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The Basics of Growing Food in the Winter
THE BASICS OF GROWING FOOD IN THE WINTER
Having spent so much time in tropical environs, I fretted over having to think about seasons, in terms of temperature, when my wife Emma and I decided to give North Carolina a try. Suddenly, we are having to think about frosts much more than wet and dry season, and a bit more encouraging than expected, we are finding a new abundance that accompanies cooler places.
Going into our first autumn here, we are investigating the possibilities of four-season harvesting, and that means learning which plants can handle the chill and which ones are best left for next year. We are also becoming more knowledgeable about cold frames, hoop houses, and other methods for maintaining a little warmth without burning energy.
What has become apparent is that, without a doubt, growing fresh vegetables is possible year-round, even with winters that regularly dip into or stay below freezing temperatures. It doesn’t require a huge greenhouse or a lot of power, just some basic systems for keeping the frost off and a selection of the right kind of plants.
KEEPING THE FROST OFF
Keeping the frost off of certain cold-tolerant plants will help extend their growing season, and this, of course, means changing the garden a little bit. Like the wet/dry tropics, which almost requires different beds—raised and sunken—for the wet and dry season, temperate climate gardens benefit from designs with frost in mind. There are several simple ways to do this, and in certain cultures, the winter garden is just an understood thing.
Using the sunny south-facing understory of tree lines is a possibility for extending the season, but it requires quite a specific set of circumstances and challenges, such as dealing with natural leaf fall mulching over the crops. Additionally, while these will provide a bit more warmth, plants are still subject to nearly the full force of outside temperatures.
- YouTube! Video: How to Build a Cold Frame to Extend Your Growing Season
10 Other Berries to be Aware of
10 OTHER BERRIES TO BE AWARE OF
Since arriving in the temperate climate, I’ve been so excited about the idea of growing berries that I’ve been compiling lists of what—besides the common stuff—I might want to grow. We all know strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, and Chuck Berry (i.e., “Johnny B. Goode”), but these are other berries that we can and should consider including in the garden.
Some of them are delightfully tasty, some of them mystically nutritious, and all of them are viable, perennial options for temperate permaculture food forests and polyculture gardens. In this collection, you’ll find things that improve the pantry, improve your health, and improve your disposition (Berries make some great wine).
In a word, there is a lot of fun to be had in the berry game, and there are a lot of niches for berries to fill in a design. Even with strawberries, blueberries, and the rest of the headliners, there is great diversity to be enjoyed, but the other berries open up entire new worlds. Some are sprawling trees. Some are great thorny hedges, suitable for natural fencing. Some are voracious, productive groundcovers.
TREES
Productive trees are the crème de la crème of permaculture design, and while this often comes in terms of nitrogen-fixing legumes, stone fruit, hard fruit, and nut trees, berry trees certainly have their own spot in the conglomeration.
Mulberry trees are a permaculture favorite. Not only do they provide an abundance of berries, but the leaves are also edible and—for the adventurous producers—can be used to rear silkworms for silk production or fish food. Mulberries are beloved for being quick growers for chop-and-drop mulch, heavy producers for food, pest distractors, and hardy plants for growing in any soil and many climates.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Designing a Lifestyle, Not Just a Garden
DESIGNING A LIFESTYLE, NOT JUST A GARDEN
Growing at least some of our own food is a step in a different direction from the mass agriculture, processed meals, and supermarket system. Designing our homes with attention to harmonizing with natural energy features is the beginning of moving away from our crippling dependence on fossil fuels. And, the list goes on.
We don’t design this way to meet any trendy environmental tableaus or even to save money but because, as permaculturalists, we are in search of that which is efficient and sustainable, those practices that might put back us into better harmony with the planet. To do that, more than any garden we grow, most of us have to seriously change the way we live.
Adopting a new lifestyle is a major part of the design.
WHY ARE WE GROWING FOOD?
We should be growing food because the way we produce it, as a society, doesn’t work for us or for the planet, and if we don’t fundamentally change this approach to supplying our needs, the results may be the end of us. Processed and packaged versions of just a few crops isn’t providing the nutrients we need, and that’s not taking care of ourselves (People Care). Monocultures, feedlots, and felled forests are scarring the planet with chemicals and destructive concentrations of waste, and that’s not taking care of the world (Earth Care). Then, we continually degrade new swaths of land once we’ve exhausted the ones we are using, and that’s taking more than is necessary (Return of Surplus).
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Basil: What Every Permaculturalist Should Know
BASIL: WHAT EVERY PERMACULTURALIST SHOULD KNOW
In a design system in which we are looking for each element to perform multiple functions, there are few plants that can show off quite the way basil does. As a rule of thumb, things are expected to warrant their placement within our designs with at least two useful attributes, but basil performs well all over the show. It dazzles in the kitchen, the garden, the herb spiral, the food forest, the medicine cabinet, the artisanal products, and the blender. This article is here to delve into that, the seedy world of basil. (Warning: Basil is not good for making puns, even for practiced writers.)
IN THE GARDEN
Basil is a great addition to permaculture gardens. Despite having plenty of perennial varieties, the big challenge can be that they are not particularly frost-hardy. They like a lot of sun, and in tropical climates, they can endure both wet and dry season without much bother. For places that dip below freezing, basil might work better as a potted plant that lives inside for the winter, and there it will still need plenty of light, six to eight hours of sun or ten-plus of artificial light. Hey, it’s a big world, to each place its own, but if basil is in your wheelhouse, it is worth it. It works overtime in the garden.
• As with any member of the mint clan, it does well to confuse many garden insects, so it works as a pest deterrent on behalf of the other plants within its system.
• On the other hand, bees absolutely love a flowering basil plant, so it will invite those pollinators in to do their work.
• Basil is very aromatic and simply walking by it, or brushing up against it, fills the area with something lovely to breathe.
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Survival in Different Terms: A Healthy Ecosystem is Not Based on Survival of the Fittest
SURVIVAL IN DIFFERENT TERMS: A HEALTHY ECOSYSTEM IS NOT BASED ON SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Somewhere near the beginning of the course, caught in the midst of a closing summary, Lawton said something that really resonated with me: It’s not survival of the fittest but survival of the most cooperative. The idea seemed simple enough to me, not overly off-course to how I’ve come to approach design, but it was just a moment where I felt the need to explore that trail of thought. Then, I thought you, dear readers, might like to, too.
STRAIGHT TO THE GARDEN
Immediately with the notion of survival through cooperation, I’m taken to the garden and the notion of guilds, including the wildlife (or domestic animals) that function within them. I’ve never liked the survival of the fittest mentality, but it never occurred to me just how far away from it a permaculture garden is operating. It doesn’t take much investigating to realize success in the garden comes from cooperation much more than domination.
Guilds are, in essence, the opposite of survival of the fittest. The whole idea is to not compete but rather to thrive in cooperation, with root structures feeding form different sources on different dietary elements. Each plant in the combination is providing its own contributions that benefit the other plants. Animals come in and find comfortable habitats, often in rockeries or logs, under leaves or in the trees, that have been designed in for them specifically, and they feed on pests, turn the soil, fertilize, and contribute.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Learning More on How to Think About Soil
LEARNING MORE ON HOW TO THINK ABOUT SOIL
Obviously, I’ve not been unaware of the importance of healthy soils, and by happenstance, I’ve probably even managed to make a good deal of it. But, my technique has largely been based on adding a steady supply of organic carbon and nitrogen matter, mostly in the form of brown leaves, boxes and newspaper to layers of manure, household veggie scraps, and fresh cut greens. I stack them atop earth and begin building layers of soil, usually doing an initial cover crop of legumes that get chopped-and-dropped. I probably would have stopped to learn more before now had the system not worked—though slow—as well as it does.
But, this morning I learned a new way—very practical and familiar—of looking at soil. Firstly, Lawton explained the necessities of minerals beyond just NPK, using a wonderful analogy with the modern food system and its effects on people. Then, he explained pH balance, something I’ve never spent a lot of time addressing, save for avoiding certain things that have been reported to me as overly acidic.
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How to Make Your Own Plant-Based Cooking Oils
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN PLANT-BASED COOKING OILS
Note: Before we begin, I’d like to say that this article is not arguing the virtues or lack thereof of plant-based oils, nor is it promoting them over the use of animal-based fats, such as butter or lard. Rather, it is meant to bring us one step closer to producing for ourselves something most of us use commonly, both in a better way for our health—grown organically, rendered simply—and the health of the environment. In other words, there is no need to get snarky. Surely, we all realize that neither butter nor duck fat are the best choice for salad dressing.
On the road to self-sufficiency, there are lots of everyday items we run across that seem either impossible or too far-fetched for home production. In some cases, this is true: One can’t very well grow rice in England or wheat in the tropics, so the right answer is probably to minimize or cut out the use of certain things with regards to what can be produced locally. Such is life, and such is the case with cooking oil.
There is a lot to be said for choosing the right cooking oil for the job, and culturally, we certainly go through our trends: Olive oil is good for your health, vegetable oil is clogged arteries in a bottle, and on it goes. Truth be told, no oil in and of itself is likely the best choice for our health, but sometimes they fit the bill: salad dressings, the occasional plate of chips, or even a little skin moisturizing.
Whatever the case, the point is that, one way or another, for those seeking to be self-sufficient, the ability to make cooking oil at home could prove very useful.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Mulching With Purpose and Precision
MULCHING WITH PURPOSE AND PRECISION
To be completely honest, I have been a crazy advocate of mulching, especially when people with modern gardens invariably ask what I think they should do to improve their plots, but I am not always the most productive of mulchers…mulchsmiths…mulchmen. I’m lazy, simply throwing down whatever organic matter is on hand, and perhaps, in my defense, this has been because I’m doing my best to use what’s on site. Despite having had success with my devil may care method of mulching, I know it’s not actually the best way, that just as different plants require different inputs, different mulches deliver different goodies. So, while I know my mulchful ways are a good practice, I’ve decided it’s time to start practicing them better.
A GENERAL RULE OF GREEN THUMB
For me, and I think many fellow permaculturists, the idea of mulching with inorganic materials—those popular plastic sheets particularly—is simply not part of my MO. I’ve also come across the idea of using shredded car tires, which I, of course, appreciate in its repurposing but ultimately would not choose for my gardens.
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How to Make New Resolutions Using Permaculture Methods
HOW TO MAKE NEW RESOLUTIONS USING PERMACULTURE METHODS
2016 has begun as the years before it once began: There is a whole lot of opportunity on the horizon. Suddenly, as the Christmas season sweeps by we are left with a New Year’s resolution, theoretically a decision to make and live with for at least the coming year, often with the hopes of true and lasting change. Classically, that leads people to singular pursuits like flossing everyday, losing weight, quitting smoking, or spending more time with family. Despite these worthy intentions, New Year’s resolutions on the whole are notoriously unsuccessful, often failing even before the end of January.
But, what if we approached our resolutions with a permaculture-like tilt. What if we thought beyond one specific change and more along the lines of incorporating genuinely far-reaching goals? What if we decided to go about these changes more consciously, conscientiously, and cautiously with regards to ourselves, others, and the planet? We could use similar techniques of observation and adjustment, time-stacking and sensible design, plotting out the most appropriate resolutionary actions to be implemented productively throughout the year.
If our resolutions are consistently failing, perhaps it’s because we’ve been doing it all wrong: mono-resolutely, so to speak. Such a one-sided approach, we know from the debilitating agricultural system, is usually not the best. Instead, we need flex our permaculture chops and follow our hearts by using our brains. If we are going to bother going through the motions of change, we ought to do it the best way we know how: productively, holistically, and sustainably.
TRULY THINK THROUGH THE CHANGE YOU WANT: PRODUCTIVELY
Sometimes our resolutions get ahead of themselves, and we are striving to accomplish something we needn’t even be addressing at the moment. Flossing may be great a thing, but what good will it do a candy and cola fiend with a pack a day habit and a frizzy toothbrush.
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Legumes in the Kitchen: They Are Not Just For Nitrogen-Fixing
LEGUMES IN THE KITCHEN: THEY ARE NOT JUST FOR NITROGEN-FIXING
When it comes to legumes, I come from a fortunate background. Born and raised in the southern Louisiana, where cuisine is something entirely different than the rest of the United States, food has long been a product of love and cherish. It deserves devotion. It is given time. Louisianans know the value of doing it slow. Consequently, I grew up intrinsically aware of the worth, nutritionally and palatably, of a home-cooked meal.
What’s more is that, in Louisiana, food comes from the earth. It’s a state full of food festivals and festivities centered around locally produced food. I grew up knowing the time to buy watermelon or the season for crawfish, and I grew up sharing a table with extended family, all of us licking our fingers clean of spices and sauces. We know how to eat. We know how to cook. And, around the country, the world even (though people don’t realize that Cajun is of Louisiana), our flavors are renown.
All of this is to say that, for me, moving into permaculture, the constant inclusion of legumes as a powerful garden element is nothing short of miraculous. In Louisiana, we are a bean-and-rice eating people. Traditionally, Mondays are for one of our signature dishes: red beans and rice, often with homemade sausage. For New Year’s Day, black-eyed peas (a variety of cowpeas) and cabbage are tradition for bringing in health and wealth in the months to come. We eat beans all the time.
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