Episode-264- Backyard From Vision To Reality

If I started over I would begin with a read of Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway. I would then map my property on a topographic map to verify surveyed contour and the overlay my garden plans on that. The design would be a south facing U-shaped sun trap with swales on contours. I did not start that way but I am moving towards that design. Geoff Lawton of Australia has some of the best video examples...

Episode-220- This Is What You Can Get From Hugelkultur – Asparagus

Permaculture Principle 7: Design from patterns to details Just from what I can remember here is a list of food that immediately comes to mind from the spring, summer and fall harvests of 2013. Just a quick note that annual refers to plants that grow and die in one season and perennials live for many growing seasons. Perennial Vegetables - asparagus, myouga (Japanese ginger) Perennial Fruit -...

Episode-219- Hugel Garden Versus Regular Flat Garden Science Experiment 1

Analysis – Trial 1 results    Flat Bed Hugel Bed pH* 7 7 Nitrogen 1 0 Phosphorous 0 2 Potassium 2 0 Color 2 3 Smell 2 3 Texture 2 3 ML animals 0 0 *pH 7 neutral 0 depleted 1 deficient 2 adequate 3 sufficient 4 surplus Today's episode focuses on a long time desire to compare hugelkultur garden against more traditional flat bed gardening. I know that my hugel beds produce more food and I...

Episode-218- This Is What Hugelkultur Looks Like

“Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city. Plus, you get strawberries.”     Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA Hugelkultur, Wood Core gardens, woody beds, hugel beds, whatever you wish to call it this is what it looks like but don't ask Sepp Holzer if that fits his definition. To get it to look this we start by removing...

Episode-210- What To Grow On A Quarter Acre

As summer comes to a close even a long close at that it's important to capture what's been growing this year because we're in full production. The lot is small and the total growing space is just about 1,200 square feet or a little less than a quarter acre. With a lot of reading, trial and error (lots of errors) and good old stubbornness we're on our way to getting the most out of the land and...

Episode-200- Pick The Best Tasting Raspberries From All Around The House

The way to pick the best tasting raspberries is to grow your own. It's is so much easier than you think and the raspberries do a great job of propagating to the point tat one good patch will yield many more. I began planting raspberry root plants in spring 2010 and the first harvest came in 2011. Watch the video and see how much fruit you too can get from just a bit of effort. At the same time...

Episode-195- Landscape With Edible Gardens And Eat The Beauty

This episode is dedicated to my sister who said she watches these things. Not sure if she was just being nice but it gave me a good excuse to film all the productive gardens in mid June. There are a lot of things growing and ready for harvesting and this year's gardening will be one to top the previous 4 seasons. That's right we're on season 5 and have some nice things going on all around the...

Episode-186- Fix The Swales So They Can Grow Food And Look Beautiful

This video is a follow up to Episode -174- on Making swales and how they can be used to hold water and grow food. The video shows what the backyard looked like a year ago and some of the bare patches are evident but it was much worse. When it rained it was dangerous to walk down the steep incline as falling on my ass was a constant threat. I had thought long and hard about how to control the...