This is the seventh diary in a series on ecological gardening that I am writing here on Daily Kos.
The purpose of this diary series is to share my limited knowledge about a revolutionary mindset that is nothing short of a paradigm shift in our relationship to the natural world. What this diary will not be is a definitive, earth shattering work that claims to understand everything. What will be described here is not "Finchj's way" but rather my understanding of agroecology & permaculture and how I tried to internalize and apply it.
The first diary can be found here; the second, here; the third, here; the fourth here; the fifth here; and sixth here. As this form of land stewardship is knowledge based, I highly recommend readers to follow the series through- at least reading the diaries with "Introduction" in their title.
I will include an introduction simliar to this one in each diary for sake of continuity and disclosure.
I want to stress that ecological gardening is possible without formal training and is a DIYer dream. Nature will teach you everything you need to know, but since we have limited time here on earth, my aim is to share what I know and where I learned things so the growth will be exponential.
Last time here...
So the last diary wasn't much of a diary. About the only thing worth repeating, is, well the only thing I actually said:
Yes, it has been quite a long time since my last diary. I've been through quite a lot since my first entry in this series: having been accepted to UVM for agroecology, deciding 100k was too much for two years of college, being rejected by NC State for not having taken science while pursuing & completing a history degree at USF- magna cum laude with honors wasn't enough, winding up working for the Home Depot in the spring, and finally deciding that it was now the right time to emigrate to Finland almost a month ago.
So now that I'm here and waiting on a decision regarding my residency permit, I can devote time to writing, photography (although that will be hampered by the loss of my newest and favorite lens- death by two foot fall [fingers crossed that it can be repaired...]), painting, and urban gardening (if Dodo will return my messages). I have to stay occupied since I am forbidden from working until a permit is issued. Update:My residency permit has been issued a month ahead of schedule, but I still have about a month until I can begin working.
This is my first attempt at narrating anything before. What follows is the beginning of a series of slideshows depicting our family's transition from suburban lawn to a food forest based upon permaculture principles.
The diary was just a first glance at the slide show series I am working on for
A Victory Garden, my blog for the transformation of my parent's yard from conventional lawn to perennial food forest based upon permaculture principles.
Now, two weeks later, I have six fully narrated slide shows, totaling over three hours of run time, to present to the community. I have dropped the "introduction" portion of the title since this is a media presentation and not my typical coverage of a topic.
Note: This will be an extraordinary long diary as I do not wish to swamp this site by breaking up these six slide shows into different diaries. That means I'll stick around in the coming days as you watch (or don't watch) the videos and have questions.
A Victory Garden's First Year in Six Slide Shows
As a side project from the text diaries, I thought it would be nice to share these slide shows with the community here at Daily Kos.
We started here in 2010:
November 2010: One section of our typical American lawn with some potential pathways being imprinted on the landscape.
By the end of the sixth slideshow we wind up here:
November 2011: A better view of the area we actually double dug and turned into the "main" garden. Winter and cover crop production in full swing.
Eventually the slide shows will culminate in June 2012:
June 2012: Our efforts at cover cropping and introducing a fuller array of nectar sources for beneficial insects are successful.
So how did we go from a typical suburban lawn, which is a hardly fit for growing trees in, to the lush scene from June 2012? What were our trials and tribulations? How much effort went into this project? To answer those questions, let us head to the slide shows!
As the videos are quite long, I will put up a synopsis of each along with a couple of stills. While they are long and you can watch them in "HD," they don't actually take much time to buffer- so if you are keen on watching but your connection is slow, try loading them in advance.
November 2010-January 2011
The first slide show is the longest of the six, clocking in at 48:58. A video of this length was necessary in order to introduce the property, the climate, and some other basics. Of course, a much longer presentation would be possible if I had wanted- so be happy its less than an hour! The rest of the videos will all be under 35 minutes.
Beginning in November 2010, I decided that as our property was heading towards a "forest" due to the presence of specimen trees, that I would propose a forest garden to my parents. A forest garden is a perennial system designed around self-renewing fertility, longevity, production, and beauty. As the trees would eventually make growing grass a pain- as well as the fact that we can't eat or use grass for more than recreation and that grass lawns are usually energy pits rather than energy accumulators- we could intervene to ensure that the trees have a beneficial microecoystem available to them.
By adopting permaculture principles learned from the Edible Forest Gardens1, we could set our property on a path towards regeneration and sustainability- while reaping edible and aesthetic benefits (alongside others) in the mean time. The first thing to do, and this is of utmost importance, is to observe.
November 2010: Looking east along the berm that was built when the home was constructed. Observing where and how water moves through the landscape is one of the important things to do when implementing agroecological systems. Notice the slight slope of the land.
Water, light & shade, aspects (which direction a slope or feature faces), location of plants and their roots, how humans and animals use the existing landscape- these are all part of a long list of factors we had to examine before making any decisions.
The slideshow ends with us having implemented classic permaculture water harvesting techniques: swales and small ponds. Swales are on contour ditches (notice that the second swale is off contour!) which arrest water flow and allow the precious resource to sink into the landscape- offering deep watering of downslope plants.
January 2011: Pathways, swales, ponds are all visible when looking south west from under the pines.
1. See "Additional Resources" below.
February-March 11 2011
Winter progresses in the second slideshow. Much shorter, this video is just under 26 minutes.
Our biggest obstacle would be the compacted, abused, and nutrient-depleted clay soil. We knew our soil was depleted because we had a soil analysis performed by North Carolina's state laboratory- which is a free service for residents.
After considering our site conditions, we had to choose a path towards remediation. Double digging was our preferred choice as it would allow us to loosen the soil, introduce lime and organic fertilizer (to immediately improve nutrient availability, we'll talk more about this later) deep into the soil profile, and do so as fast as we could possibly work.
February 2011: Looking north from what would become the green guild- double digging has commenced with newly dug beds being protected with half-finished compost
Introducing dynamic accumulators (species which mine the subsoil for nutrients more effectively than other plants) along our swales was an important way to begin netting nutrients that would otherwise be lost. Russian comfrey cuttings were planted in strategic locations (to be expanded in number later) to begin analyzing the effects of different microclimates on this extraordinary species. In addition to bringing in hard working pioneer species such as comfrey, we also decided to buy a mycorrhizal fungi inoculant to jumpstart the colonization of our garden by these extraordinary species.2
February 2011: Russian comfrey cutting emerging on the first, uppermost swale. Note the ditch in the background- that is a type 1 error I discuss at length in the video. If you ask nicely, I might in the comments
As the slideshow ends, signs of spring emerge.
2. See my third diary for a brief description of what they do. Otherwise, spend some time with Google! You won't be disappointed.
March 16-May 28 2011
Spring begins and double digging continues. This video runs for 31 minutes and 35 seconds.
I had hoped to have the double digging completed by May 1st, our last frost date. This didn't happen, but we did manage to get the nightshade guild planted out on time. This guild included multiple varieties of tomatoes, peppers, one eggplant type (all are night shades) along with their companions: lemon balm, basil, oregano, onions, cilantro, cosmos, some native perennial bee balms, among other plants.
April 6, 2011. Mostly nightshade guild plants hardening off on the deck before transplanting. When we transplanted, we made sure to inoculate with mychorrhizal fungi as well as foliar feed with compost tea to reduce transplant shock.
Luckily for us, double digging is something that happens once and never again! Sure we may loosen the soil a bit for a transplant, but never again would we wholesale "till" the soil. There is no reason to with a permanent cover of mulch, living ground covers, promoting healthy fungal networks and other microorganisms, and plants combined with an effective network of pathways which allow access to the beds with out compaction.
April 15, 2011. Photograph from upstairs clearly showing proposed pathways.
June 2011
Summer arrives with rapid growth in all of our guilds. I talk about using wood mulch in a new garden and the concept of this garden as a stress test. The slideshow is 31 minutes and 31 seconds long.
As the temperatures begin to soar, the green guild begins to bolt- transitioning from production to reproduction. Most "greens" tolerate lower temperatures than the rest of our typical annual crops- although our lettuce fared very well with the initial heat.
June 15, 2011. On the right is the green guild, separated from the nightshade guild (left) by our first water harvesting swale. Transitions occur in space as well as time in a garden.
We also begin to have great growth in the four sisters guild- corn, beans, squash/cucumbers/melons, and sunflowers (sunflowers constituting the "fourth" sister- a pollinator magnet). Unfortunately this guild was decimated by a confluence of events both human and natural: transplanting corn (big no no, but I talk about why I did this in the slide show [can't give everything away here haha]) and multiple straight line wind storm events at the end of June.
June 15, 2011. Looking south at the upper, small pond into the four sisters guild. The bamboo trellis was intended to be covered with cucumbers- which would prevent some evaporation from the pond. We were struck by powdery mildew so that plan failed, but it was fun to try! The fencing also would keep out predatory birds. The growth in the four sisters guild is pretty good even for transplants, but this is before the winds.
July 2011
I have to back track to June to show the storm damage- somehow it escaped the June slide show. Growth continues unabated, but the lack of rain proves to be a challenge in keeping things alive in a new garden.
July was saw the steady growth of all things in the garden and the stress test was beginning to take a toll on us as well- the constant watering (we would fetch water from the larger pond) and the losses in the four sisters guild were a bit much. Again, we were happy that we hadn't planned on cultivating this many annual plants in this fashion ever again. We were able to observe the microclimates of the property as well as how different shade patterns affected the growth of our chosen annual species. Actually having shade during the heat of the day proved to be a boon for our plants- photosynthesis shuts down in many plants around 104F.
July 7, 2011. Same transition zone between the green and night shade guilds. The diversity begins to show itself not only in vegetation types, but also forms and fruits- the sheer number of tomatoes that are growing was a pleasant surprise.
July 17, 2011. While the four sisters has taken a beating, the vining crops of melons still grew well- although they didn't fruit as well as they should have. The whole guild devolved into a mess of green vines, but at least some sunflowers remained above the fray.
The sheer amount of growth in the garden, given the state of the soil, amazed us all. It was actually a bit overwhelming!
July 30, 2011. My last harvest before heading off to Finland for August, not bad for a first year garden by a first time gardener!
July 21, 2011. For comparison purposes, here is a photo I took of a local community garden. So if there is any wonder if these techniques and mindset work...I think the health of our system speaks for itself
September-November 2011
I return from my visit to Finland to see that the stress test has been overwhelming for the family. I share my disappointments, but also my hope for the future as we end the first year and begin really implementing agroecology. Whereas before the garden could easily be seen as a huge example of organic gardening with companion planting, it wasn't until we planted our fall veges and cover crop that the garden really begins to exhibit the signs of being guided by permaculture principles. The run time of this last video for this diary is 31 minutes 51 seconds.
Grass has begun to encroach on the beds, morning glories that came in our trucked in mulch, and other fast growing pioneer plants (not weeds!) take advantage of the situation. Again, I was disappointed, but I knew that we were transitioning to a type of garden that would prove much easier to maintain and more enjoyable in every way.
September 7, 2011. Part of the four sisters guild- no more melons, no ground cover, and morning glories doing their thing. On a positive note- the bed still has its cover of mulch so the soil wasn't exposed to the sun! Note, the decomposing, dead plants are left for a reason- they died a natural death and are safe to remain as overwintering sites and bulky mulch.
There was a lot of work to do. Grass promotes bacterial soils and out competes many of the plants that we want in the garden. So we had to manually remove most of these plants and get some space ready for the fall. Under the cover of all these unwanted species, we found that almost all of the perennials we had planted- which are very slow growing- had survived! Chalk one up for the natives :)
September 18, 2011. After a few weeks of painstakingly removing morning glory seed pods, we've managed to remove a lot of the grass and other opportunistic plants.
November 9, 2011. November and we are still harvesting tomatoes- this time from volunteer tomatoes that came in the mulch. These tomatoes were almost never watered- they were left to fend for themselves and fruited into the fall. And just look at all of those peppers.
As fall began, we sowed different cover crops in the garden. In the green guild, we retained the white clover ground cover. In the nightshade guild, we interplanted red clover and alfalfa while in the four sisters we planted common vetch- an annual. All of these species accumulate minerals as well as fix nitrogen with their symbiotic bacterial friends. Into this thick cover crop we also sowed winter crops- cabbages, mustard, arugula, spinach, more lettuces, radishes, beets, kale, broccoli, peas and some others.
With this many species growing throughout the winter, we ensured that the soil organisms were receiving a diversity of root exudates.
November 9, 2011. The old four sisters. Pretty cleaned up from the mess it became in late summer. Gardening all year in the Piedmont of NC is quite possible.
Conclusion
Well, that was a long post. I wanted to keep all of these in one diary, as I said before. This way you can bookmark it and come back later instead of having it spread out over multiple pages. It'll also concentrate the comments for me to go through. I think that even in the first year we demonstrated that with some planning, research, and execution, even a first time garden can be productive. The best thing is that the first year is just that- the first one. From there we will be accumulating more nutrients, adding more diversity, and increasing the beauty of the system. Things will get better.
This is what a progressive "yard" can look like. It can also look very different. You can opt for a meadow of natives. But the vast expanses of lawn grass must come to an end if progressives, liberals, and other supporters of the environmental movement are going to actually demonstrate their values where it matters.
I know this will take a long time for people to go through, so I'll stick around over the course of the coming days to answer any questions.
Look forward to more slide shows in the future (there is already a seventh- which begins 2012) and another post like this in the coming months.
Cheers,
Additional Resources
Excellent, must see documentary: John Liu's Green Gold- extended version of "Hope in a Changing Climate" that was presented at the recent Rio summit. I'll have to do a diary on this documentary. It is astounding.
There are some excellent video presentations from last year's International Permaculture Convergence held in Jordan, which followed a permaculture design course taught at the world-renowned "Greening the Desert Part II" site in the Dead Sea Valley. Here is a link to the documentary about the site, and here is a photo update from 2011 (around the time of the Convergence). John Liu's Green Gold also features the site and is probably newer than the 2011 pictures. If you scroll to the bottom of this webpage, you will find links to video presentations given at the convergence. Most were delivered in Bedouin tents near Wadi Rum.
You can also find a few more great documentaries in the first diary of this series- one about rainforest restoration to provide habitat for orangutans and a standard of living for the local people using agroecological methods as well as a documentary about Sepp Holzer, a very famous Austrian noted for his ability to cultivate citrus in the Alps.
My favorite books:
Edible Forest Gardens, Vol I and II. David Jacke with Eric Toensmeier. Chelsea Green, 2006.
Sepp Holzer's Permaculture. Sepp Holzer, translated by Anna Sapsford-Francis. Chelsea Green, 2010. [UPDATED LINK] Realized what a fool I was not to point you to the website managed by Sepp and Veronika Holzer.
Gaia's Garden. Toby Hemenway. Chelsea Green, 2009 (2nd edition).
Let the Water Do the Work. Bill Zeedyk and Van Clother. The Quivira Coalition, 2009.
The One Straw Revolution. Masanobu Fukuoka. Link will point you to a decent review.
Akinori Kimura's Miracle Apples. By Takuji Ishikawa, translated by Yoko Ono. This is an absolutely fantastic story. My favorite part is towards the end, chapter 22, when Kimura is told of his family's first success. Give it a read!
For a much fuller list of books on the subject, see Toby Hemenway's Permaculture Reading List. The article I linked to up top is also a great read.
There are plenty of materials online as well. The Permaculture Institute of Australia is excellent.
Youtube has plenty of videos.