Wasn't it supposed to be low maintenance?

It's well known among my friends that I'm a serious gardener and that I spend most of my non-working daylight hours in the garden apart from the hours at my full time work. They have also heard about me talking lots about applying permaculture principles to achieve a low maintenance garden - sometimes I fear that I almost preach Permaculture when I share with such enthusiasim.

Anyway, a friend who heard that I was always busy in the garden made this comment:

"ISN'T IT SUPPOSED TO BE LOW MAINTENANCE??",

it really got me thinking. After some soul searching (figuratively speaking) this is a rough summary of what I do in the garden:

I spend the evening walking around the garden harvesting produce or thinking about what I could be planting next. Then I will stand, sit or squat at one spot and be totally fascinated by the way some plants/elements interact with each other. Then I'll quickly rush into the house reaching for some books that I recall reading about that phenomenon. After that, I'll be inspired with a new idea of how to apply that new principle in future planting. That could inspire me to sow some seeds or spend the next few hours devouring that gardening book.

At a rough estimate, I spend 80% of my time observing the garden and getting inspired and maybe devote 20% of the time actually doing gardening and putting new designs in place. I hardly water my plants - hardly ever, except over the first 3 days after planting and then pray for rain :-) Most garden beds are heavily mulched.

In conclusion: it's a low maintainance garden that inspires the gardener to spend more time getting inspired in the garden .

Permaculture Paradise or not?

Photo by ROBERT CHARLES

Permaculture paradise

The Tribune, Sunday, 4 November 2007

Urban Permies are creating sustainable human environments, reports Ruth Vlaming.

Think sustainable and what springs to mind? Probably renewable energy, organics, recycling, but what about permaculture?

Permaculture, as defined its co- founder Bill Mollison, is a system for creating sustainable human environments. And in Palmerston North the Urban Permies are putting permaculture principles to work in the backyard.

Founder of the group, Esther Teoh, and husband Matthew Hook, have gradually converted their 640m2 property into a permaculture paradise, since acquiring it four years ago.

The quietly clucking chooks and flourishing veggies, interspersed with fruit trees and flowering plants, testify to their efforts to put theory into practice.

Ms Teoh says permaculture is about systems and relationships. For example, chooks scratch over the soil, helping prepare it for planting by removing pests and seeds and manuring it. They also provide fresh eggs. The chooks are moved around the property in a homemade portable chicken tractor.

Since things work together there is often less need for pest control, ground cultivation and weeding than conventional gardening methods - an important aspect with the couple working full-time, and doing house improvements. Ms Teoh finds the aesthetics of mixed planting pleasing too.

It wasn't difficult to find the information with plenty on the internet and in books and magazines.

Wikipedia says the word permaculture, coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture.

Through a series of publications, Mollison, Holmgren and their associates documented an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies.

Ms Teoh and Mr Hook have enjoyed the harvest of the past year with highlights 10kg of tomatoes from one plant last summer, and buckets of peas through winter. A stroll around the garden reveals blossoming apple, pear and quince trees, and immature fruit on the almond and currants. Newly planted beds of brassicas, leeks and celery are mounded with compost.

The wind break doubles as a trellis for vines, and also provides shade for smaller plants.

The very functional garden has not sacrificed attractiveness for production, however. A pretty variegated mint spills on to the path and rainbow silverbeet brighten the garden under the kitchen window. Calendulas provide splashes of colour throughout, and two manukas in full flower contrast with impressive globe artichoke heads.

All this is quite an achievement for someone who seven years ago didn't know anything about gardening.

"I killed cacti," Ms Teoh laughs.

A period of ill-health stimulated an interest in herbal remedies. Her first garden consisted of pots on a balcony. There herbs thrived and tomato plants flourished, enthusing her with rewarding harvests.

Ms Teoh dismisses the suggestion Palmerston North's climate is problematic for growing one's own food. It simply doesn't suit some plants, such as the banana plant she tried. And wind protection is vital, but possible with planning and design to achieve shelter and smooth wind flows. Observation is also important - noting what thrives where.

She says permaculture involves gradually working out solutions and always learning.

Total self-sufficiency is not the aim - the couple still buy basics such as rice, sugar and flour, but grow most of the vegetables they need and increasingly more fruit.

To share her passion for permaculture, Ms Teoh started Urban Permies earlier this year. The group meets on the first Saturday of every month to discuss permaculture principles and share tips, ideas and even produce.

"It's a place for interaction with like- minded people, you learn by sharing," Ms Teoh says.

New members are welcome and membership is free. For details email urbanpermies@orcon.net.nz or visit www.urbanpermaculture.org.nz.

Playing with videos...

Well, I wanted to find out how to embed youtube videos into the blog. It turned out to be simple.

So, without further adieu, here is video that shows the kind of thing you can achieve in a small urban back yard in California. Who says you need 6 acres? Just look whats going on in 1/5 of an acre! They are our inspiration.

Sheet Mulching

A few years back when we were just starting to learn about Permaculture, we discovered the concept of sheet mulching and very close planting. The idea is, don't dig. Digging damages soil and soil life.

Planting your plants close together mimicks nature and helps to reduce moisture loss and creates little microclimates where plants get protection from each other.

Have you seen the movie "The March of the Penguins"? When the penguins huddled together in the extreme cold they usually survived, but the moment they stray out on their own they die. Like the penguins, plants do better when grouped with other plants, rather than planted in their own mini deserts where they dry out or get burned by too much sun.

Here are some pictures of what we did, before and after things started to grow.

First, we lay out some old newspaper.

Then we covered it with pea straw to reduce moisture loss and suppress unwanted plants (weeds). In this we planted various a range of herbs and other plants making sure that we plant through the newspaper and into the soil below.


Heres what it looked like about 3 months later...


Much nicer than grass don't you think?

We later put Ponga log (tree fern) edging around it as you can see, and added gravel to the path. The gravel actually absorbs warmth from the sun during the day and releases it at night helping to regulate the temperature in this area and meant we have now had some limited success growing herbs like basil. Previously, they died rather quickly.

This is a reasonable approach to starting a garden, although we've tried other methods with better success which we'll share later.

Grocery shopping... at my backyard?

We've cut down our grocery shopping to about twice a month to shop for essentials that we can't grow in the garden. The two wondeful chooks have been supplying us with enough eggs since April 06 with enough to give some away to friends.

We're exploring using Linda Woodroo's mandala system to provide for most of our food..most posts to come..