Who are the people in your neighborhood?

Networks. In permaculture good holistic design deals in networks. The members of a community, any community (though my favorite is still plants) interact with one another in a number of ways, the most productive being those which have closed loop systems, where the needs and yields of one organism are met or used by others in the system.

This past weekend was another class weekend with Larry Santoyo, as our guest teacher. He spoke mostly about the human applications of permaculture design, or rather how we can use our systems thinking to design human systems that work. We created business guilds instead of plant guilds and thought in terms of meeting the needs of our community with our own yields and skills.

These concepts bring up the question, who is in your network? Where do you fit in your network? Is it the same place you think you fit or would the members of your community place you somewhere else? How big is your network? Can you meet the needs of your community simply with already existing persons or do you need to branch out?

I can readily identify a few different networks I am a part of, outside of facebook and g+ of course. Here in Denver there is an online parenting community that I am a part of. To become a member you must live within a two zipcode zone. This community is a bit too large to be a functional network for our purposes, however within the larger network there are many subgroups, this breaks the community down into more manageable pieces and allows us to develop closer relationships based on more than location, common interest.

I have been able to buy clothes for my kid, sell art, raise money to take my PDC, get my partner a job, get a bike, make great friends, create group crafts and connect with former students, all through using my subgroup networks. Many of the subgroups I belong to have the same people as members so we interact with each other often and have the ability to develop close relationships which creates a stronger network overall. It also allows me to see what needs we have as a whole that are not being met, as I see it, ours needs a better relationship to our food source. There are very few gardens (and gardeners) around here, not enough to support or encourage food stability in our community.

Lucky for me that I love to garden, not only that I love to cook, share food and teach others about growing their own, looks like I may finally have found the place we fit in the pattern. The next step for this network member is developing an NSA, utilizing my skills and other members yards we can fill a gap in our network, making us all more stable.

Can you identify the members of your own networks? How about the ones closest to you? Where is the need that must be met? Those unmet needs are opportunity. As Larry Santoyo said, "It's about byproducts, not buying products." Whose byproducts do you need and where are yours going?

Winter gardening

So I've already started working out in the yard. A few weeks ago I started planning the garden in my handy new garden journal. I have been meaning to get organized for some time, especially since most of my gardening/planting is very spur of the moment and if I don't write down what I did, I forget, which makes things very difficult when I want to replicate what I did or check on germination times later on.

We are also getting ready to place our seed order for this year, a task I do not hate. I think I've spent at least 25 hours going over different catalogs, online and paper, to find the varieties I'm looking for. We are incorporating more perennials into our vegetable garden this year, as well as around the rest of the yard. Perennials can work wonders in an annual garden bed, stabilizing the soil, providing a permanent home for all kinds of wildlife and micro-organisms while using their taproots to bring up deep nutrients and ground water. Plus I was able to find a bunch of cool perennial vegetable seeds here and here that I will be ordering very soon.

Which leads to why I've already started working outside. Here in Denver the winter is a bit sporadic. Yes, it can get pretty cold, 10-15*F, and stay there for awhile, but then we'll get a week long streak of 40-50* or even 60*, which really kicks my brain into full gear.

Since we live in a rental we really don't want to invest too much money into this property but as we also feel a duty to assist in regenerative living, we are making a few minor adjustments. On the NW corner of our house there is a tree stump that sent up shoots all last year, I'm guessing it was cut down about 4 or 5 years ago and the person who did so figured the stump would just rot away on it's own. Then they placed a lovely wire fence and simply bent the ends to go over the top of the stump, which left sharp rusty metal poking out in the corner of the garden.

Instead of the mostly waste of space that this fiasco causes I decided to create a little height and growing space in the garden with a hugelkultur. I just used what I had on hand, some kitchen waste, a bag of compost, some branches that fell in a storm a few weeks ago, a few bags of leaf mulch and some dirt from my yard. Oh ya, and since I needed the speed up the decomposing process on the stump I dumped some old juice concentrate on top of the stump after making a few chops to make sure the bacteria could get in there and start decomposing.

I started by laying the excess wood pieces around the stump, trying to pile them up as much as possible, then I just filled in with the other stuff I had, kitchen waste, compost and mulch, and layers of dirt as well. I tried to water as much as I could, if it's not wet enough we should be getting snow here pretty soon so that should help take care of it. Plus since it's right next to the downspout on that side of the house any moisture coming off the roof will go directly to it.

My last layer, as of now, was just a loose sprinkling of some bagged compost mixed in with leaves. I didn't have enough topsoil to finish it off, but I should be getting some soon, and when I do I will be able to put a good few inches on top of the entire mound. Then I'll just sit and plan what to plant on it while it cures and gets ready for spring, maybe some of my winter sown perennials? hmmmm

I'll be making another hugelkultur  on the opposite side of the yard in the next few weeks using some wood from an evergreen we trimmed in the front yard. I'm curious to see what happens with the two slightly different plantings this year. At least this year I'll be able to keep track of what I've done.

Permaculture or Die: Sourdough apple cobbler

Permaculture or Die: Sourdough apple cobbler: Part of having a more regenerative lifestyle is becoming less dependent on pre-made store bought foods. I am in the kitchen most of the day,...

Sourdough apple cobbler

Part of having a more regenerative lifestyle is becoming less dependent on pre-made store bought foods. I am in the kitchen most of the day, almost everyday (not that you need to do that in order to be more sustainable) but since I make just about everything from scratch I thought I'd start sharing my recipes in the hopes that they may inspire you to do some cooking of your own.

It's been rather cold lately and, since we've been inside so much more, I've been doing quite a bit of experimenting with sourdough breads. I came up with this recipe tonight since I wanted apple pie but I didn't really want to make a crust, plus this version has way less fat considering you only use about 3 tablespoons of butter in the entire recipe. This is meant to be a very flexible recipe, feel free to substitute and adjust to your taste. Hope you all enjoy!

Sourdough Apple Cobbler

1 batch sour dough cobbler biscuit (see recipe below)

2/3 C brown sugar pecan topping (see recipe below)

6 medium large Granny Smith apples, peeled*, cored and sliced

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbs. sugar

1 tbs. flour

squeeze of lemon

1 tbs. butter

*as a bonus while baking snack on apple peels with a little cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top.

1. Peel and core apples, cutting into 1/2" wedges, place them in the bottom of a 9" square baking dish, round skillet or pie dish.

2. Squeeze a bit of lemon onto the apple slices and mix together to coat. Sprinkle cinnamon, sugar, flour and vanilla over apple slices. Mix together with hands then smooth mixture to evenly distribute in dish. Cut the tbs. of butter into small bits and sprinkle over the top of apples then set aside. 

3. Remove the sourdough that has been resting from it's bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough using as little extra flour as possible. When dough has become more elastic and less sticky begin to pull off small chunks about 1-2" in diameter and rolling them into ball shapes. When a ball is ready place it on top of the apples in the dish. You should end up with about 4 rows of 4 balls. Place a towel over the entire dish and let it rest while you heat up the oven and prepare the pecan topping. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 

4. When oven is ready, take towel off of the dish and, using a sharp knife, make a little slash in the top of each dough ball. Lightly sprinkle entire dish with water then spoon brown sugar pecan topping onto the dish. You should have just enough to cover. Place cobbler in the oven and bake for 8 minutes then turn the heat down to 375 degrees F and bake for about 35-40 more minutes. Keep an eye on the cobbler toward the end of baking time, if the brown sugar topping is getting too brown simply place some tin foil lightly over the top for the rest of baking time. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Sourdough Biscuit recipe

1 1/2- 2 C. sourdough starter

1/2 C. unbleached flour

1/2 C. brown rice flour*

water

1 1/2 tbs. granulated sugar

pinch salt

1/4 tsp. yeast

*you do not have to use rice flour, you may use regular unbleached if you like or another non-glutenous whole grain flour. I like the light airiness that comes from using rice flour.

1. Be sure to feed your starter at least 6 hours before you plan on baking this recipe. 

2. Mix starter, flours, yeast, salt and sugar all together using just enough water to form it into a barely sticky ball. cover loosely with a towel and proceed with step one of recipe (peeling and coring apples)

Brown Sugar Pecan topping

2 tbs. unbleached flour

handful of raw pecan pieces, about 1/2 C.

2 tbs. butter cut into chunks

1/4 C. packed brown sugar

1/4 C. granulated sugar

pinch salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl, pinching ingredients between your fingers until butter is in small chunks and all ingredients are fully incorporated. Can be used to top almost any baked fruit dish.

Edit 12/12/2011: Just wanted to add a few things,

1. If you want to be extra fancy, try throwing the seeds from half a vanilla bean in the sourdough when you are mixing all the ingredients together.

2. If you are looking for a more simple dish you can omit the brown sugar crumble. Instead simply sprinkle sugar over the top of the biscuits before they go in the oven. (make sure to spray or sprinkle a little water first) 

Hooray for sheet mulching!

Well after taking a hiatus from writing for a bit, I found that I really did miss it, so I thought I would come back and continue to share all the things that I love about permaculture and working in the yard. I have to admit that my gardening practices are a bit unorthodox. I love to read and learn about permaculture and natural gardening practices, which are wonderful tools, but when it comes down to it, I like to listen to what the garden has to say. I have confidence that my tools can help me achieve what the natural world is asking of me, of us all.

Permaculture ideas will allow you to recognize the patterns found all around us in order to optimize the energy of the space, what is optimal, however, is where guidance is important. I think it's terribly important to remind ourselves that techniques are simply basic templates upon which to build our own model, you will have to figure out what works for you and your garden, don't be afraid to change a sheet mulching "recipe" to suit your needs.

That being said, let's get on with the sheet mulching shall we! Sheet mulching the yard this year was a few week process. There are two main areas of the graden that I want to make sure got a lot of love and soil building help, one of them is about 10x12' and the other is 3x13'. I started with the 10x12' plot a few weeks ago. The SE corner of the plot houses the compost pile, which was almost ready, but since it wasn't quite right yet was left in place to cook a little more. I did a lot of planting in this bed this year, squash, beans, beets, radishes, carrots, okra, tons of greens, but I left most of it in the ground. (I have no idea what has been done to this soil in previous years and I wanted to give the soil a chance to remediate itself before I did any testing, plus I really just wanted more organic matter in the soil.)


I took a couple of large cardboard boxes and laid them down over the garden bed, on top of any and all existing plant growth. For our yard the most important thing is to get as much organic matter into the soil as possible to leaving all the plants in the ground was vital. After I watered the cardboard (good sheet mulch is pretty wet, like a wrung out sponge) I tossed a layer of fallen leaves* down, I didn't mulch them but instead just walked around for a bit, then a placed a thin layer of soil on top of it all. I then took a hand aerator and walked over the entire area pushing the tongs into the ground to break up the cardboard a bit and break down the leaves even more. Then I watered, and watered a lot. It's amazing how much water sheet mulch will soak up.  *my leaves also include pine needles, some cones and pencil sized twigs

I placed three layers of leaves, each heavily watered and with a tiny bit of soil in between each layer. To finish it off I tossed a little more soil on top. Now as of this point I could have covered it with more cardboard but I knew it was going to snow in a few days and I wanted to capture that moisture. I waited until after the snow then went out and placed a tarp over the entire area and secured it in place with a few rocks from the garden. The tarp will help keep the moisture in while raising the temperature and aiding in the decomposition. It's only been a few days but I can tell the mycelium are already pretty happy, starting the process of soil making.

Sheet mulching can be very useful for soil building as well as weed management. For now I'm just focusing on the soil, I'll worry about uninvited plants another time.

Colorado Permaculture Convergence

This past Sunday the annual Colorado Permaculture Convergence was held here in Denver at The Grow Haus. The Colorado Permaculture Guild organized the event along with hosts, the Grow Haus. Since the convergence was held in Denver, an urban environment, most of the focus seemed to be on urban permaculture. It has taken me a few days to process all the information, and even now I will not be able to tell you all about it in one post. It was really amazing to get together with permaculture people from all over the state of Colorado in order to discuss the present state of permaculture and where we want it to go in the future.

We started the morning off with a beautiful indigenous blessing and burning of sweet grass and sage. This helped to bring a feeling of peace, serenity and purpose to our gathering. In permaculture we are seeking to create environments that are regenerative and mimic the natural eco-systems, it was proper to remind ourselves of the presence of the earth in all of our discussions that day. After the blessing we opened up to a town hall, with long time permaculture practitioners leading the way, voicing their concerns, opinions and ideas about how we should be approaching the current issues we may be coming up against.

There was a common theme among many of the speakers that we need to make more of an effort to turn "consumers back into humans again", which got a laugh a few times but is a very interesting statement, and which also set the tone for the discussions about urban permaculture that followed. Permaculture is at an interesting point in it's existence; it's coming out of obscurity and becoming a path more people are using and interpreting every day. There is a huge movement to go back to more "natural" gardening. Low interference, low maintenance but with high yield and biodiversity is a very appealing gardening strategy, and one that many more are starting to take seriously.

My favorite discussions were about urban permaculture though. Permaculture, when taken in an urban context, is not really about the types of plants, bed arrangements or guilds that work best, but about how we can apply permaculture principles to an urban environment. How can we use the idea of zones in a human culture? The Grow Haus is a non-profit hydroponics facility, located in a "food desert" in Northern Denver. There are no grocery stores for over two miles in any direction, which means the residents of the low income community have no real access to healthy fruits and vegetables. By creating the space and reaching out to the community, the Grow Haus is participating in a zone 1 that will be quite productive in generating food and positivity for the locals. They have programs for the neighborhood youth that teach them how to grow food, leadership principles and community participation, leading to what could be zones 2 and 3, homes and the greater city proper. If we can think of our urban environments in a manner similar to our garden environments we can create places ripe with hope and results. Focusing more on creating sustainable communities and environments will bring the foundations of permaculture to the greater culture.

After the town hall we had lunch and several breakout sessions so we could focus on specific issues. There were quite a few presentations that I wanted to see but since most were held at the same times (four presentations per session) I was not able to. The ones I did attend were green house design, patterns in people care and urban permaculture 101. I will be writing separate blogs for each session as I want to do justice to all the presenters and the information they shared. We came back together at the end of the day for a nice little wrap up and to reconnect to that group solidarity we had at the beginning of the day. It was so refreshing to think about permaculture outside of the garden and into the community at large, definitely gave me lots of ideas to incorporate into our non-profit. Many thanks to all who attended and spoke at this year's convergence, it was quite a dynamic day and I can't wait for next year.

Bees wonderful bees

The past few days I have been spending a lot of time just sitting in the garden observing all the wildlife coming and going. A few months ago you would have been hard pressed to find anything other than some spider mites, earwigs and mosquitos. Now there are tons of bees, butterflies, beetles and more, just cruising around, enjoying the lovely late summer flowers. The woodpeckers have also been very busy discovering all the anthills in the yard. I actually find it very comforting to find their holes in the ground every morning, I guess it just feels like the universe is responding to our very conscious decisions in the garden.

This is a picture os one of my favorite bee species in the area. I'm not quite sure of the exact name but I do know that it's native to Colorado and is a stingless bee. I just love how beautiful it is, the iridescent head and thorax are pretty breathtaking. The cosmo is a bit on the large side, about 4" or so across, so as you may be able to imagine the bees are quite small. We are thinking about putting out some bundles or old logs for them to nest in, the more support we can offer the pollinators the better! There are also tons of honey bees and bumble bees flying around but they just aren't quite as interesting as these little green bees, at least not to me right now anyway.

I also finally read "One straw revolution" by Masanobu Fukuoka, which is quite a wonderful book. I have to say that my favorite part was that the natural farming methods he uses were very similar to what we decided to do in our yard, mainly because it seemed like that's how the plants would be happiest growing. I took a few shots of our fledgling winter garden. I planted just about a month ago but the ground is so hard and has such a high percentage of clay the plants find it difficult to grow, so most of them are rather small and a few just germinated though they have been in the ground for weeks.

Yay for broccoli! I am super excited about this coming up. It was so hot after I planted I was afraid I fried all of the heat sensitive seedlings but luckily all of the grass and cheeseweed growing in the garden area provided just enough ground cover and shade to allow seeds to sprout. I am really looking forward to some homegrown broccoli. If you look closely you may be able to see the chard and kale sprouts that are coming up just to the left of the broccoli.

You can see our lovely winter squash slowly creeping it's way over the rows of winter greens. Notice the lower right has lots of grass, cheese weed and most importantly baby romaine. In the background against the brick wall are some of our beautiful sunflowers, eagerly soaking up the fall rays. We don't worry about grasses or weeds in any of the beds. They are bringing much needed life to the soil and create lots of leaf litter and shade for the other plants. If it seems as if the grass is too long and it's going to suffocate the sprouts I gently pull off the top few inches of grass blades, leaving the root system and soil intact. This contributes to a happy garden with plenty of organic matter in the soil and lots of plants to distract possible predatory insects.

 I almost forgot to mention what all those odd looking branches are, just resting on the soil. When I seeded the bed I cut down a bunch of the lamb's quarters from the other side of our yard and used them as fresh mulch. The soft leaves break down quickly and the branchy stalks keep the neighborhood cats from pooping in the garden. The leaves help to shade the soil, keeping water longer, and add much needed nutrients. Once all the leaves are gone and the stalks are dried out I usually remove them and add them to the compost, this year though I may try to build a berry mound and place them inside. I have also found they make great garden stakes. If they weren't so woody I would just leave them out but in order to properly decompose they really should have full contact with the soil.

Well that's about all for now. I'm heading to the Colorado Permaculture Convergence this weekend which looks to be very very interesting. I will do my best to take notes to give you all a proper write up of the state of permaculture in Colorado. Hope you all are out there creating a more diverse eco-system! Happy Fall!