Me: To begin, how many acres does your property sit on, and how much is or can be cultivated?

Chris: It’s 9.8 acres. There is probably an acre of more that is under buildings, road, parking or storage. There is approximately .50-.75 an acre left wild for habitat. They rest is or will be all cultivated; most of it in pasture now and the rest in garden beds.

Me: How would you describe your farming technique?

Chris: Chaos? I sort of fall towards doing a no-till method. I try to build the soil in a natural way, keeping that diversity of soil organisms high and undisturbed. It’s also less labor-intensive. When starting with depleted soils, I till deep, blending a lot of organic matter into it for the first year. After that, it’s just shallow tilling or no-tilling. Part of what makes the rotation of gardens and lifestock possible is being able to reconfigure and move fences and structures. We have eight or nine structures that are in constant motion that serve as hay barns, milk barns, animal shade and a butcher shop. That doesn’t include chicken tractors or movable fencing.

Me: You are not certified organic, correct? Can you tell me why and how you feel about organic certification in general?

Chris: No, I’m not. I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do. It’s difficult in terms of paper work and jumping through hoops. I feel the label has been watered down over the last number of years by big agri-business wanting to sell organic but not wanting to go through the expense of doing it well. I may certify but don’t feel it’s a priority. I believe in having my customers inspecting my product and my practices.

Me: I’m a huge fan of permaculture. What are your thoughts on the method?

Chris: I’m a huge fan, too. I got interested in permaculture as a teen, after we purchased this farm. I started fish culture in greenhouses and an outdoor duck yard with a pond and annual and perennial plants, starting a small permaculture hobby as a teen. There seem to be more people who like to talk about it or teach it, but haven’t practiced it; the practical applicability is unknown in some cases. There are examples of functioning permaculture communities or farms, but it’s hard to make it work, especially if you’re looking at marketing and sales. One of the problems – especially if you’re trying to mix a large variety of animals in – is your base knowledge needs to be huge; you need to know about all those animals and plants to be able to meet those specific needs.

Me: How big is your greenhouse? Can you tell me its purpose and features?

Chris: The green house is 24 feet by 70 feet. It’s basic purpose is to produce protein through fish, rabbits and eventually quail and to grow produce year-round. It’s set up as an bio- intensive garden; the idea is to utilize as much space as possible while taking very good care of the soil. It’s mostly for us but also to for the possibility of sales. It’s set up as passively as possible: air movement through extensive ventilation (no mechanical fans or heaters of any kind); the aquaculture systems help store and produce heat for the greenhouse; as well as composting to produce heat and carbon dioxide for the plants. It’s set up to catch rainwater with an 1,800 gallon cistern underneath for rainwater storage, which is used to irrigate the greenhouse.

Me: What types of practices do you use to feed the soil or prepare a new bed?

Chris: We bring in horse manure from neighbors, which is composted or in some cases applied directly to beds. If its applied directly, it’s tilled in and typically seeded with a cover crop to allow the nutrient cycling to take place. We bring in compost from a local organic compost supplier; that is either tilled in or top-dressed, as needed. We make our own compost as well, but we’re not making enough right now to keep up with the current increase in gardens. Also, as needed, we run small amounts of vinegar through the soil to increase the acidic levels and release more nutrients, with the added benefit of cleaning the irrigation lines.

Me: Talk to me about irrigation: Where does your outside water come from and how is it used in the fields, greenhouse and garden beds?

Chris: The bulk of our irrigation comes from surface water diverted from the Rio Grande. We also have three wells, two of which are on solar pumps that provide water for the homes, animals and gardens (the third is a domestic well on an AC, grid-tied pump used only on an emergency basis). And again, there is the catchment tank in the greenhouse. Some of the yard around the driveways are laid out in swales so that they effectively catch runoff from rain. They are graded differently so that they all run one to another and into an overflow pit. The fields are flood-irrigated, the small-paddocks are spray-irrigated at times and most of the gardens are watered with drip irrigation.

Me: Let’s talk a bit about animals: How did you first getting into raising animals?

Chris: I got into as a kid. I started getting chickens, fish and quail when I was a teen. My career became fisheries biology and fish culture. I began planning to leave that career about 8-10 years ago and just waited for the opportunity to begin farming and raising animals on a larger scale.

Me: What animals do you currently have here? Are there any animals or produce you wish to add in the future?

Chris: We have cows, goats, pigs, sheep, geese, ducks, turkeys, chickens (for meat and eggs), fish and crawdads, rabbits and bees. We plan to add vermiculture, so some day we’ll have worms, too. I’d also like to raise maggots for fish food. We’ll be adding more perennials, especially shrubs (like ground cherries) and vines. We’d also like to add ponds to provide a place to culture fish, as well as provide good habitat.

Me: Why such a broad diversity?

Chris: We strive to create a poly-culture of animal and plants. The benefit to that is a higher yield of products per unit area. That happens because the animals all feed on slightly different food items; ecological niches if you will. The diversity benefits the system; each organism can benefit the other organisms. Having plants that flowered throughout the year enables us to feed the bees all year. Having chickens and cows together means the chickens root through the cow manure for maggots or undigested food; this breaks up the manure and helps it return to the soil better. Diversity also helps diminish pests, parasites or disease. Same goes for the gardens; a variety of plants support each other and diminish issues.

Me: You have a system in place to rotate animals and crops. Can you easily explain how it works?

Chris: During winter months, the animals are pulled off the main pastures so they don’t over-graze, compact or erode the fields. They’re concentrated on a series of four plots through the winter, with their manure tilled in on a regular basis, as needed. When they’re rotated off those plots, an annual cover crop is planted, allowed to grow to 4-6 inches high and then tilled in. That bed is then ready to be used as a produce garden. Every plot rotates out every two years as garden or summer annual pasture.

Me: There is a lot of discussion on the environmental impact of raising animals for meat, milk or eggs. Can you explain your stance on the topic?

Chris: There is an absolute impact of simply existing, whether you’re a vegetarian living in a 10×10 house or not, there will be an impact. So there is an impact to this farming, but it’s less of an impact. I fairly much believe we’re omnivores, that some people can subsist on a vegetarian diet more effectively than other people, while some people just need more protein. So I believe that animal products are in and will stay a part of our diet for an immense amount of time. One main goal on this farm is to provide people a rare alternative to conventional agriculture. Rather than saying to customers we don’t provide eggs [because it has a higher impact on the environment], we’d rather give them a better choice of eggs. I feel a version of this model is by far more sustainable than the existing model.

Me: What do you feel are the drawbacks of farming on a smaller, sustainable scale? Any other drawbacks to this lifestyle?

Chris: Small farms need to be mindful of how materials are transported to and from the farm, from the standpoint that if you’re hauling small amounts of feed to your farm you’re probably expending more energy than transporting large amounts. And conversely if you’re hauling small quantities of produce, in say a 1966 Ford F-250, you’re expending a great deal of fossil fuels doing so. So the drawback is that if you’re not mindful of these things and make plans to counteract them, you have not necessarily done better for the environment.

It’s also a very narrow way to make a living, if it’s possible at all. The percentages of money people spend on food has change over the decades. We’re now used to spending less of our income on lower quality food. Getting people to spend more money on a higher quality food is difficult.

Me: What are your future plans for the farm?

Chris: The plans are to attempt to make the high-diversity, polyculture, sustainable farming model work financially for this farm. To that end, I hope to have either a continual group of volunteers (long-term, short-term and full-time residents) coming through but also we have to make ourselves as efficient as possible. We need a large amount of organization so that all tasks become quick and efficient. This is essentially to compete with factory farming that has the benefits of mechanization and repetitive tasks.

Me: For someone interested in sustainable farming, what advice do you have to offer?

Chris: Apprentice. Work with other farms. The actual issues that can be stumbling blocks and difficult to address are almost impossible to glean from reading and researching. You have to do it.

If you wish to know more or are interested in learning hands-on through volunteering at Ironwood Farm, contact Chris on his blog.

There comes a point where the romance wears off and you realize just how much hard work is involved in sustainable farming. I think I reached that point on Thursday.

Don’t get me wrong: there is a part of us that does not want to leave at the end of this week. Good food, good people and a culture we enjoy. Not to mention fulfilling work in something we believe in. And there is so much more to know about sustainable housing, animal husbandry, beekeeping, rotational grazing, preserving…we could be here for years and still learning.

But we didn’t sign up for this internship to learn how to farm. We signed up to find out if this is something we want to do in the future…if we’re cut out for it or if doing it ourselves would totally kick our ass.

We feel strongly about sustainable, small-scale farming. We feel strongly about raw milk and organic vegetables and grass-fed meat and free-range eggs and seasonal fruits all being a part of local and sustainable eating. We feel strongly about dislodging ourselves from the mainstream culture of disconnection from our food and its source, as well as our over-consumption of energy, water and other resources, and the waste inherent in such choices.

I have, on occasion, spoken to older generations and expressed our interest in living this way. It comes from a desire to live simply and feel more connected to our food, our land and each other. So many of us are disillusioned with The American Dream of bigger houses and smaller lots and manicured lawns and 60 hour work weeks for someone else’s benefit all while drifting further and further from each other and ourselves. And we look into the past with a sense of wonder and awe and we feel it. We feel in our bones that this disconnection we’ve bought into cannot be better than the alternative of a life lived slowly. But almost every time I’ve had these conversations I’ve been met with dubious smirks. They remember those days of hard work with little of the same romance, they would never trade the convenience and ease of modern life for home canning and handmade clothing again and they chock our exuberance up to youthful ignorance.

Were we ignorant?

For the past several years we have essentially dreamed of what we are now experiencing. And let me tell you: it’s not as romantic as it sounded.

It’s not as if we didn’t know it would be hard work. But we didn’t really know in the way you know when you’re shoveling hundreds of pounds of wet debris out of an irrigation ditch. We didn’t really understand just how much we’ve become complacent to endless and abundant options until you remember the only tomatoes you have are the ones canned last summer. We didn’t really appreciate the cost of food until we experienced the labor inherent in milking a pint of milk from a prancing goat who kicks it over just as you finish.

We “knew” these things, but you just can’t get it until it’s in your hands.

In the few weeks we’ve been here we’ve seen little of each other and can already feel the strain. We’re tired and busy and working on different things. It’s tough to not see much of the people with whom you so enjoy spending time…even when you’re both doing something you love.

So, could we do this? If this was “ours” would it be different? Could we wake up, day after day, with no break and an endless number of chores and projects and not go insane, get antsy or feel exhausted with life itself? Could we prevent the stress from getting to us as a couple and still find time for each other and our child?

If we only had own hands and a piece of land to rely on, could we sustain ourselves? Or are we doomed to rely on outsources and inputs and a system we neither trust, nor wish to support?

I don’t yet know.

Overall, I’m glad we came, even if it asked us more questions than it answered. It’s given us an appreciation we only thought we had.

One thing I know for sure: We could never do it alone. Part of what has made this difficult experience fun is the “community” built with the many friends and volunteers that have come and gone. Milking a cow in the cold is drudgery. Milking a cow, cooking meals, washing dishes, running from rouge turkeys, thinning carrots and taking funny Bench Monday photos while talking and laughing is something we have loved.

I’m interested in your thoughts on this…

I’d never used anything but a flush toilet, although I’d heard about alternatives. And much like beekeeping, it retained a place in my mind as intriguing but way beyond my comfort level.

After my first experience with their composting toilet and humanure system, I was pretty impressed. It definitely seemed a more sustainable option. But after getting my hands on Chris’ copy of The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure*, I’m so fully sold on the idea that I cannot imagine ever going back!

The world is divided into two categories: those who shit in drinking
water and those who don’t. We in the Western world are in the former class. We defecate in water, usually purified drinking water. After polluting the water withour body’s excrement, we flush the once pure but now polluted water “away”, meaning we probably don’t know where it goes, nor do we care. – The Humanure Handbook

This paragraph gave me an imagine of a snobbish, over-privileged society opening up a bottle of Perrier to take a piss. Except it’s a 3-7 gallon bottle of Perrier. Yes, this was the paragraph within the two chapters of disturbing and eye-opening citations that clenched it for me: Flush toilets are weird.

On the other hand, the benefits of a composting toilet are amazing. Some of them include:

• No water. Zero. Zilch. When you consider that, at best, you are flushing 3 gallons of clean water down the drain several times per day and when the lack of such sanitary water is attributable to 25 million deaths a year, 60% of whom are children…well, flush toilets seem pretty pompous.
• No smell. Seriously. If done properly, there will be no discernible odor. Which is more than I can say for some flush toilets.
• Less cleaning, which means less harmful chemicals. How many environmentally-conscious people out there still resort to something nasty to clean their stained toilet bowls? Especially if you “let it mellow”, the ring around the toilet can be disgusting to look at and impossible to remove without bleach.
• No splash back. Because could there be anything worse?
• No flush. The composting toilet is quiet when you’re worried about waking a household…or alerting guests as to what you’re doing.
• Compost. After proper, easy composting you’re left with rich humus for the garden.

Why Humanure

The reasons are pretty amazing and cover a broad spectrum. Rather than quote the entire book for you (and oh man, it is good stuff), let me run down a few of the book’s citations:

• We are the only species on Earth to create waste. Other species create resources. Manure – from any creature – is a resource. Would we throw money away? Then why throw away good water and good compost?
• The foods that animals eat help to nourish the land that provided it in the form of manure. Food grows > Food nourishes > Bodily excrements are left behind > Those excrements grow more food. We are the only part of nature that does not work within that cycle of life and growth, choosing instead to create a broken cycle of mostly synthetic inputs and wasting important outputs.
• Half of the 250 million+ tons of waste per year is valuable as an agricultural resource. Instead of composting it ends up in landfills, creating an excess of methane. Landfills are considered “‘among the single greatest contributors of global methane emissions’, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.”
• When considering that 1 in 3 people on every continent do not have access to clean water it makes it utterly ridiculous to crap in ours.
• Composting humanure by impoverished areas gives sparse or stripped land an ability to flourish, thereby feeding and sustaining life.
• Compost, including humanure compost, has the ability to degrade toxic chemicals. The book cites an Austrian farmer who owned the only farm not affected by the radiation from Chernobyl, believed to be due to the abundance of microorganisms in his soil. Also, the Umatilla Army Depot munitions site heavily contaminated with TNT and RDX restored the soil to “a better condition than before it was contaminated” after composting the soil. This also saved approx $2.6 million in incineration costs. (It’s estimated that if all such sites were composted it would save $200 million of taxpayers money. Hmm…) Could compost – something we could potentially have an abundance of, help restore other polluted areas?

But most of all, it’s sustainable. In a world of rising oil prices and depletion, we need to find alternatives to doing the things that simply don’t make sense. As food, sanitation and sewage costs continue to sky-rocket, I foresee more and more of us needing to “return to the land”, grow our own food without endless synthetic inputs and put an end to waste of any kind. Animal and human manure are a valuable resource that we will not be able to afford to lose in the future.

What About Germs?

We’re probably hard-wired to be disgusted by human waste. This mechanism helps keep us away from harmful pathogens and stay healthy. Not necessarily a bad thing. But those of us who wouldn’t bat an eyelash at using composted animal manures would be more than a bit concerned about using composted human manure in the same manner.

Properly composted human manure is free of pathogens or bacteria. It’s a process and not at all difficult, but describing how is worthy of its own book. And thankfully The Humanure Handbook* fills that void. It covers a broad spectrum of information from microorganisms to maintenance and even some philosophy. I dare you to read it and not reconsider your habits.

The Ironwood System

It’s pretty simple: A wooden box with a lid that lifts and a toilet seat on top. Inside is a five gallon bucket. Chris also has a fan installed inside the box that vents outside but we’ve yet to really need it. Beside the composting toilet is a bucket of wood chips. (You can also use straw or sawdust.) When someone uses the bathroom, they simple sprinkle material over the top. When the bucket gets full it is dumped into a humanure composting bin, which sits for a year before use. Chris has been using a composting toilet and humanure for about 8 years without issue. And it’s been feeding his gardens and his family for just as long.

I Won’t Go Back

I’m thankful that in the RV we use a measly cup or two of water to flush. If it’s just for #1 and the water pump is off, we can actually get by without using any water (by opening the hatch while we go, we don’t even need to rinse the bowl). If we had the room and a place to compost it, I’d set up a humanure system in a heartbeat. (I have heard of RVers using composting toilets with a trash bag that can be tied up and dumped normally, as well. It’s really not much worse than throwing away disposable diapers, just in larger quantities.)

But when we settle back into a home, I will not be using a flush toilet. I’m a convert, I love it and I’m not going back.

What about you? Have you used a composting toilet? Or would you try it?

*This is an affiliate link to Amazon. If you are considering buying this
book, please consider purchasing it (and any other books) using this link.
All earnings go toward supporting our family.

Wow! We’ve done so much and learned so much I don’t know where to start!

There are two other interns here with us – Erin from MN and Julie from Peru. We spent most of our first 24 hours just settling in and getting to know everyone before getting our hands dirty.

In the past few days we’ve observed cheese-making, woke up shivering to snow, made snowmen before it melted, built a chicken tractor and transferred chicks, fed a gazillion animals, eaten the yummiest food, moved hay, played with goats and kids, chased turkeys, been chased by geese, watered the greenhouse, sealed cracks in adobe flooring, asked a million questions, began learning Spanish and the coolest of all…

I milked a cow!! (So did Zeb!)

So many more photos here.

Being here is amazing and I feel so comfortable, despite the learning curve. I was telling Justin how easily I can picture us doing this same thing, but how I can’t imagine doing it alone. Working with the others, joking and laughing and talking, all while being in such a serene (albeit noisy) atmosphere is beyond description.

I’m hoping in the coming weeks to share more from Chris (the owner) about the sustainable housing, animal husbandry, alternative energy and all the other sustainable features of Ironwood.

For now I have some homegrown/raised food to eat and a bed calling my name. ::yawn::

I’ve made a note to myself so that next year I will plant much, much less cinnamon basil.

It did 10x better than our regular basil, perhaps because it ended up in a prime piece of real estate. It quickly overshadowed everything else in its bed; I found red peppers drying on the plant buried underneath them. The bees loved the beautiful purple flowers and the taste…well, it’s cinnamon basil alright.

I cut the basil off at the base of the stalk, rather than ripping it out. As many leaves as I could harvest are now drying on my countertop, I have a bowl full of seeds and the rest went into the compost. As an experiment, we also hung some of the stalks upside-down to dry, as well.

In it’s place I added some organic amendments to the raised bed and put in some (late) lettuce, spinach and broccoli seeds. None of that indoor seed starting stuff this time since it’s cool and sunny and the ground is staying moist between waterings.

These past few weeks have been crazy hectic, but all in good ways. We’ve been working on the RV and I’ve been working on something else. Right now we’re in a mad scramble to pack our things and leave for our annual camping trip with our local unschooling group. And then we’ll be able to relax while we eat, hike and play with friends all weekend!

Have a great weekend!

Eep! Ignore that water runoff, will ya? Thought we’d fixed that!

That’s the view from the front. Not quite as pretty as most of the larger sunflowers have either cut or picked through by the birds. We’re leaving them up until the smaller heads are gone too. I’ve really enjoyed the birds this summer, although now that their food source is dwindling, they are beginning to forage in places I wish they wouldn’t.

Here’s the views inside the gate. These photos doesn’t do justice: it’s worse than it looks. The cukes have all died but we’re leaving them in place as mulch for now. The ants demolished the corn, and the pumpkins. We got what we could from the plants but it wasn’t much (handfuls of chick feed and one pumpkin). They are working on the melons now.

I’d like to blame it all on the ants but I really can’t. It seems no matter how much we compost or amend the soil, everything is depleted of nutrients. My best, uneducated guess would be based on how green and lush the ash tree looks. I’ve never seen it more beautiful! I’m sure it’s really enjoying our added attention to its soil, even at the expense of everything else.

Based off our “success” this year, I think replanning and replanting the front with nitrogen-building perennials is the best way to go. Once they are established, plugging in some edible annuals won’t be a total waste of time.

Here’s the backyard orchard. It’s doing pretty well with several deep waterings a week, although the more shallow-rooted alyssum underneath didn’t agree. We may go back to drip irrigation so that we can plant more under the trees. There is one tree that seems to be the least happy and most attacked. This morning I noticed many of it’s leaves seem to be stripped. None of other trees have a mark. I can’t find a sign of anything but I haven’t tested the soil yet. Hmm…

The 2×2 square foot gardens in the middle are “compost gardens” – as in, we amended the existing soil with compost, added some nitrogen building legumes and watched a whole bunch of other plants pop up from the compost.

Above would be the raised beds. Remember the last photo? Apparently, the heat doesn’t stop the tomatoes from growing. Unfortunately they aren’t growing much along the lines of edible. Our basil is still rocking, as are the jalapenos. But we’ve only gotten enough grape-sized tomatoes for a couple snacks and a meal or two, and only enough romas for ONE spaghetti dinner. But I’m too nervous to prune and they are newly covered in blooms so we’re letting them do their thing.

Hopefully we’ll add more raised beds this fall around the “orchard” and onto the other side of the house. Lots of trellis in mind to climb anything possible.

This is the tortoise habitat which houses one of the grapevines. We’ve finally made it through a summer without losing our entire vine to grapeleaf skeletonizers, but it was close. Most of our desert plants have died, except for the honeysuckle shown near the bottom.

:sigh:

There ya have it. I’m trying hard not to be depressed over it. It has been a learning experience at least.

They destroyed our corn. Did I mention that? Yes, with the help of their aphid butt-juice drinking habit our corn is nothing more than chicken feed and compost. And we’ve gotten all of 3 beans from our bush and pole beans. That’s right folks. The easiest thing to grow and we got nada. Right now they are working their way through our melons and into our raised beds.

But it’s the ants in the kitchen that have really killed my appetite.

Ants baited with boric acid and honey. They loved it. Wasn’t much help, though.

Justin removed our RO system when he found it leaking. A few days later he admitted the water damage would require removing the walls and bottoms of the cabinets under the kitchen sink. That’s when he found the nest in the wall. From there the ants travelled from houseplant to houseplant, burrowing their larvae into the soil of each plant. After removing every plant from the vicinity and sealing every nook and cranny possible, I THINK we may have protected our kitchen.

Now, I’m okay with ants outside. In fact, I want some ants. They aerate the soil, even pollinate some plants. And..erm..I’m sure they do more than that. My problem is they also fight off insects that threaten their turf. So although our ladybug population initially increased with the aphids, it quickly disappeared. (Again.)

We tried a few things to decrease (not eradicate) the outdoor ant population. Cornmeal, essential oils, boric acid in several mediums. I’ve even encouraged the chickens to have a go at it. Nothing has worked. And I certainly don’t want to resort to anything stronger or deadlier.

Outdoor ants baited with boric acid and yogurt. Usually works great but these ants aren’t affected. They circle around in droves, eat it all up and skip away merrily.

Permaculture principles say to allow these imbalances to correct themselves. My role should be to support a healthy ecology by adding organic amendments to unhealthy soil, establishing appropriate plants and facilitating their growth. All of this of course takes time, which is my biggest frustration.

So I suppose my mission this fall, when replanning and replanting our yard, is to find and establish plants to repel ants and/or attract insects that eat ants. Any suggestions? Please?

I had only caught small glimpses of the books contents and while I had a mild understanding of permaculture, the practice of it had been eluding me. As I’ve come to find out, permaculture is a theory and describing it is a little like describing color to a blind man. Until you see it, you don’t really get it. Or at least I didn’t.

Gaia’s Garden cleared up any confusion! Not only did it clearly and concisely explain the theory, it gave numerous examples and applications. This book is jam-packed and my mind is still absorbing it. One thing is for certain, it has completely changed both Justin and my outlooks on gardening.
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Theory and Practice

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To put it as simply as possible, the theory behind permaculture (a contraction of “permanent agriculture”) is to design our gardens to emulate and therefore work *with* nature, rather than against it. Toby Hemenway, the author of Gaia’s Garden, draws on several references to explain the symbiotic relationships found in the wild – from “invasive” plants (which he describes as merely ”opportunistic”) to tree guilds, animals and insects. What he describes in his book are techniques to closely imitate these relationships, thus creating a self-sustaining and low-maintenance oasis with multiple functions.

The book covers such things as stacking functions, assisting soil life, greywater systems, insects and animals, and the abundant use of perennials. The author discusses things such as wind barriers, swales, land surveying, the efficient use of space and edges, poly-cultures and a myriad of diverse plants and their uses. He describes input vs output, describing that if we take the careful time first in design and planning a sustainable system, our input of both energy, time and resources (fertilizers, mulch etc) will gradually decrease overtime, leaving us with a natural eco-system that much like our wild forests need little help from us to thrive. The color photos, diagrams, and tables make understanding the principles and applications that much easier.
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Our Highlights

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There were some points that stood out to Justin and I. Well, really the entire book! But here are the primary ideas we took away from the book:

• Compost: Hemenway describes the biology of compost and the idea that the more it is turned, the less nitrogen is left. This really struck a cord with me after our sheet mulching/composting of the front yard left us baffled as we discovered so little nitrogen in our soil tests. We can now both see it was from our turning the matter in an effort to assist the breakdown. We’ve since stopped turning our compost pile as often and the breakdown has actually been more complete and gets much warmer.
• Keyhole Gardens: The book describes keyhole gardens as a way to maximize growing space and offers several ideas for design. This really confirmed the design of our own raised beds and after discovering the difficulty of accessing some of our front garden areas, our idea is to implement the same technique in the front yard.
• Perennial vs Annual: This is perhaps the biggest Ah-ha moment in the book for us. Hemenway describes the soil disruption caused by the removal of annual plants and the soil building properties of perennials. In our climate and soil conditions, I’m not sure that we could do away completely with raised beds but this has certainly changed our ideas of front yard usage. We now plan to redesign and replant the entire 645 sq ft area, based on the ideas in this book!
• Tables: One of the biggest benefits of this book is the use of tables to list hundreds of nitrogen-building, nutrient-accumulating, multi-purpose plants. This has been a non-stop resource for us and one of the biggest benefits in the book.
• Guilds: Many ideas and examples are given of ways to plant trees, shrubs and other plants together to assist the health and growth of each other. This is perhaps the most overwhelming part of the book for us, as we try to find our own climate-adapted plants with which to create guilds.
• Zones, Home, Community and City Permaculture: Hemenway discusses the use of zones in and around the home and even out into the community; what to plant or place within each zone of the garden and how to apply this principle within city design. I found it to be incredibly interesting.

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There is so much more but these are the points that jumped out at us. I couldn’t begin to describe to you all the benefits and aspects covered in this book. I’m sure as time goes on, we’ll be referring back to Gaia’s Garden often and gaining even more insight in the months to come.
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Only One Complaint

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The only downside of Gaia’s Garden is the assumption of the reader’s climate. Most of his descriptions seemed to fit more temperate climates, nothing quite as cold as Michigan, nothing nearly as hot as our hometown. Although the book covered ideas of permaculture in the desert, the difference in climate and rainfall between New Mexico and Southern Nevada are vast. Many of the ideas he offered don’t apply to us (deer? what are those?) and the idea that the catchment of our four inches of annual rainfall in Las Vegas would suffice for much in temperatures above 110 F in the summer meant a bit of skimming the greywater chapter (we did however pull some inspiration for washer machine water). But then that’s a headache we Las Vegans have about any gardening books, isn’t it? ;)

Overall, this book is fantastic in laying out the principles behind permaculture and describing many effective and simple ways of implementation. We’re really looking forward to adapting the knowledge it gave us to our unique climate, as we learn more about the techniques and theories behind permaculture.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in green living, gardening, sustainability, self-sufficiency, urban homesteading or even just landscaping! It has ideas to offer everyone and may even change your entire outlook, much like it for did us. (In fact if you see an increased discussion and focus on permaculture on this blog, you can credit this book!)

If you are considering purchasing this book, would you consider purchasing it from the link above or the Amazon widget on my sidebar? All the proceeds we earn are going into our Five Year Plan fund and I’d love to say this book contributed both to purchasing and designing our new home someday!

For more book recommendations, visit our Amazon aStore!

Our tomatoes are very stunted, our corn is anemic, our melons are stagnant. The ants and aphids seem to be the most prolific commodities in our yard and we (Justin, the beneficials and I) can’t seem to catch up or get ahead.

Not all bad news, however. We have more jalapenos than one family needs. Our basil are all very happy campers. Our cukes have only just begun to slow down. And our tomatoes – stunted though they are – still taste yummy. We’ve also harvested quite a few sunflower heads for drying (but we left plenty for the birds).

Soil fertility is still our biggest adversary. The fact that anything is even growing at all is a real testament to the miracle of life. We spent last weekend with an organic fertilizer recipe and this weekend we’ll spend our time with an organic foliar feed recipe. We’ve seen some growth and recovery from our efforts thus far but we still have a long way to go.

I’ve seen so many exciting and yummy garden photos lately. One of these days mine will look just as abundant!

Here are a few recent photos:

Now that Justin and I have read Gaia’s Garden, we’ve been rethinking so much about this garden. We have a lot of new plans that we hope to get started on this fall when the weather dips back down. Justin has promised that we would soon work on a post together to share our thoughts on the book and how it’s shaped our ideas in regards to our own yard and goals. (Co-blogging! Yay!) We have other exciting additions to our “homestead” to share soon too! (Good news! Yay!)

Update: Gaia’s Garden review found here.

How is your garden growing…Or not?

The bees have been increasing but we’re not the sort to leave anything to chance, and when you’re looking for a reason to play in the dirt, you take what you can get. Even if it means feeling a bit pervy.

Justin has been reading from Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners about the pollination of pumpkins. It was something he had hoped to do but it seems our pumpkin flowers only open in the morning when he was at work. I’m not sure if this is normal or simply a result of our heat. This left the job to me.

First, Justin showed me the male flowers. Not sure how to tell a male flower from a female flower? If the pumpkin flower is open, its maleness is pretty obvious. That thing sticking out? It’s called a stamen. Or you can pull a Tara and refer to it as its “thingy”.

If the pumpkin flower is closed, look at the stem directly under the flower. A male flower will be only a stem, while a female flower has what will become the pumpkin, its size depending on how soon its flower will open. This is the size of the pumpkin the day it opened, but we first saw it when it was the size of a pea:

When the female flower opens, it’s difference is easy to tell. Instead of a single stamen, it has a multi-segmented stigma. Or what I lovingly refer to as it’s “girly stuff”.

Hand-pollination was simple, albeit embarrassing. After asking permission and apologizing profusely, I rubbed a Qtip around the males stamen, picking up the pollen. (You can also use your finger, but I really felt that was taking it too far.) I felt more than a little dirty inserting that Q-tip into the females stigma. We both blushed, had a moment, moved on.

Within the day, the flower had closed up and began drying and it’s baby bump had already begun growing. Five days later, it’s grown exponentially (proof of my prowess, perhaps?):

This is our Howden pumpkin, BTW, planted for jack ‘o lanterns this Halloween. Who knew they’d also offer so much s*x education? Life learning at its best!

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For more great info on growing from and saving seeds, as well as how to pollinate, harvest and more, I highly recommend the following book. It is jammed packed with information from cover to cover; nothing superfluous or uninteresting. It even covers some of the history of the plant breeds and crosses. It’s one of our favorite and most used gardening books.