Much Mulch - Sheet Mulching

Even though it has been a cool and relatively moist spring in our otherwise arid territory, mulching is an activity high on my list. My big vegetable garden is one solid blanket of mulch. I learned to coerce the neighbors into bringing all of their fall leaves to my garden beds, plus all that free shredded wood available at our local recycling station is spread over all the pathways, and straw mulch is covering whatever is left exposed to the sun. There are remarkably few weeds, and soil is cool and moist - a definite plus for a climate where overexposure to heat and dry air is a concern.
Another garden (my husband points out - "this is not a garden, this is our front yard") - that place where we grow onions, kitchen herbs, cooking greens and lots of asparagus - yes in our front yard, so we can see the progress every day! - had not been mulched much. The problem has been in keeping our chickens under control. Despite a very high fence, they still manage to get in and dig up my garden beds like they are in heaven, searching for left-over seeds in straw, and bugs that love to hide under any mulch layer. So we have not been mulching much, until now. A raccoon got into the coop and reduced our chicken population to a desperate number of three (3!) birds. That is unheard of at our farm, but for a number of reasons we will be not getting more hens, therefore at least the mulching can begin.

Heavy use of mulch was popularized by Ruth Stout, a slightly eccentric Quaker gardener who wrote the “Ruth Stout No Work Garden Book”. Ruth described her method as the “no dig, no work” method. It was to simply place 18” of moldy hay or straw on top of the garden soil and then plant into that mulch. So much the better if you tucked your kitchen scrapes underneath the straw cover. Her articles written in the fifties and sixties for the Rodale magazine “Organic Gardening” were very popular and her techniques widely practiced. Permaculture took her methodology one step further and added a layer of weed-suppressing material – cardboard, newspaper or old fabric; this was laid directly on the ground and covered up with a mix of manure and organic mulches. This mix works well in majority of climates, with the possible exception of the high desert where biomass tends to fossilize at high temperatures and low humidity unless shaded or otherwise protected. Sheet mulching suppresses a majority of weeds, keeps the soils cool and moist, and creates a favorable growing environment for plants and soil biota. It also offers an elegant way of recycling carbon back into the soil, by using paper, cardboard, straw, brush or wood chips as part of your mulching techniques.

Read some of Ruth’s answers about mulching here:
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-189,00.html and
www.homestead.org/Gardening/Ruth%20Stout%20-%20The%20No-Dig%20Duchess.htm

When I first started gardening in the "permaculture way" I was pleased to have something from the garden for a few weeks in August - this is just how it works with gardens - lots of waiting, caring and then some fast fading results. Then I began to realize, that a few weeks in August are a far way away from actually sustaining oneself with food - somehow that took a few years to comprehend! (I guess starting to garden was a big change to begin with, so the analytical thinking did not kick in until some experience was accumulated!) -

Things have changed since then. With a small greenhouse and a few hens I got into making an occasional all-home-grown meal (aka omelet) year around.

Then our young fruit trees kicked in and now we have fresh fruit to eat from June (peaches, mulberries, currants, gooseberries) to October (Asian Pears, apples, late-season peaches). These are also canned and dried, to last even longer.

Then the goats came (against my husbands wishes, he is still at best lukewarm towards them.... for an unknown reason. I am the one taking care of them!). The goats really moved us to the next level. Milk for 10 months out of the year, plus meat that lasts for as long. Now we actually eat most of our meals made with home grown ingredients: cheeses, yogurts, canned chutneys or salsas, eggs, greens, dried or canned fruit. I learned to use the vegetable garden with more efficiency so we harvest from it more frequently.

Next year our asparagus will come into production. There are 80 roots I planted before I ran out of energy and enthusiasm. And this year we added 50 raspberries. So we will see how all this turns out!

Making Changes - by Scott Pittman

With the spectre of peak oil, global climate change, loss of biodiversity, political tensions surrounding access to natural resources, world-wide epidemics and poverty we as a nation and a species are forced to look at our behavior and how it impacts our world.

Many of the solutions being presented by our political leaders are compounding the problems. The whole rush to the biofuels "solution" proposed by both Al Gore and George H. Bush are good political examples of how to turn a problem into a disaster. The proposed use of our most fertile cropland to provide fuel from the most energy-intensive plants (corn, sorghum, soy, and sugar cane) creates a food deficit, further destroys remnant native ecosystems, while at the same time accelerates the use of fossil fuels to create biofuels. Fertilizer, after all, is a byproduct of gas and oil. Behind these quasi-solutions to peak oil lies the greed for more profits at the expense of the natural world. In virtually every instance the only road to sustainability is the one paved with the bricks of individual life style change. We are past the age of the technological fix and are faced with the need of social fixes.

Most of the changes that we must make are not really that onerous but are simply inconvenient. Taking the time to discover what food is grown locally and purchasing that rather than our current eating habits that represent 1500 miles of transportation per bite; we could be supporting the local farmers in our community by eating close to home and at the same time decrease fuel use and CO2 emissions.

Learning to garden, to grow at least few things to reduce the need to rip out some distant mountain side or a valley for a monoculture of a commercial cropland has some significant beneficial effect, locally and globally. Developing our homes toward energy-efficiency and resource conservation by harvesting rainwater, planting edible plants, and using the sun for space and water heating are simple to accomplish and in the current political climate may provide you with tax benefits. Carpooling, using a bus, switching to a bike all allow us to meet our neighbors, get in shape and reduces not only our financial overhead, but our ecological footprint.
(Photo by Jennifer Esperanza)

The latest technological fix is of course going to be trialed in Africa - if no one noticed the starvation of millions during the "green revolution", perhaps they won't notice the introduction of genetically modified seed (gmo) being promoted by Bill Gates and the Rockefeller Brothers. They have managed to get Kofi Annan to shill for them and Monsanto is footing the bill for Kenyan agricultural extention agents. All of this in the name of saving Africans from starvation. Heard of any of this in anyones presidential platform?

How does one fight such financial behemoths as Bill Gates, Rockefeller Brothers, Monsanto, and Archer Daniels Midland, especially if you are African? This is the slimey underbelly of a capitalist system gone mad and it is totally hidden from view. It makes it very difficult to get too concerned with whether Obama is more elitist than Hillary or McCaine.

Who will save the traditional seeds of Africa, where is Nikolai Vavilov when we need him? How did it happen that African scientists and farmers have no say in their future? The same way it happened that we elected George Bush for two terms. It seems to me that we have perhaps passed many of the dreaded tipping points and it is time to plant a garden (open pollinated seeds of course), and get to know our neighbors. It is after all spring!

The City Chicken, The Country Chicken

If the idea of getting a few chickens has been on your mind, now is a good time for making preparations and starting on your back yard poultry project. Keeping chickens is fun and easy, and it is not against the law in many urban areas. To see a partial list of US cities and towns and their respective laws on keeping farm animals within the city limits, visit http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/chickenlaws.html

Spring Dreams

Despite continuing cold weather, there is something in the air spelling spring and another magical bountiful season. Of course between now and then in NM there is allergy season, an event that dampens my enthusiasm and seriously diminishes my ability to do much work outdoors. However, this time around I will (I hope!) be better prepared to handle the pollen storm by eating local honey to build my tolerance; by taking some local herbal tinctures to assist my body in keeping up with the assault; and by sticking with simple foods to nurture me. So with this recognition of the junipers’ right to procreate out of the way, what else is there in the air, spelling spring?

The buds on the trees are still small, but more prominent. The great horned owl that lives in the 60-year old spruce near our house has won the war with a pair of crows over their nest and is now busily nesting, announcing her presence with hooting day and night. The days are clearly longer. Our backyard chickens started laying their delectable eggs, with bright orange yolks, so flavorful that no store-bought egg can compete with it in taste or looks. In fact the ones in the store always look bleached to me, stripped of their taste, color and essence, and they are! I feel lucky that we only have to buy eggs two-three times per year, when our hens are resting. The difference is so striking!

Guineas are chasing each other around, feathers flying - amorous Spring frenzy. They also talk to each other all night long when roosting on the old apricot tree. I wonder how their vocal cords can sustain this endless conversation? What is it about? Does it go like this: "Is all well?" - "All is well!" - "Are you sure?" - "I am sure!" repeated until sunrise?

My lettuce patch in the cold frame is in the full swing, having waited out the coldest and darkest days of the year. Longer days are encouraging for lettuce and other cold-weather plants (chard, kale, cabbage, spinach). Mine are growing happily. Now is a good time to plant some seeds in a cold frame if you have not done so earlier in the season – they will reward you with a crop in about 40 days. Onion sets can go in the ground any day now (if the soil is workable, which it is).

Home, Plants, Sun, Water

I am constantly amazed how warm and cozy our solar house is, my appreciation for its pleasant ambiance is growing with each passing year. My husband, Scott Pittman, designed it back in the day when I still could barely understand how solar homes worked. For a long while I took it for granted. But as I see other homes, answer questions of our visitors, I am beginning to understand that we are truly living in a miraculous house. It "knows" how to absorb a very significant amount of sun's energy in the bitter cold winters, cooling off only slightly into the next morning, needing very little additional heat from our masonry stove to keep it at 68 Degrees even through the single digits frosts.
Our house "knows" how to provide enough light for the 600 sf interior greenhouse on the hottest summer day without overheating the house in the slightest. It is a large house, kind of embarrassingly large, nearly 2400 sf - but a large portion of it is interior is a waste water treatment greenhouse, which you can see on the photos above. All of our water (I mean ALL of it) goes into this very simple pumice bed which has some light soil on top. There, without any contraptions or moving parts, or energy inputs, it is being processed by bacteria into nutrients for our plants. The plants, besides being very lovely, also cleanse our home from any pollutants, they transpire the moisture from the pumice bed underneath and make our home a little more humid in the typically low (10-20%) humidity of our arid environment. Some are food producing too, although one cannot count on it for survival!
Our interior walls are made with bales of straw, creating a very quiet home, which is also very good at keeping constant interior temperatures. In the summer it is cool (the window and roof overhangs are designed to keep the sun out of the house); in the winter all of our absorptive surfaces (walls and floors) are awash in the sunshine, warming up with each hour. For heat we use a Russian (masonry) oven, which is very heavy with its incredibly thick masonry walls. It takes a while to get it hot, but once it is hot, it takes a while for it to cool off - making it into a very efficient device! An added benefit - it can be fueled with twigs, which allows us to be self-sufficient using just dead wood from our small woodlot. The more I think about all of this, the more I realize - this is a truly fabulous house we built!

Giving Gifts, Giving Thanks

As the holiday season sets in, we turn our eyes toward home, hearth, family, and our inner circle. Akin to other seasonal migrants, we travel to other places or open our own dwelling for gatherings, story telling, gift giving, and meal sharing – revisiting the familiar rituals that revive the meaning of this time of the year.

This celebratory season starts with the remembrance of our dead, of the ancestors; then the celebration of life, of harvest, abundance and giving follows, concluded by the observation of rebirth. We decorate our homes with symbols of light and life, symbols that often have been transplanted here by other cultures. Their representation is very powerful, yet it begs the question – what is the meaning of this season for this land, for this people? What is the ritual, the story, the tradition that is uniquely distinct and meaningful for this land?

What gifts and food stuffs really come from this land and our hearts, not from the store – that is the question that come to my mind every holiday season. With each year I take it a little bit further – with a commitment now to only give hand-made gifts. Our extended family is diverse and varied in its preferences when it comes to gift giving, so it is hard to figure out at times how to meet expectations and stay on track, but I am getting better at it!

My gift making began in early July, with garlic harvest and braiding, and packing peach chutney and preserves in pretty little jars

This went on for the few months of summer, as my collection of edibles grew. Then I got some yarn from a local spinner, and started knitting – toys & clothing for the kids, scarves for adults,a couple of dearly loved but no longer needed books will be re-gifted, a fabulous baby blanket made of recycled fabrics and antique lace for the youngest in the family.

My husband Scott has made a few simple but very cute bird feeders out of scrap wood; he is also finishing up a hand bound version of his travel journal for this year. Some of our artisan home-made goat cheeses will be given away, or served. We are not against shopping, so a few exotic items will make it in the mix, but for sure there will be no buying “something” just to mark off a name on the list of family and friends.

Somehow making gifts and decorating our home with our own hands allows us to instill a little of our love and gratefulness to friends and family; it is a very special gift to very special people.