Have you ever seen a drawing of a garden design? The swoop-y paths, and the green circles that mean “this is where you put X”. How do they get there? Continue reading “Mark’s curvy paths”
Hello Land, good to meet you!
The Synthesis Document is a kind of getting to know yourself; the other side of this is getting to know your Land – or site analysis. I learned about site analysis from the Permaculture Design Course I took last year, discussed in an earlier blog. Continue reading “Hello Land, good to meet you!”
Project Synthesis Document
After we had agreed that we would work together, Mark said the first thing we should do would be create a Synthesis Document with all the jobs and functions that this project will need to fulfill. This document will help guide the design – because we will be able to look at the design and check off how all the jobs and functions are going to be met. Continue reading “Project Synthesis Document”
Appropriate Technology
The other day, we had a big snowstorm. It dumped 12 inches (30 cm) of the white stuff, and made everything very beautiful. Around here, with snow means snow-shoveling. As the storm eased up, I headed outside, and grabbed our shovel, which consists of a blue curved metal shaft (ergonomic), a blue plastic handle, and a blue plastic blade. Continue reading “Appropriate Technology”
Too many projects!
There are just too many projects in this house! Here is our living room again, currently undergoing repainting. Look how my garden-design desk has gotten smothered… Continue reading “Too many projects!”
Learning to share – again
When we are very young, our parents and our teachers teach us to share. Increasingly, modern social sciences tell us that humans are, by and large, naturally inclined to be cooperative and collaborative, so the nudges given to us as preschoolers have fertile ground to work with. Continue reading “Learning to share – again”
Making time and space
One thing about making a big change in your life is that there is still all this old stuff. While I’d like to spend most of my time on my terrific new forest garden project, things get in the way. Continue reading “Making time and space”
The Gigantic leaf pile
Many people groan when it comes to raking leaves in the Fall, but I don’t get it. I wait for a beautiful, sunny day after all the leaves have fallen. Then I go out with my rake, and enjoy being outside, the rhythmic swoosh-swoosh of the rake, and the crunchy rustle of the leaves. Continue reading “The Gigantic leaf pile”
First official step: a class
I have been dabbling in growing food for many years. Our yard, which is about 1/3 of an acre, has been gradually converted into a motley collection of fruit and vegetables. There’s the ramps, fiddleheads, and mushrooms back in the “woods”; the bees under the flowering cherry; the strawberries, currants, apples, sour cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and grapes. From May to October, we can go out on most days and munch on some fruit or green. It’s fun and rewarding, but I know that our production is just a fraction of what it could be. Continue reading “First official step: a class”
Community connecting
As I said, one of the exciting aspects of this new endeavor is that there are so many people who are trying to figure out how to grow food in a healthy, equitable, restorative way. Yesterday, I went to a Meetup hosted by the Boston Food Forest Coalition to work with some fellow farm folks at an Audubon sanctuary in Mattapan (two weeks ago, I attended another BFFC Meetup in Dorchester to plant a food forest on an urban waste plot with about 50 other volunteers and had a lot of fun). The BFFC is a very active organization that works with neighborhoods and neighbors to plant food forests all around Boston. Continue reading “Community connecting”
Why I want to be a farmer
We all eat. In fact, producing food is humanity’s largest endeavor. Every year, we produce almost ten trillion pounds of food — vegetables, fruits grains, meat, fish, mushrooms, eggs… It swamps other huge industries like cars and trucks, of which we produce a mere 400 billion pounds per year. According to Toensmeier in The Carbon Farming Solution, about half of the greenhouse gases we produce come from growing, processing, and transporting food. But there is a flipside: in the wonderful book, Drawdown, we find that changing what we eat, how we grow food and plants can help to restore the planet. Really: we humans can be part of the solution! Continue reading “Why I want to be a farmer”
Putting blueberries and asparagus to bed
Today was my first day back in the garden after a long hiatus recovering from various surgeries and going on a 7-week long walk through Spain and France along the old pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostella. Continue reading “Putting blueberries and asparagus to bed”
