It's been such an active season, which feels really wonderful.
We've finished cleaning up the West side of the house, allocating last year's compost. We also built framing for, sewed, and hung custom shade sails that make the house cooler -- summer is officially here in the high desert -- as well as which make that previously underutilized space another communal/hosting/patio type area just by virtue of being there and creating spacial separation.
My gardens are doing okay, something keeps eating my potato plants' leaves. I thought the birds that nest in the honey mesquite tree at first, but it keeps happening despite the chicken wire I've hung over the infiltration basin. My hunch is some insect, though I've yet to see the culprit in action. My white, black, and violet sages I replanted into the infiltration basin are doing great, though, as are the green onions and garlic I planted. Our nopales are slowly coming back, also, now that we've dug them infiltration basins and moved them to the shade of one of our mesquite trees.
We now have a water storage tank, a critical step in enabling us to get bigger livestock. It creates water resilience if the power goes down and our well pump doesn't work, and enables us to take some pressure off of our aquifers for minor irrigation projects.
A straw bale and adobe bunk house for guests and guest bathrooms are in the works, which will add to our capacity for hosting. A good thing, since we're grateful to be booked with visitors and loved ones from now until January.
We're planting five new trees to attract pollinators, some of our date palms are fruiting (despite being too immature to eat this year), and the infiltration basins on the North side of the property that were on hold are in progress again.
Our broody hen got confused when I moved her to her own coop the first time and abandoned her first clutch (that was my fault) but has successfully been sitting in the broody coop on a fresh clutch for a week now, so we're expecting teeny cluckers soon!
There are other projects that are set to begin soon, as well, but I'll have to update on those later on!
A reminder that if you ever want to support what we're doing here at the ranch, my Kofi directly funds projects like these and contains some sustainable goodies and unique art in return 🤍
Newly turned pile. First turning. I didn't have any manure when I built it a few weeks ago but judging by the insides it still built up a bit of heat. Added chicken manure in layers when I turned it. Should work out OK, I will turn it again in a few weeks and a few weeks after that it should be ready to go. #permaculture#compost#gardening
8x speed. I started filling this heap in late December 2023, filled it by the start of March 2024, turned it on 10 April and in this video am decanting it on top of the previous batch so it can mature for a couple more months. And also free up the bay for the next heap.
"#Permaculture Instructor #AndrewMillison travels to the City of Bengaluru, #India, to visit an innovative & visionary project to fix that city's #water crisis by restoring the city's water table. The Million Wells for Bengaluru project was founded by Home Biome & they already have 250,000 recharge wells built or restored throughout the city. This is a simple solution to a massive problem." #permaculture#restoration https://youtu.be/jvFk4NsYurA
I asked a guy, who was tearing up a driveway a couple miles from my place, if I could have the busted "urbanite" for #landscaping, as my site has NO rocks (unless they were brought here). I'm 72 and I really should find some helpers. Every piece gets picked up and set down at least 3 times before coming to rest, not to mention busting up the big piece and fine shaping the smaller ones. It adds up and my knees let me know they are not thrilled. Oh, well. I think it looks nice & I love the work. Keeps me exercised while wearing me down. Like Life. #urbanite#hardscaping#permaculture#gardening
À ton avis, elle est où la vie, la biodiversité ? Qu'est ce qui va mieux résister à la chaleur cet été ?
C'est aussi se poser la question "C'est quoi un jardin propre ?" #jardin#permaculture
In this month's composting newsletter: understanding the thermic phases, recording the sounds made by the bugs in the compost heap. Plus three songs about worms.
Next no dig bed in preparation, just waiting for some rain to wet the card before adding compost and woodchip. It’s quite a damp bed as in a little hollow so eventually will be home to a willow #permaculture#NoDig#Veganic#ForestGarden#Gardening
Après un CA des Sheds, une petite visite du parc-jardin s'impose. La Photo en illustration est l'entrée de la zone #Biodiversité du Parc-Jardin des Sheds, à Kingersheim.
Cette Zone n'est pas destinée au potager, ni aux fleurs, mais à laisser des zones contrôlées de végétation naturelle.
C'est aussi notre réservoir d’orties (pour le purin). La deuxième photo montre le hache-paille antique qui nous sert tant.
Design & Build: From Raw Land to Small Farm
Our next permaculture workshop is on April 27th up in San Miguel. Join us for a tour of a grow-to-donate vegetable farm and fruit orchard in San Miguel. We will discuss the design of the farm, terracing, water system, crop layout and rotation, and Spring planting pre https://www.permacultureday.org/listing/design-build-from-raw-land-to-small-farm/
Permaculture Northern Beaches’ International Permaculture Day 2024
This year our INTERNATIONAL PERMACULTURE DAY event will be taking place on Sunday May 5th at the wonderful New Leaf Nursery, Ingleside.
It's set to be a full and festive afternoon with something for everyone!
We have put our chicken house into operation 🙂 We have been tinkering with it for a long time. We have built a new home for chickens with a sea view using old dismantling material from our construction sites. From now on there are eggs from our own #permaculture 🙂
A very satisfying afternoon pruning the lavatera at the station garden, then putting the prunings through a chipper borrowed from #Exeter#LibraryOfThings to make wood chippings we can use in the #Hotbin composter. It all felt nicely #permaculture, using the waste from one job to make something we could use for another process.