I would like a link, please!

Thanks, Nicole! I'm having a lot of fun with it. So much to write about, and I do love to ramble on. : )

Thanks for the likes! Every little bit helps. I'm really trying to set up a good site, and hopefully will make some money from it as well.
I'm going to put more Digital Market stuff on it too. Some good stuff in there.

Thanks for the visit!

Hey, Nicole;

I just found this thread, and thought I'd drop my info on here. I live in the northern end of the Pacific Northwest – the southern west coast of British Columbia Canada.

My website is Living Permaculture - a site dedicated to teaching people how to grow their own food, and generally take care of their own needs.



I also have a couple of Project threads on here, which you can see in my signature below.

Great idea for local inspiration!

Garden update almost-May 2020

What a world, hey? Not even gonna talk about it. It’s spring! That’s all I need to know. : )

The garden is planted, except the beans and zucchini, and some succession stuff that will come as time goes on. The garden this year will have fewer flowers, and more food. We are really trying hard to keep our trips to the grocery store to a minimum, so we’re really pumping up the garden, and trying to get as much out of the space as possible.








One of the great things about the garden this year is that I left quite a bit of stuff growing in the fall, and it’s continued growing and is giving us greens already.

I have:

perennial arugula
chard
kale
beet tops
summer celery
and of course, the herbs: oregano, thyme, chives, lemon balm, sage, and rosemary.









We also have lots of volunteers in the garden. Mustard is coming up all over, and so is parsley. Both very tasty and lovely things to have coming up all over the garden.

We built a large planter along the roof of the shop for growing tomatoes. This spot gets lots of sun, and should work out great. We also built a potato bed below the planter. It’s not huge, but it will give us a few spuds. Oh, and I can’t forget the bathtub on the roof! That’s where the cayenne peppers will grow.



We were a little behind in planting some stuff, due to slow delivery of seeds. But I’m sure everything will catch up.

I've also been busy working on webpage. It's been great fun! Take a look, and leave me a message, if you're feeling so inclined.

This is my new online business. Hoping to make some money at it, and keep working toward getting my own place. Still dreaming big . . . : )



I hope everyone is staying safe and happy, and you’re all growing food this year.

Cheers
Tracy

Thanks for the replies, gang. I'll try our your ideas.

The socks and pants he wears, he has owned for a while, so it's not that. And there just isn't anything else new that could be causing an allergic reaction.

Perhaps it is a circulation thing, so I'll try some massage too. Hopefully I can give him some relief.

My friend has recently become afflicted with insanely itchy calves - sort of where the top of his socks are, and slightly higher. There is no rash, it's not hives, and it's driving him crazy.
We haven't change laundry soaps, or any thing like that. It seems to me that if there is no rash, it must be a nerve thing? I really don't know.

Does anyone know of anything that I might try to help him out? He's threatening to go to the doctor, and I just know they'll give him something nasty to put on it. I'd really like to try some other options before he decides to slather cortisone or something on it.

Any ideas?

As much as I love the abundance of summer in the garden, autumn has its own abundance. I love the colors of autumn. I love the crisp cool air, and the smell after the rain. And I’m excited to compile all of the information from this first year garden, and decide what I will grow where next year. I love the planning.

I have herbs drying for teas and cooking - parsley, lemon balm, bee balm, stevia, rosemary, oregano, sage, and soon some chives - and concoctions brewing for herbal remedies and skin care.









And I made my first ferments! Wow. So tasty. I sorta kinda followed a recipe I found on line that is a bit like kimchi, but uses kale. I have a lot of kale. And I loved it!

So I’ve done another 6 quarts, using some purchased veg - garlic, bok choi, jalapeños, ginger, carrots - and as much as I can from the garden:

kale
chard
beet tops
parsley
summer celery
leeks
green onions
chives

The next one will include the above, plus some carrots, kohlrabi, and beets that are about ready, and as many herbs as we have left hanging around: rosemary, sage, and oregano mainly. Oh, and I’m going to throw in some lemon balm into a jar as well. Hopefully it will add a nice citrus flavour. I wonder if the medicinal qualities will remain after fermenting? Should be an interesting experiment. AND! Cilantro. I’ll put that in a couple of jars and see how it tastes.

I’ll also have some green tomatoes, and will try those in some ferments to see how it tastes. Maybe do it with cilantro, garlic, and hot peppers, to make a fermented green salsa! mmmmmm

Anyway, I think fermenting is my new favorite way to preserve! Next year I hope to have a good dehydrator, but this year fermenting is the way I’m going.




But the garden season isn’t really over. There are still things growing in the garden; still things to harvest, and hopefully some to eat throughout the winter - unless we get gobs of snow like we did last winter. But the kale is tall enough to poke up through the snow. : )




Still growing in the garden:

Parsley
Chives
Summer Celery (which didn’t grow worth a damn in the summer, but kicked in when the cooler weather came)
Chard
Kale
Arugula
Kohlrabi
Carrots
Beets
Beet tops
Mustard











And the flowers:

Calendula
Marigold
Sweet Allysum
Cosmos (which are HUGE, and didn’t start blooming until the end of September)






I planted some veggies at the beginning of September, but then we got weeks of rain, and very little sun, so they didn’t all really kick in. But I’ll be getting some beet tops, chard, kale, baby greens, and cilantro, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

And of course, the cool, damp weather has brought out the slugs and snails. But that’s to be expected here on the Wet Coast. We have to share. : )

Most of the garden doesn’t get any sun now, so I’m harvesting all I can, and will put it to bed soon.





Compost

We do love gathering things for the compost. Of course, there are the leftovers from harvesting, cleaning out the garden, and chopping veggies for the ferments, which all go in the compost.

We also pee in jars and put that on the compost piles. : )

In the name of diversity, we also gather leaf mold from the forest floor of deciduous forests; and we’ll be gathering maple leaves soon from the same spot we gathered from last year, to use to mulch the garden.

AND! When we go for walks with the dog . . . we gather elk poop. : ) Yes indeed. We take our bags and our gloves and scoop it up and take it home. We’ve done lots of looking around, and found the best places where they congregate and eat in the evenings. We don’t have room for animals here, so this is how we’re incorporating animal manure into our compost piles.

It’s great exercise, and I’ve gotten to see a lot of the country side around my new home. It’s quite beautiful, and quite abundant. We also spent quite a bit of time this summer gathering deadfall to use in the rocket stove; and of course, last fall when we were building the garden, we gathered deadfall to use in the hugelkultur garden beds. There is an abundance of material in nature that we can use for building healthy gardens. We don’t have to buy it.

And seaweed! We’ll be gathering that as well. Such diversity in our compost piles will surely make the second year in the this garden even better.

The one resource that some of you might find controversial is . . . recycling peat and perlite that we find dumped in the woods, that was once used for growing marijuana. We get that a lot around here. : )

Having read up on how grow ops generally grow their weed, and knowing that it’s generally grown safely around here, I have few qualms about using it. We put it through the compost process, layered in with the greens, manure, straw, and urine, and feel quite safe using it after that. Most of the stuff we gathered had been sitting out for quite a while, so it has been rained on and leached.

The fact is, I just couldn’t let such as valuable resource go to waste. All that organic matter! And the waste of such a precious and finite resource as peat moss! I just couldn’t do it. It’s perfect for beefing up the sandy soil here. So, while some may think this a bit crazy, I am pretty confident that it is a good thing.




~

And that’s the fall garden! It really was an amazing first year garden. Most things worked well, a few weren’t great but still contributed to our summer diet, and a couple were total fails. But that’s gardening - it’s always an experiment in timing, climate, pest control, and soil health. I always learn a lot, and will apply what I’ve learned this year to next year’s garden.

You really do have to observe a site for a year before you know all there is to know about it. Light being the limiting factor here, I’ve learned where I’ll be planting things next year to get the most out of the garden in space and time. If it were MY place, there are a couple trees that I’d cut down. But it’s not, so I won’t. : ) So it will be a matter of utilizing the light there is, and optimizing the space to get the best harvest.

I’ve scoped out a better spot to grow tomatoes for next year - they just didn’t get enough light on the deck - and hopefully we’ll have a better harvest next year.

I hope you all had a fabulous garden season, and were able to put aside a little for the winter.

And now, to wait until the new seed catalogs come out!

Cheers
Tracy

PS

As you probably know, Paul and Shawn’s book is printed and ready for purchase - you can grab a copy HERE.. As you may not know, I illustrated and did the layout for the book. I just got my copies in the mail, and I think it’s GORGEOUS! But I might be a little biased . . . : )

August update

Planting a fall garden is like spring all over again! Preparing the soil, adding compost, planting seeds, and watching daily for signs of life. I love it.





The peas that were planted in March finished, and I’ve cleared them out and planted broccoli, green onions and parsley. I planted the fall peas along the fence, along with green onions, dill and cilantro.





Fall carrots have been planted, as well as a new crop of mustard, to take over when the current crop goes to seed. I’ll sow some pac choi, when the weather cools down a bit more. Radishes too.

The volunteer tomato plant that sprung up in the garden has fruits forming. Curious to see how much we get from it, and what kind of tomato it is. We had some more volunteer tomatoes spring up in a pot, which we transplanted to the garden, and some other pots, just to see what happens.

We had our first cucumber the other day - so juicy and tasty. I planted Green Dragon cucumbers, from West Coast Seeds. One of the plants has the usual Green Dragon fruits. But the other two have different fruits - smoother, shorter, and fatter. Not sure what happened there, but they’re all tasty. That’s all that really matters. Green Dragon is an F1 hybrid.





The kohlrabi is also doing okay. Very tasty, too.





I took out the last two zucchini plants. I think the blossom end rot is a calcium deficiency. Definitely not a lack of pollination - the garden is always buzzing with bees and other insects. So next year I’ll have to make sure I get some calcium into the place where I’ll be planting zucchini. I really miss having it. It’s one of my faves, and I LOVE zucchini bread. : (

I have some leeks growing, and am curious to see how they do once the weather gets cold and the garden isn’t getting much sun.

The Black Turtle Beans are LOADED with pods. I’m pretty stoked about that. Really looking forward to trying homegrown black beans. I love black beans, but have never grown them. They are in the process of drying down now. If I get a good harvest, I’ll plant more next year.





I have a couple of scarlet runner beans growing by the gate. They got majorly set back by slug damage when they were small, but they have bounced back, and are growing really well. They have reached the top of the fence, and are blooming, and even making some pods. They’re quite lovely.

The sweetpeas are gracing the garden fence with their sweet blossoms. My favorite scented garden flowers. The sweet alyssum (my second favorite scented garden flower) bloomed sweetly, and I cut it back to get a second bloom. The nasturtiums are running rampant, and bringing hummingbirds to the garden. Nice. I had to take out a couple of massive ones, to make room for more food. Marigolds and calendula are still pumping out the blossoms; but the borage is winding down - although I see that they have dropped their seeds all over, and I am ‘weeding’ them out. The bees will miss them. But there are still plenty of bloomin’ things in the garden.




This whole garden has been an experiment to see what grows well in a garden with less than optimal light. So far so good on most things. Now to see how it does in winter. Most of the garden really won’t be getting much sun at all in the winter, so hopefully things grow fast over the next couple of months, and I’ll have veg to harvest in the winter. I’m trying to be strategic in where I plant things, so they get as much sun as possible.









The parsley and arugula are still going gang busters. II’ve been making pesto with the greens in the garden. I’ll be making a bunch more to put in the freezer. Great way to preserve greens for winter tasties. So far I’ve made arugula, arugula and parsley, and turnip greens and kale pestos. Pretty dang tasty.

Pestos I’m going to try:

Parsley and dill - this would be awesome on fish, or as a salad dressing
Brassica greens and herbs - will be nice added to winter stews
Mustard - winter stews, stir fries, or as a marinade. yum
Cilantro - I’ll use this to make fresh salsa
I’m also going to try adding lemon balm to a batch and see what that’s like. Might be nice with the cilantro.

Rosemary and oregano will be dried, along with parsley, summer savory, sage, and hopefully a bit of thyme. I started the thyme from seed, so it’s still pretty small. But it will kick in next year and I’ll have lots.

Other things that I will be drying are kale, tomatoes (we had our first ripe ones the other day!), and peppers. And we’re going to pick a bunch of blackberries too, and dry them. Maybe make fruit leather out of them. That would be yummy.







The cucumbers are doing surprisingly well, considering they don’t get as much sun as they probably prefer. I’m going to try some fermented pickles with them, although they’re not the pickling type. I’ve heard that they might not be crisp once fermented. But I’ll try a jar and see how it goes.

I’d also love to try some fermented salsa. I think that would be a great way to preserve summer freshness. I read that I can ferment greens, so I tried a jar, but it went bad. But I think I like the idea of making pesto with the greens instead, and freezing them - or just blanching and freezing. I think I’ll really enjoy that ‘fresh greens’ flavor this winter. I’ve got a jar of grated turnip that should be fermenting, but it’s not bubbly at all. Smells great, and definitely has a ‘fermenty’ smell. This is my first time doing ferments, so I don’t expect to get it all right the first time. : )




Fall and Winter crops

Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Turnips
Beets
Mustard
Kale
Parsley
Carrots
Arugula
Cilantro
Green onions

Oh, and I’ll be planting garlic too. Better figure out where those are going to go, so I save space for them.





Herbal remedies projects

I’ve been picking and drying calendula flowers all summer, to make an infused oil to use as a base for salves and skin cream. My tiny house was festoon with hanging bunches for weeks. Very festive. I’ve got two quarts of calendula infused grapeseed oil brewing now. And I have two small jars, one of cayenne infused oil, and one of comfrey infused oil.









I’m also going to make a rosemary infused oil, and some herbal vinegars. Great to use for cooking, as well as skin and hair care! Hmmm maybe I should do Apple Cider Vinegar infused with rosemary for a hair rinse. That would be a good one. I also have 3 jars of Fire Cider brewing. All of these will sit for a month, and then I’ll strain and rebottle them.





I also have plantain (harvested from the property), and (other leaves that I don’t think I can mention the name of here) drying, to make into infused oils. And today I’ll lay out some lemon balm to dry, for the same purpose. I’m really having fun stocking up my apothecary. Can’t wait to start experimenting to see what works for our various aches, pains, and maladies. Menopause has left me a little ragged around the edges, so I’m excited about putting my new found remedies to the test. My skin and hair need some TLC. : )




The outdoor kitchen project

The outdoor kitchen is pretty much done. The structure is up and roofed. We decided to go with a clear roof, so the space will be a little brighter. The floor is cement and wood. Doesn’t it look great? There will be a table/counter in there at some point.





The rocket stove gets lots of use. We cook our dinners on it almost every night, as well as using it to make stove top granola and honied ginger on a regular basis. So tasty.

We do love playing with the rocket stove. So far we’ve cooked the normal fare - stew, stir fry, fried eggs, pasta, potatoes, etc. But we’ve also used it to make rice, oatmeal, and popcorn. And! We’ve use the cast iron Dutch oven on it to cook pizza, bread, cookies and biscuits. Works great - just have to put a few coals on top, and it’s just like a little oven. We went blackberry picking the other day, and made a blackberry crumble on the rocket stove. So delicious.





This week I’ll be digging a hole beside the rocket stove for the haybox cooker. I’m really looking forward to cooking up some big pots of beans and chickpeas to put in the freezer. I do love my black beans. : )

The in-ground cooler is working pretty well. I think we’ll add a little more insulation around the inner cooler to see if we can make that ice last a little longer. But eventually Rich is going to build a box to go inside the hole - which is lined with bricks - and make it good and insulated. I’ll keep you posted on its progress.

~

Things that are doing/did really well in the garden:

broccoli - still getting side shoots galore
parsley
arugula (perennial)
snowpeas
mustard
cucumber
black beans
radish
green onion
kale
oregano
thyme
chives
cilantro
lemon balm
nasturtium
marigold
borage
calendula
sweetpeas
sweet alyssum

Things that did/are doing okay

carrots
turnips
lettuce
summer savory
kohlrabi
rapini
bee balm

Things that didn’t do well

zucchini - blossom end rot - lack of calcium?
summer celery - pretty puny. I don’t think I’ll plant it again next year. I have lovage growing now, so that will be my celery replacement.


And that’s where we’re at with all of our projects.  I’m very pleased, and look soooo forward each day to picking my food fresh from the garden, and cooking it in the outdoor kitchen. And I’m loving building up my store of herbal remedies from the garden and property. This is the life. : )

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful gardening season.

Cheers
Tracy

Thanks, Nancy. I'm really enjoying this garden. Just about to do an update!

Always happy to be an inspiration!

Yeah, it's a pretty fiery blend. Best used in small quantities. : ) But lots of goodness in there. It's a great tonic.

I just made some Fire Cider. It has to sit for a month, and then I'll strain it.

Fire Cider Recipe

1 lg horseradish root, about 7” long, scrubbed, grated
1 lg ginger root, about 7” long, grated
1 lg onion, chopped
1 lg orange, skin and all, chopped
1 lemon, skin and all, chopped
16 cloves of garlic, chopped
2-4 habanero peppers, stem removed, chopped
1 tbsp ground turmeric, or fresh turmeric, grated
raw apple cider vinegar
raw honey (add after straining, to taste)

Run quickly through a food processor, or just chop the orange, lemon, and peppers into small chunks. Add everything to 2 quart jars (or whatever jars you have). Pour enough vinegar to cover. Seal and store in cool dark place for 4 weeks. Strain and bottle. Take 1-2 tbsp daily, or use as salad dressing, in cooking, or in hot water.

Other things I added: parsley, rosemary, oregano

I'm really looking forward to trying it. I've had pre-made Fire Cider, but have never made my own. It packs a punch!

Don't wait for brassica starts! Direct seeding works great for brassicas. Plant some really early - just a small patch, so that if you get some nasty weather, you won't lose much - and then plant them at 2 or 3 week intervals, so you have a continual harvest, instead of them all being ripe at the same time.

And you can direct seed most brassicas right up until September. This will give you a longer harvest window, in the spring and in the fall.  Most brassicas are very hardy, and some get even sweeter with light fall frosts.

Hope this helps!

Many mustard greens are very cold hardy. I planted in mid March, and was eating it before the end of April. Pac Choi as well. Radish has already been mentioned. Cilantro is also a cool weather crop. As is arugula. Mix all those together and you've got a pretty tasty salad!

Happy gardening!

Tracy

Thanks, Ben.

Yes, rapini is very good. It has a stronger taste than broccoli, but very enjoyable. And awesome in stir fry. : )

There’s a moment in the gardening season when it seems like everything just kicks in over night. All of a sudden plants are huge, flowers are blooming, and the bees have discovered the patch of mustards that have gone to seed. The zucchini are pumping out their massive blooms daily and starting to grow little zukes, the broccoli is heading out, and it’s time to harvest the spring stuff and make room for new plantings. The borage flowers are heavy with bees, and the calendula are brightening up all the corners of the garden.




I love that moment. But it’s also time to get out my snippers and cut back some of this jungle, harvest some turnips, and do another planting of carrots, cilantro, green onions, winter leeks, mustard, chard, and possibly some other things tucked in here and there.

 




We are eating salad (mmmm arugula) and stir fry fresh from the garden regularly, as well as the occasional green smoothie. Yum. (We did a video of that which I’ll post soon, once I get my youtube channel up and running.) We have our sun tea brewing, and there is regular grazing going on in the garden. Had a nibble of fresh dill the other day. So tasty. It’s fun showing my friend Rich what’s growing and what to pick. He likes to go into the garden and pick mint and lemon balm for his tea. And graze in the mustard patch. : )





 




My sun tea has mint, lemon balm, thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary, stevia, and borage flowers, all fresh from the garden. Oh, and some organic green tea. Should be a nice refreshing healthy drink. I have a sweet tooth, so I’ll probably add some powdered Monk fruit, or some honey to it. Powdered Monk fruit is my sweetener of choice these days, as I’m trying kick the sugar habit. It smells funny, but it sure tastes good in baking, and on my oatmeal. (I did try the powdered Monk fruit in my tea. Very tasty.)

It’s been cloudy and rainy the past few days, and the garden has been drinking it in. It’s been pretty dry up till now, but we seem to be getting our April showers in July. I don’t mind though - we really needed the rain.

There are lots of other flowers planted throughout the garden: marigold, calendula, sweet alyssum and sweetpeas (mmm so sweet), borage (really BIG borage plants) a wild flower mix, and of course the cilantro, mustard, pac choi, radish, and rapini that has gone to seed. Lots of things to bring in the beneficial insects and pollinators. And it just looks purdy. Can’t imagine a garden without flowers.









The turnips are mighty impressive, and the carrots are at a good size for eating now. Lots of the mustard, rapini and pac choi that I planted in the spring are going to seed; but we like to eat the flowers, so I don’t mind. I’ll leave a small patch to go to seed, and cut back the rest for a little chop and drop.

The tomatoes are flowering now. That’s something I’m really looking forward to. That and the zucchini. I do love zucchini. I do a lot of baking with it. And this year I hope to dry a bunch so I can have zucchini in my winter stews. I grow the Romanesco variety - I find it so much tastier, and you can let it get quite large without losing flavor. More bang for your buck! And it’s great for drying too.





And the broccoli is almost ready! I don’t know why, but growing your own broccoli is very satisfying. I’ll let you know how it tastes. : )



We’ve also been having fun with the rocket stove. Great fun to cook different things on it. We’re even using it for baking by putting a cast iron Dutch oven on top. We’ve done bread (Rich puts some coals on the lid to brown up the top), pizza, cookies, and biscuits on it so far; along with rice, stir fry, and stew. We’re going to do a bunch of videos about how to cook different things on a rocket stove. Fun!







After we got the design sorted out on the lawn with the fire bricks, Rich did a really cool thing - he built it into the stone wall we built. This area is going to have a shelter built over it, so it will end up being the outdoor kitchen area. It’s going to be lovely.

He also set up an outdoor water heating system: black ABS hose running along the top of the garden fence where the sun shines most, and then down over the side. It heats the water enough for washing dishes, or having a quick shower - right beside the hydrangea. Nice.





Rich cut back the trees some more by the rock garden area, so it’s getting much more sun, and will be the new herb garden. There are sage, thyme and oregano in there right now, along with lovage, bee balm, and some flowers from a flower mix. And nasturtiums. Still pretty sparse right now, but next year it will kick in.





There’s a small bed nearby with cucumbers planted in it. They are starting to kick in, and although it isn’t exactly full sun, it is very warm; and the plants are starting to bloom, so I’m hopeful that I’ll get some cukes from them.




There has been surprisingly little predation in the garden. The turnips were the hardest hit when they were small, but they’ve done fine despite their holey leaves. The scarlet runner beans that I planted to grow over the garden gate got hit hard too, but they are bouncing back, and climbing up the bamboo pole I set up. The black turtle beans also had some visitors who like to chew holes in the leaves, but they are doing fine as well. I had kind of expected to have more loses there, so my bean patch is pretty thick. But they all look healthy, so I’m not too worried. They are blooming now, with little purple blossoms.







I’ve only come across one big ol’ fat slug in the garden so far. He was relocated. : )

Of course, there are weeds growing in the garden - all the more for chop and drop! I let them get big, if they’re not shading anything out, and then cut them back. That way I am adding more organic matter to the garden. I don’t mind weeds in the garden. If I decide I don’t want them there, I just hack them back. No problemo. They’re just part of the diversity of the garden.

I have used some of our homemade compost to build up one of the beds. I need more growing space! Carrots, mustards, and some other stuff (don’t know what yet) will be going in shortly. The compost was a mix of some finished compost, and some almost finished compost, over top of some chop and drop.

Here's the list of everything that is growing in the gardens at the moment:

thyme
sage
rosemary
parsley
stevia
summer savory
basil
dill
mints
cilantro
chives
lemon balm
bee balm
borage
sweetpeas
marigold
calendula
cosmos
wildflower mix
green onions
snow peas
black beans
scarlet runner beans
lettuce mix
mustard
pac choi
rapini
turnips
carrots
beets
broccoli
arugula
kale
leeks
kohlrabi
chard
zucchini
tomatoes
peppers
cucumbers

All in all, I’m very satisfied with the first year of this garden so far. The low light situation hasn’t really affected it too much. Even though it doesn’t get sun until about 11:00, it’s still growing beautifully. The areas that get early afternoon shade are planted with things that like it cooler, such as mustard. We do like our mustard. : )

I have been working fast and furious on Paul and Shawn’s new book Building a Better World in Your Backyard, and have missed spending more time in the garden. So I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty again.

My next adventure will be fermenting! I’ve never done it, but I’ve read up on it a lot, and found some recipes for the stuff that’s growing in my garden - turnips, leafy greens (Yay, a way to preserve the arugula, beet, and turnip tops!), carrots, and zucchini. I’ll hopefully have cucumbers as well, for fermented pickles, and most of what I’ll need for fermented salsa. Yum.

I hope everyone’s gardening season is as joyful as mine has been!

Cheers
Tracy

P.S.  More random garden pics. I just can't stop taking photos of this beautiful garden!

I can make an animated gif. AND I can edit video. So, you know . . . I'm your girl!

June in the garden.




It's been a crazy late spring/early summer so far. Very little rain, and heaps of sun. It's a little overcast today, which is nice for being outside. I'm not really a hot weather kinda girl. : )

The garden is gorgeous. And delicious. Right now we are eating:

mustard greens and flowers (I let it go to seed, 'cause the flowers are yummy)
pac choi flowers (yummy flowers)
rapini
lettuce
snowpeas
arugula
parsley
beet greens
chard
kale
green onions
chives
rosemary
mint (he likes it for tea)

Soon we'll be adding carrots and turnips to the menu. And the oregano and thyme are just about ready for snipping from. And the zucchini is getting ready to bloom. Can't wait for zucchini!

The beans are growing well. A few got munched by mysterious garden devils, but nothing catastrophic. The beans, turnip leaves, mustard greens, and pac choi are about the only things that show a little damage. Otherwise, it's been pretty good.

Rich is doing some chop and drop in the garden today. The magnolia is done blooming, and shot up like a rocket. So he's cutting it back, along with the purple tree (I don't know what it is), and I'm using the cuttings to mulch the paths. So that will let a little more of the afternoon sun into the garden.

Things are growing a little slower, because of our light situation, but it's not really hampering anything. The garden doesn't get light until about 10:30 am, and parts of it are starting to get shaded by 3:00. But I'm using that area to plant greens that tend to bolt in the heat. I've got mustard greens and pac choi planted, and will put in some spinach and lettuce shortly. It can grow by the leeks. It will be long gone by the time the leeks need the space.

All in all I'm totally thrilled with this first year. The produce is delicious, and I know it's better than anything we could get at the store. He likes going grazing in the garden. : ) He eats the flowers from the pac choi and mustard, and he loves mustard greens. Cool.

There are other things blooming, or getting ready to bloom, too - not just veggies going to seed. : )
Flowers I've planted: sweet allysum - such a yummy scent - nasturtiums, marigolds, calendula, borage, and a Pacific Northwest wildflower mix for shade areas, from West Coast Seeds. And of course there are the bloomin' weeds. But I don't mind them - they add color and diversity, and they feed the bees. It's all good. : )

And here are far too many photos of my garden growing! I like to keep a record of how things grow, but I'm not very good at writing it down - but a digital camera is awesome for keeping track of how my garden grows.




































AND! I moved. I moved to the property where my garden is. Happy girl here. It's a cozy little shack with a high bed, so there is space for a desk underneath. And I got THE BEST chair for it. $85 at Habitat for Humanity. The comfiest chair I've ever had. It takes up a lot of floor space, but there's not much I'll be doing in there that requires floor space. I'm a curl-up-in-a-comfy-chair girl. : )



And we've been putting together an outdoor kitchen. I've always wanted an outdoor kitchen. We've got a little rocket stove made of firebricks that we've been experimenting with. Totally fun. We've cook rice, oatmeal, stir fry, Mexican food (black beans and spicy pork), and stew. Awesomeness. I've also got a little propane cooker, and a toaster oven. Someday I hope we can make a rocket oven!





The big black box thingy used to be in his old canopy. The part that is covered with (recycled) foam is a cooler (I'm going to cover it with something). Keeps my stuff nice and cool. And it's right outside my door.

Here's the view from my front steps!



All in all, it's been a lovely spring/beginning summer. Hope your gardening season is going as well as mine is!

Cheers
Tracy

Oh, how I love when it starts to feel like summer in the garden.

I've been eating heaps of greens, and am starting to get some sprouts from the rapini. Delicious.












The pea plants are huge, the zucchini are happily growing, the beans have leapt out of the ground and are growing gangbusters, and I've been tucking transplants and seeds in every available space.






















We built another little garden that I'm going to fill with herbs. Had to use up all of those extra rocks left over after finishing the wall. : )









Speaking of the wall - it's gorgeous! And it's going to look even better when we get it planted with stuff. I'm pretty proud of it.









I'm really happy with the progress of the garden. Everything seems to be happy in its home, and the lack of light doesn't seem to be affecting it adversely. There will be some nice shady areas where I can still grow greens during the heat of summer, and when the fall veggies need more light, the leaves will have fallen from the magnolia and the sumac to bring more light to the garden again.

The only veggies that have been munched on by something besides us humans are the turnip leaves. Seems odd, but nothing else has had much damage at all. It's a pretty healthy garden with few pests. So far. : )

I hope everyone is enjoying the gardening season as much as I am.

Cheers
Tracy

This snail has been hanging out on this azalea for about a week. Really lovely.

Here's a good explanation of how the name came about - and why it's wrong.

". . . the English name came about through a mistranslation from Spanish.

The dish we English speakers know as refried beans is called frijoles refritos in Spanish: frijole being the Spanish word for “bean,” and “frito” being a Spanish adjective meaning “fried.” The translation error came about through the mistaken assumption that the prefix re- means in the same thing in Spanish as it does in English. Although placing re- before an English verb is a common way of indicating an action undertaken more than once (e.g., reschedule, reassign, redistribute), in Spanish that prefix is sometimes used as a form of emphasis. Therefore frijoles refritos are not beans that have been fried multiple times, but rather beans that have been well-fried, as Diana Kennedy explained in The Cuisines of Mexico:

Several people have asked me why, when the beans are fried, they are called refried. Nobody I asked in Mexico seemed to know until quite suddenly it dawned on me. The Mexicans have a habit of qualifying a word to emphasize the meaning by adding the prefix re-. They will get the oil very hot (requemar), or something will be very good (retebien). Thus refrito beans are well fried, which they certainly are, since they are fried until they are almost dry."

When I make beans for Mexican food, I don't fry them. I sauté up some minced garlic and onions, add the beans and water and spices, and simmer until they are in a thickened sauce. And I don't mash them.

mmmmm  I think I'll have to make up a pot of black beans tomorrow.

I am in the process of getting rid of the poisons in my life. I've started making my own toothpaste and deodorant, and while I've never been much for 'beauty' products, I have gotten rid of soaps and such, and am relying on the cleaning power of water as much as possible.

As for cleaning the house, although I am not sensitive to cleaners and scents, I surely don't want to be sucking chemicals into my body. So I don't use nasty stuff to clean my home. Water, a little lemon vinegar, and no paper towels!

Who else has traded in their Pine Sol for something a little more earth friendly?

Things are really growin'! The weather has been gloriously sunny, but night time temps are still cool.

But everything in the garden seems to be happy. And I'm happy. And what else matters, really? HA!

So, what's been planted in the garden . . .

thyme
cilantro
mustard
pac choi
spinach
radishes
rapini
broccoli
turnips
beets
kohlrabi
snowpeas
carrots
chard
carrots
arugula
parsley
green onions
marigold
sweet alyssum
calendula
cosmos
sweetpeas
borage
bee balm
lemon balm
















In the grow shed, under lights (but taking a little holiday in the sun today):

tomatoes
sweet peppers
marigold
basil
leeks
oregano
zucchini
summer celery





In the greenhouse:

radish
mesclun
spinach
kale
parsley









So my garden diet consists of greens right now - lettuce, spinach, kale, radish greens - and will soon be joined by mustard and pac choi. Perfect for stir fry!

The last seeds that need to be direct seeded in the garden are the beans. Then I'll transplant the zucchini at the end of May, and then it'll be all filled up!

Lots of succession planting going on. I've planted short rows of carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, beets, spinach, cilantro, and greens; and will just keep replanting every 2 or 3 weeks.

I'm also starting plans for the winter garden. I'll work toward having carrots, kale, kohlrabi, turnips, beets, brussels sprouts, rapini, and leeks going into winter. And there are plenty of greens that will grow well into fall and early winter here on the coast - spinach, mustard, cilantro, pac choi - and I'll have fall planted garlic as well.

Seed saving:

I think that seed saving is a very important part of gardening. Knowing how to grow food is an important skill. But knowing how to save seeds is going to be another important skill as we move into an increasingly uncertain future. I'm starting my seed bank now!

Because I have a lot of Brassicas growing in this garden, seed saving will be interesting. I think the best way might be to save seeds from only one variety each year, by only letting one go to seed. Although, if I time it right, I might be able to save from two, depending on when they flower. We'll see how it goes.

And that about wraps it up for April in the garden! I think things will be taking off really quickly with the warm May weather.

Happy gardening!

Tracy

The only problem I've had so far is birds eating my pea seeds. But enough came up to make it worthwhile. For my fall pea planting I'll put a little cage over them until they sprout, or start them under cover.

The birds spend quite a bit of time in the garden eating worms. But they haven't bothered any of my transplants. So all is well. : )

Next week I'll be on the hunt for berry plants - I want to have raspberries, and perhaps some haskaps, along the edge of the garden. There are already plenty of blackberries on the property, so adding in a few other berries will be nice.

I picked a couple handfuls of greens for my first harvest! So fresh and delicious.

Happy gardening everyone!

Cheers
Tracy

I love spring. Green things are growing, things are blooming, and spending time outside in the garden is far more pleasant than slaving away over a hot computer. But I have to support my seed habit somehow. :)

So far in the garden these are green and growing:

kale, broccoli, broccoli raab, snowpeas, green onions, mustard, pac choi, radishes, cilantro, thyme, cilantro























And these have been seeded:

turnips, kohlrabi, arugula, parsley, spinach, nasturtiums, calendula, borage, carrots, sweetpeas, mixed greens, cosmos

I've also planted a couple of flower beds, and will be doing a couple more around the yard. Right now I'm just planting a wildflower mix for shade areas. But eventually I'll have some flowering perennials in there. Pretty.







Still more to be planted next month - black beans and zucchini. Yum. I've also got starts for tomatoes (Juliet and Gold Nugget), sweet peppers, marigolds, garlic chives, bergamot, leeks (summer and winter), basil, oregano, lovage, and celery.

The greens in the greenhouse are now ready for munching on.

The magnolia tree is blooming beautifully, and shedding its flowers on the garden.




It has been exciting sharing permaculture with my friend. He has really embraced it, and has become quite good at sourcing stuff for the compost. And he is learning about rocket stoves, too! Today he built one out of fire bricks, and we heated up some stew on it. It worked pretty dang good for his first try. He's going to keep working on the design, and learn more so we can build an outdoor kitchen. I think I've even convinced him to try building a rocket oven! Pretty excited about that.

I'm so happy that he is enthusiastic about permaculture. Just today we were talking about how we can use the greywater to water the flower beds, and he thinks he's figured out a good system. Awesomeness. And it didn't take much to convince him to pee on the compost. : ) He's quite a guy.

Stay tuned for further instalments!

Cheers
Tracy

I planted an entire 5x80' garden in 1 year old wood chips. The only soil that went in was the soil that the transplants were planted in. The wood chips were layered over buried wood, mown grass and weeds, and sand.

The garden was fantastic! You can see it if you click the link in my signature. I grew tomatoes, lettuce, onions, parsley, kale, broccoli, celery, zucchini, cucumbers, and maybe some other stuff I've forgotten. Everything was very happy.

I look forward to seeing how your tomatoes fare. I bet they will be very happy.

Aww, shucks. Thanks, Rosemary. It's kind of a dream come true to be a book illustrator. This is my second book, and I'm hoping for many more to come!

WOOOOHOOOOO!

Yippy!

Youtube text and tag suggestions. Feel free to add, delete or change what you want.

Kickstarter youtube text

The book, Building a Better World in Your Backyard, takes a look at some of the things that the average person can do, right where they live, to help mitigate world problems, save money, and make their footprint on the planet virtually disappear.

If you would like to learn some really cool stuff about REALLY saving energy, growing gobs of food almost effortlessly, and a house design that solves nearly everything, then this is the book for you.

The book is illustrated with pen and ink drawings designed to explain some concepts, share important information, or amuse and entertain the reader.

Paul and Shawn have launched a Kickstarter campaign to take the book to the printer and get it out into the world. Their hope is that people will make their pledges for the levels of reward that get them a pile of books, and then share those books with people who need to see this information. Spreading the word is what it’s all about.

AND! Supporting the Kickstarter within the first 48 hours (update this with date and time when we have it) will also get you a whole whack of cool stuff from more than 25 people who are bonkers about permaculture, homesteading, and saving the planet, and have ebooks, pdfs, and videos to share with you.

“For nearly every global problem, there are solutions we can implement in our backyard that also save us money and help us live more luxuriant lives. A few of us do these things and bask in the flow of the opulence and extra cash. Others observe and think, “I want extra luxury and money too! Not fair!” And then they emulate. And on and on it goes. Then the global problems sorta just dry up and blow away. That’s what this book is all about.

I think the reason we see so many people angry is because they authentically care; but they seem to get stuck at being angry. Some people spend a hundred hours a week for 20 years being angry and not much changes. But I think that if you spend a tiny fraction of that time doing the things mentioned in this book, your global positive impact will be a thousand times greater.”

~ From the Introduction to Building a Better World in Your Backyard by Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop


Tags

organic gardening, food forest, permaculture, energy, homesteading, carbon footprint, recycling, pollution, chem-ag, pesticides, herbicides, early retirement, intentional community, passive income, vegan, vegetarian, CAFO, polyculture, rocket mass heater, hugelkultur, passive solar, pooless, haybox cooker, solar oven, tiny house, cast iron, teflon, native plants, mulch, composting, solar food dehydrator, greywater, micro-hydro, lawn, chickens, paddock shift system, compost toilet, bees, food forest, natural building, roundwood building, natural swimming pool, pond

Yay!!! So very happy to see this book published and out in the world. Good luck to all the fans vying for a copy of this gem. :)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE KICKSTARTER


It's happening! The Kickstarter for Building a Better World in Your Backyard by Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop has started!


Kickstarter Kickback:

We wish to reward the people who tell others about the Kickstarter. More info HERE! A full media kit is available HERE.



Excerpt from the Introduction:

“For nearly every global problem, there are solutions we can implement in our backyard that also save us money and help us live more luxuriant lives. A few of us do these things and bask in the flow of the opulence and extra cash. Others observe and think, “I want extra luxury and money too! Not fair!” And then they emulate. And on and on it goes. Then the global problems sorta just dry up and blow away. That’s what this book is all about.

I think the reason we see so many people angry is because they authentically care; but they seem to get stuck at being angry. Some people spend a hundred hours a week for 20 years being angry and not much changes. But I think that if you spend a tiny fraction of that time doing the things mentioned in this book, your global positive impact will be a thousand times greater.”

Inside the book:



All of the details on the rewards, the table of contents, and more can be found on the Kickstarter page:

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE KICKSTARTER

Thank you for these awesome suggestions! You're the best.

I'll add these to the media kit, and make the boys answer them!

Keep 'em coming!

Cheers
Tracy

Source: Amazon

Synopsis

From the creator of the award winning film "Garbage! The Revolution Starts At Home" (Sundance Channel, Super Channel) comes a shocking tale about the products we use to clean our homes and bodies.

"Chemerical" explores the life cycle of everyday household cleaners and hygiene products to prove that, thanks to our clean obsession, we are drowning in sea of toxicity.

The film is at once humorous, as we watch the Goode family try to turn a new leaf by creating and living in a toxic free home, and informative, as director Andrew Nisker works with many experts to give audiences the tools and inspiration to live toxic free.

Chemerical tackles "the toxic debate" in a truly informative and entertaining way, not only by raising awareness, but most importantly by providing simple solutions.

The Trailer



Related Podcasts

Podcast 262 - Review of Chemerical

Related Threads


Related Websites

http://www.chemicalnation.com/content

https://www.takeactionfilms.com/

I would drill holes in them and use them to make lots of worm towers to put all over my garden!

If you were interviewing Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop about their upcoming book, Building a Better World in Your Backyard, what questions would you ask them?

I need to come up with 12-24 interview questions to add to the Media Kit I'm building, so any and all suggestions are welcome and gratefully accepted.

Thanks for your time!

Cheers
Tracy

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE KICKSTARTER

Book info



Title: Building a Better World in Your Backyard Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys
Authors: Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop

Contact for Media, Event Booking, Review Copy requests

contact: info@buildingabetterworldbook.com
website: http://buildingabetterworldbook.com

If you would like your very own personalized Kickstarter link, and get a kickback for the money you bring in, go HERE


Text


Note: Text is available in pdf form at the bottom of this post.

From the Introduction

“For nearly every global problem, there are solutions we can implement in our backyard that also save us money and help us live more luxuriant lives. A few of us do these things and bask in the flow of the opulence and extra cash. Others observe and think, “I want extra luxury and money too! Not fair!” And then they emulate. And on and on it goes. Then the global problems sorta just dry up and blow away. That’s what this book is all about.

I think the reason we see so many people angry is because they authentically care; but they seem to get stuck at being angry. Some people spend a hundred hours a week for 20 years being angry and not much changes. But I think that if you spend a tiny fraction of that time doing the things mentioned in this book, your global positive impact will be a thousand times greater.”

~ From the Introduction to Building a Better World in Your Backyard by Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop


Press Release

Building a Better World in Your Backyard takes a look at some of the things that the average person can do, right where they live, to help mitigate world problems, save money, and make their footprint on the planet virtually disappear.

If you would like to learn some really cool stuff about REALLY energy saving, growing gobs of food almost effortlessly, and a house design that solves nearly everything, then this is the book for you.

The book is illustrated with pen and ink drawings designed to explain some concepts, share important information, or amuse and entertain the reader.

Paul and Shawn have launched a Kickstarter campaign to take the book to the printer and get it out into the world. Their hope is that people will make their pledges for the levels of reward that get them a pile of books, and then share those books with people who need to see this information. Spreading the word is what it’s all about.

Kickstarter link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/better-world-book?ref=pp3x8n

contact: info@buildingabetterworldbook.com
website: http://buildingabetterworldbook.com

About the authors

Paul Wheaton is a giant doofus who is bonkers about permaculture. He won’t shut up about permaculture. On and on, every day . . . it’s annoying. He has gone so far as to make a 3-DVD set that is just about the earthworks for permaculture gardening. And not only did he make a 4-DVD set about rocket mass heaters, but he made ANOTHER 4-DVD set about rocket mass heaters. Why on earth do people need 8 DVDs about something so simple? If you think that is ridiculous, take a look at his 177 hours of video of a full Permaculture Design Course, and Appropriate Technology course. Then there’s the cards. Okay, the permaculture playing cards are pretty cool.

Before all of that, Paul created hundreds of podcasts, youtube videos, articles, and other bits and bobs about permaculture. That should have been the first sign, right there, that health professionals should have stopped all this. That, or his 26,000 forum posts at permies.com. And he has at least that many at his other site, CodeRanch.com. Oh, yeah, he used to be a software engineer before all this permaculture stuff.

Shawn Klassen-Koop’s passion for building a better world grew from many years of working at a summer camp. This time inspired awe and wonder for the natural world through many hours camping in the woods, paddling on a lake, or sleeping under the stars. Seeking to solve world problems with clever thinking, Shawn decided to pursue computer engineering as a career, where he learned the importance of good design and strong critical thinking. In time he felt like modern technology was causing more problems than it was solving and started looking for a better way. It was then that he stumbled upon and fell in love with permaculture as a way to use his design skills to work with nature rather than against nature. Shawn was preparing to start his own homestead when he was faced with serious health challenges that prevented him from doing any physical work. It was during this time that the opportunity to work on this book came up. Shawn jumped on it, wanting to do whatever he could to share these ideas with others.


Interview points for Media

Q: What is your book about?
A:  Recipes and philosophies for dramatically making a strong, personal, positive impact on the environment.  So strong that if just ten percent of the population adopted half of the things in this book, that it would solve nearly all of our environmental problems.  And all while making for a more luxuriant life and saving money.   Without getting involved in politics or protesting.   We thought about some really artsy titles, but, in the end, we decided that "Building a Better World in Your Backyard Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys" is extremely direct.

Q: What does a better world look like to you? What problems does your book focus on solving?
A: We would love to have focused on all of the problems. But we didn't have that much space in the book. So we decided to focus directly on three footprints: carbon footprint, petroleum footprint, and toxic footprint. It just so happens that by implementing the solutions we present for these three problems, we would also go a long way toward solving most of the world's other problems too.

Q: Who is your book for?
A: We have discussed this a few times. It seems like each time, although it feels weird to say it, the answer is "everyone." But maybe it's especially for people who are passionate about solving world problems and feel like the usual "solutions" just don't cut it. Or maybe they just like saving money. And a lot of our solutions are focused on people living in a cold climate, so maybe someone from a tropical climate would get less out of the book, but there are still parts that would apply for them.

Q: Why the focus on personal change rather than political change?
A: So often it feels like the solutions being presented for global problems are along the lines of "we need politicians to do so and so and if they don't we're going to be angry about it." At the end of the day there is often very little progress, if any. In this book we place a strong focus on things that you can do, at home, that are guaranteed to make a significant positive difference - without writing letters, attending protests, or being angry at bad guys.

Q: What do you think will motivate people to implement the solutions you present in your book?
A: A lot of the time we hear about solutions that sound a lot like sacrifice: drive less, turn your heat down, take cold showers, etc. But in this book we place a strong emphasis on solutions that make a huge impact while also saving money and providing a more luxuriant life. The idea is that a lot of people might want to implement these solutions even if they aren't particularly passionate about solving world problems. Maybe they just want a little extra money in their pocket.

Q: So many books say "if everyone did this, it would solve the problem." What if only some people make these changes?
A: We strongly believe that if only a fraction of the population implements the ideas in this book, we will have effectively solved the problem. The few DO have the ability to solve the problems of the many.

Q: Can anyone do the stuff mentioned in your book?
A: A lot of books about solving world problems focus on the need for further innovation in order for their solutions to make an impact. While we both really appreciate and encourage further innovation, we also recognize that the average person might not fit under the label of "innovator." So in our book we focus on solutions that the average person can implement NOW that make a huge difference while we are waiting for the innovators to come up with further optimizations.

Q: Your book is called "Building a Better World in Your Backyard." What if people don't have a backyard?
A: The book is broken down into six different parts: the introduction, the problems, general strategies, things you can do within the walls of your home, things you can do in a backyard, things you can do on a homestead, and the conclusion. The idea is that there is something in here for everyone. And maybe, in time, you will find a way to get access to more space to play with these ideas.

Q: Why now, vs 10 years ago or 10 years from now? Do you feel like change is attainable today? Is the population ready?
A: We wish this book would have been available 10 years ago. But it's not. It's available now. So we make the best of it. We are intentional about trying to provide incentive for people to implement the solutions in our book, not guilt them into it. I think that this makes a huge difference in whether or not people will be interested in making change.

Q: Are there examples of people implementing the solutions presented in this book, or is it all just theoretical?
A: This is a book about practical solutions. Some of these ideas are fairly new, but many of the ideas presented in this book have been implemented by thousands, maybe even millions, of people.

Q: What inspired you to write about building a better world?
A: We both have had far too many conversations about solving world problems where the other person was providing solutions that were very weak. And when we tried to bring up our solutions, they would tell us that those solutions couldn't possibly solve the problems because otherwise they would already have heard about it everywhere. It would have "gone viral." The hope is that, by sharing this book with the world, these ideas will infect the brains of millions of people and we can have a lot more progress.

Q: What chapter of the book took the longest to write? Why?
A: We have a chapter on growing double the food with one tenth of the effort. It wasn't that we had trouble figuring out what to say, it's that we had trouble figuring out what not to say. We spent many weeks trying to cram a massive amount of information into this one chapter. There's so much more that we would like to say, but we think it turned out pretty great.

Q: You started a Kickstarter campaign to pay for the costs of publishing your book and you have some unique strategies for getting your ideas out there. Can you tell us a bit more about your campaign?
A: We are trying a few new things with this Kickstarter campaign. The first is that we are making it super cheap to buy a dozen copies of the book in an effort to effect mass change through substantial education. We are also setting things up so that by supporting the campaign, even at the $1 level, you get a huge gob of goodies. We really want to reward people who support us when we need support the most! For that reason we also have some more goodies for people who support the Kickstarter in the first 48 hours, even for $1. We started off with about 5 things on the earlybird bonus list and now we're looking at over 30 videos, book excerpts, ebooks, etc. that various authors and influencers have thrown in the pot! So now by supporting in the first 48 hours, people get over $100 worth of stuff for as little as $1!

Promotional Images

Authors


(more pics and more bio-like stuff for paul can be found here)




The book cover






Images for Facebook








Images for Instagram








Images for Twitter








150 x 150 px images


















Book images

















CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE KICKSTARTER

Thanks, Daron. You're on the list!

Well, I think spring is officially here. The snow has melted off the garden and the soil has thawed out. We've been having some really beautiful days; and had our first cookout in the yard last night. Food always tastes so good when it's cooked outside over a fire.



I've got lots of seeds started, and have put some transplants in the greenhouse. And yesterday I just couldn't resist planting some seeds out in the garden. Just a few small patches of cool season greens - mustard, radish, cilantro, spinach, and maché. And I planted a snowpea patch. If winter decides it's not done with us yet, I've still got lots of seeds, and can replant later. But I'm thinking we're safe now.











I've also been helping my friend build a rock retaining wall. We started out just working on a short wall, then thought we'd extend it a little further and build a little potting/sitting area, and then maybe just around the corner, and then . . . well, it's quite a complex we're building. Not quite finished yet, but the end is in sight. He had all of these rocks that he had gathered many moons ago and piled up along the bank, thinking that one day he'd get around to building the wall. I think that was over 20 years ago. Apparently I'm a good influence. Who knew?! The main thing is - I'm getting a potting area, and an outdoor sink! And it's a really cool old cast iron sink, too.







We used some of the rocks in the garden area, to build up some low spots, and make the herb corner a bit taller. It's going to be nice there - thyme, oregano, rosemary and sage. Yum.

He also cut me some metal plant markers from some old steel something or other he had laying around, so I can reuse them each year. Much better than the ones we cut from milk cartons to mark the transplants. They get floppy pretty fast. These ones will last forever!

So, I'm all set for seeds, mostly. Just a few more to get. And now I'm on the hunt for raspberry canes. We're going to plant some wild berries on the bank above the rock wall - blackberry, salmon berry, and probably huckleberry - then have the raspberries in the garden where the deer can't get them.

Now, if I could just convince him to get rid of the ornamental trees by the garden and let me plant fruit trees . . . : )

Happy gardening, everyone. I hope spring has sprung, and you're out there getting your hands dirty.

Cheers
Tracy

Hi

My name is Tracy, and I'm one of Paul Wheaton's elves. My job is to frolic around Permies, and spread pixie dust . . . no, wait, that's my day job. For this job, I help Paul out with stuff that he is just too dang busy to do.

Right now I am looking for people who have a blog or website, or are active on social media, who would like to help Paul and Shawn promote their upcoming Kickstarter for the Better World Book.



I have put together a Media Package, which contains different images for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which you can use to share the information, and hopefully help these hard working guys get the word out about their Kickstarter for the book.



If you are one of those crazy people who are bonkers about permaculture and homesteading (of course you are - you're here!), and would like to help out by sharing the Kickstarter information far and wide, please let me know your email address, and the name of your blog or website (if you have one) - you can PM me, or post the info in this thread - and once the Kickstarter is about to start, I'll send you the media package with images, links, and other info.

Or if you know of someone who would like to help out by posting our images and info, please send them my way.

Thanks so much!

Cheers
Tracy