More on gardening and permaculture
Apr. 25th, 2007 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenThis is a small list of companion plants I found during my virtual travels yesterday:
List of companion plants. I like this site, even though it doesn't have everything I might want, because it gives some of the more popular foods people grow, and includes information on what _not_ to plant next to each other. One that I don't think is mentioned on the site is that sage should not be next to the onion family - bad for the sage. On the other hand, roses love garlic. So, like people, plants have their preferences :)
Companion planting can help plants to be more robust -- nitrogen fixers can improve soil nutrients for other plants, for instance. Or the plant may put out some chemical pests don't like, or may attract bugs that hunt the pests.
It's easy to see why this sort of thing doesn't occur on a massive scale, and why modern agriculture uses pesticides, GMO plants, etc. If things are to be harvested on a large scale, it's easier to use machines (faster but less discerning than the human hand), and it's easier to grow fewer types of food so that you don't have to stop, switch gears, change/clean the gathering equipment, etc. It's also why we have warnings on labels for many foods saying the product may contain peanuts or whatever, because in the effort to produce mass quantities of food for market, they aren't set up to take the time to create safe, contained spaces for each type of food.
Standard home food gardening often imitates the mass methods of growing things - everything in its own place in the rows of food, and different pesticides for each one. I have a few of the safer pesticides and a few unsafe ones (nonfood plants), but gave up on them several years ago. I just need to check on when the next hazardous materials collection for my city is, and get rid of them. Nasty stuff those pesticides are, and most modern fertilizers too. Plus they're terribly fussy about exactly when and how to apply them. I like a system that you can set up and then it mostly takes care of itself. So, come the start of harvest time, I'll take a nice walk through the garden, stop to smell the rosemary, pick some basil for making pesto, and enjoy gathering a salad for lunch or dinner. The only real crunch times will be at the peak for each crop, when I'll need to gather enough for canning/drying.
Even if permaculture is too intimidating (it kind of scares me, because of the complexity of the number of plants), there are some basic things that can be adopted for better, easier gardening.
1) Mulch your plants. Put lots of mulch on the ground, anywhere you don't have a veggie growing. It keeps down weeds, helps hold moisture in the soil (less watering!), and when the bottom of the mulch starts decaying, it feeds some nutrients into the soil - a sort of slow-release fertilizer. I use straw or chaff - straw bales are pretty cheap (the chaff I get off the floor of the barn at my in-laws' farm). In permaculture they use other plant matter for mulching/fertilizing, so straw isn't your only option. You can even take weeds from wherever you happen to have some (minus the roots, I think), and use those around your plants. Watch out for fresh cut grass though -- when it's fresh it's too 'hot' and can burn your plants -- a better use for it is to mix it into your compost, if you have one. Or let it sit for a day (strewn, not piled), before using it for mulch.
2) Swales. In permaculture these are really deep, like 3 feet deep and 3-4' across, sometimes round, sometimes like a lane. These help to capture water that would otherwise run off your land. Our garden isn't very large, but it is on a slope, so the rows will run across the slope, and we'll only dig down about a foot maybe. But since our rows are only 3-4' wide, that's probably enough. And each row will have more than one type of plant, since we'll be doing some companion planting. Even my Rosemary will be going outdoors for the summer, to help the beans.
***
I stopped growing modern roses because they're environmental wimps. They need too much nutritional tending and pest maintenance. Yes, you can grow garlic next to them, and there are no doubt some wonderful eco-friendly fertilizers out there, and when I have time I may be learning to make some of my own, depending on what I learn about permaculture.
But quite frankly, I prefer my perennials to be lower maintenance -- I have a lot of other things that need doing, after all! So, I'll tend them for the first couple of years, but after that they should be adapted to their surroundings and only need occasional tending. Old world roses take care of themselves, and even the older, less glorified modern roses are pretty sturdy - still pretty, and the rosehips are just as good/healthy, if you're into collecting them.
In these changing times, the best plants to grow are the ones that are most adaptable, and are naturally disease resistant. Some of the heirlooms are great for that, and taste good, too. Second best are ones that are at least suitable to your climate. And yes, in spite of having just said that, I'm hoping to get a couple of dwarf lemon and orange trees to keep indoors... but I have decided against olives. We can only keep so many things indoors with no greenhouse, and there are other sources for oil, if one really wants to grow one's own, that will grow in more northerly climes.
I figure I can't grow/raise/make all my own food, fiber, and tools, so part of how I choose what to grow is deciding what I'm willing to trade for/buy. And that's okay, because other folks have other skills, foods, fiber, tools that you get from them -- part of being in a community. And there's the other benefits of trade -- socializing :)
***
Here are some sites for urban permaculture, for those of us with limited space:
http://urbanpermacultureguild.org/
http://www.theurbanfarmer.ca/permaculture_essentials.html
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Urban-Permaculture/ (yahoo discussion group)
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/gardening/permaculture.shtml
They aren't all my style, but since we're all different people, I thought variety would be good :) The last one has a bunch of links at the bottom, for recommended reading/references.
***
Well, if you've read through this whole post, you're brain's pretty full, so I guess it's time to stop writing about the heavy duty stuff for a bit.
My first PT session went well this morning and I have exercises to do between now and next week's session. Stopped in at the Awen Tree, a store in Easthampton. Nice folks there, and I found a lovely bone goddess pendant with a spiral on her tummy, and some crysocolla stones (really intense blues and greens, like little earths). It's supposed to be good for healing purposes, which I could certainly use.
List of companion plants. I like this site, even though it doesn't have everything I might want, because it gives some of the more popular foods people grow, and includes information on what _not_ to plant next to each other. One that I don't think is mentioned on the site is that sage should not be next to the onion family - bad for the sage. On the other hand, roses love garlic. So, like people, plants have their preferences :)
Companion planting can help plants to be more robust -- nitrogen fixers can improve soil nutrients for other plants, for instance. Or the plant may put out some chemical pests don't like, or may attract bugs that hunt the pests.
It's easy to see why this sort of thing doesn't occur on a massive scale, and why modern agriculture uses pesticides, GMO plants, etc. If things are to be harvested on a large scale, it's easier to use machines (faster but less discerning than the human hand), and it's easier to grow fewer types of food so that you don't have to stop, switch gears, change/clean the gathering equipment, etc. It's also why we have warnings on labels for many foods saying the product may contain peanuts or whatever, because in the effort to produce mass quantities of food for market, they aren't set up to take the time to create safe, contained spaces for each type of food.
Standard home food gardening often imitates the mass methods of growing things - everything in its own place in the rows of food, and different pesticides for each one. I have a few of the safer pesticides and a few unsafe ones (nonfood plants), but gave up on them several years ago. I just need to check on when the next hazardous materials collection for my city is, and get rid of them. Nasty stuff those pesticides are, and most modern fertilizers too. Plus they're terribly fussy about exactly when and how to apply them. I like a system that you can set up and then it mostly takes care of itself. So, come the start of harvest time, I'll take a nice walk through the garden, stop to smell the rosemary, pick some basil for making pesto, and enjoy gathering a salad for lunch or dinner. The only real crunch times will be at the peak for each crop, when I'll need to gather enough for canning/drying.
Even if permaculture is too intimidating (it kind of scares me, because of the complexity of the number of plants), there are some basic things that can be adopted for better, easier gardening.
1) Mulch your plants. Put lots of mulch on the ground, anywhere you don't have a veggie growing. It keeps down weeds, helps hold moisture in the soil (less watering!), and when the bottom of the mulch starts decaying, it feeds some nutrients into the soil - a sort of slow-release fertilizer. I use straw or chaff - straw bales are pretty cheap (the chaff I get off the floor of the barn at my in-laws' farm). In permaculture they use other plant matter for mulching/fertilizing, so straw isn't your only option. You can even take weeds from wherever you happen to have some (minus the roots, I think), and use those around your plants. Watch out for fresh cut grass though -- when it's fresh it's too 'hot' and can burn your plants -- a better use for it is to mix it into your compost, if you have one. Or let it sit for a day (strewn, not piled), before using it for mulch.
2) Swales. In permaculture these are really deep, like 3 feet deep and 3-4' across, sometimes round, sometimes like a lane. These help to capture water that would otherwise run off your land. Our garden isn't very large, but it is on a slope, so the rows will run across the slope, and we'll only dig down about a foot maybe. But since our rows are only 3-4' wide, that's probably enough. And each row will have more than one type of plant, since we'll be doing some companion planting. Even my Rosemary will be going outdoors for the summer, to help the beans.
***
I stopped growing modern roses because they're environmental wimps. They need too much nutritional tending and pest maintenance. Yes, you can grow garlic next to them, and there are no doubt some wonderful eco-friendly fertilizers out there, and when I have time I may be learning to make some of my own, depending on what I learn about permaculture.
But quite frankly, I prefer my perennials to be lower maintenance -- I have a lot of other things that need doing, after all! So, I'll tend them for the first couple of years, but after that they should be adapted to their surroundings and only need occasional tending. Old world roses take care of themselves, and even the older, less glorified modern roses are pretty sturdy - still pretty, and the rosehips are just as good/healthy, if you're into collecting them.
In these changing times, the best plants to grow are the ones that are most adaptable, and are naturally disease resistant. Some of the heirlooms are great for that, and taste good, too. Second best are ones that are at least suitable to your climate. And yes, in spite of having just said that, I'm hoping to get a couple of dwarf lemon and orange trees to keep indoors... but I have decided against olives. We can only keep so many things indoors with no greenhouse, and there are other sources for oil, if one really wants to grow one's own, that will grow in more northerly climes.
I figure I can't grow/raise/make all my own food, fiber, and tools, so part of how I choose what to grow is deciding what I'm willing to trade for/buy. And that's okay, because other folks have other skills, foods, fiber, tools that you get from them -- part of being in a community. And there's the other benefits of trade -- socializing :)
***
Here are some sites for urban permaculture, for those of us with limited space:
http://urbanpermacultureguild.org/
http://www.theurbanfarmer.ca/permaculture_essentials.html
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Urban-Permaculture/ (yahoo discussion group)
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/gardening/permaculture.shtml
They aren't all my style, but since we're all different people, I thought variety would be good :) The last one has a bunch of links at the bottom, for recommended reading/references.
***
Well, if you've read through this whole post, you're brain's pretty full, so I guess it's time to stop writing about the heavy duty stuff for a bit.
My first PT session went well this morning and I have exercises to do between now and next week's session. Stopped in at the Awen Tree, a store in Easthampton. Nice folks there, and I found a lovely bone goddess pendant with a spiral on her tummy, and some crysocolla stones (really intense blues and greens, like little earths). It's supposed to be good for healing purposes, which I could certainly use.
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-25 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-26 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-25 09:26 pm (UTC)WOO WOO!
Oh, and the tomato plants have been ordered. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-25 10:03 pm (UTC)We found that mixing everything together results in a healthier garden, so long as we're careful not to put incompatibles near one another. We sort of work along the cottage garden idea, with a minimum of bare dirt and an effort to keep tall things behind and short things in front, while mixing up the plants to prevent monocropped areas from developing. So far so good, after ten years practice in two completely different ecosystems.
BTW, we found that putting a rosemary bush near the composter discourages flies from roaming outward into the rest of the yard. Another form of companion planting, as it were. *g*
no subject
Date: 2007-04-26 03:24 pm (UTC)I also do things like plant the lettuces near something a little taller, so they can get some heat relief in July. Last year they were in around the tomatoes, which we tie up on very tall, very narrow teepees. Worked well for the greens, the tomatoes were easier to pick, and most of my salad stuffs were in one place. I'm trying spinach again this year, and I think I'll do the same thing with them that I did with the lettuce, of find some taller plants to give them partial shade. Or, I may be able to just put them at the top of the new bed (nearest the house), which has fewer hours of sunlight than the lower half. They got kinda a crispy last year...
no subject
Date: 2007-04-27 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-27 01:11 pm (UTC)Only thing you might be able to do for lettuce at least is grow it in what will be taller than it, and mulch like crazy so the soil doesn't heat up as much. When I put down the straw, it's about 4" in most places, sometimes more.... L used to make tunnels, but I think those are easier when you're younger. Still, if you had some way to arch/angle the poles for your peas or beans, you could put more sensitive plants where they'll get shade for half the day from the 'lean-to'. Hmmm.... or one of the wall trellis things, with supports... that could even be standing straight up because they're big (4'x8'), and create dappled shade. Sorry, rambling... I love arbors, which are great because your vines go up and create shade from overhead, kind of like a tree does, except that it's low enough that you only need a short ladder to pick the grapes :) We had one when I was a kid.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-28 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-29 03:00 am (UTC)My neighbor Heidi was looking at our bed with the laundry posts, and suggested that if the weather got crazy hot this summer, we could always hang some lightweight fabric on the laundry lines to give the plants some shade. And maybe use the lines and posts together in the spring next year to form a big cold frame. Some interesting ideas!