get my hands on a Fukuoka book, but this will be on my reading plate VERY SOON!
Anyway, I'm all excited to find a permaculture resource here in Florida...and to have the opportunity to tailor permaculture principles to a property very soon :)
It's cost prohibitive for us just now, but maybe not in the future. At any rate, I'd LOVE to know more! Just thought it was worth a mention.
Permaculture principles seem to really be a key to healthy soil and a beneficial design to promote a lot of diversity and abundance. I saw this online G Living video clip, called "Greening the Desert," which is an excellent example of how permaculture principles, when applied to even the most forbidding sites, can really transform the infertile to fertile. You've got to see it...amazing!
I'm also inspired by this reprinted article by Brad Lancaster I read some months ago, entitled "The Man Who Farms Water," about a Zimbabwean man who turned his small acreage in a desert-type area into a water-and-plant rich garden that meets his and his large family's needs.
Those reading roads led to many mentions of Masanobu Fukuoka, and this page of links. I first saw mention of his use of seed pellets on the Path to Freedom site, and I'm delighted to see that Stuart and Gabrielle at Permaculture in Brittany have made their own video (see their blog entry for Saturday, November 3, 2007) of their first attempts at making their own (kudos!!) I've not had the opportunity to get my hands on a Fukuoka book, but this will be on my reading plate VERY SOON!
Anyway, I'm all excited to find a permaculture resource here in Florida...and to have the opportunity to tailor permaculture principles to a property very soon :)
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