PEM badge: Gardening

Gardening

instruction, regulation, insurance, safety, etc

Many people come to permaculture and homesteading because of gardening.  They want good healthy food and the only way for most people to get it is to grow it themselves.  

My gardening philosophy is to grow lots of food in the ground.  I like food forests and polyculture but I feel there is still need for a garden (primarily annuals) on a homestead.  Perhaps if I lived in a tropical location I'd feel differently about that.  Some situations require more advanced systems like raised beds, hydroponics or indoor growing but I like to see big gardens out in the sun and soil.

Organic or better: Seeds, seedlings, mulches and compost

Encourage: bugs, bees, polyculture, volunteers, beauty and wonder

Don't use fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, plastic mulch, dyed wood chips, treated wood

Show Otis you can grow a bountiful garden that will actually put food on the table reliably.

Sand badge

Plant 5 types of seeds in a garden
Plant 3 types of seedlings
Plant 2 trees
Lightly mulch a garden bed
Weed a garden bed
Sheet mulch an area

Straw badge

Create a small garden
Start 5 kinds of seedlings for transplant
Seed saving
Grow and harvest 100,000 calories
   - from at least 12 species
Direct seed perennials  

Wood badge

Create a big garden
  - 1200 square feet or more of new garden space
  - Deer and rabbit fencing
Grow and harvest 1 million calories
Grow, harvest and process 5 gourds
Grow, harvest and process 2 pounds of plant fiber
Seed saving
Build a ¼ acre food forest  
Grow perennials from seed

Iron badge

Create a huge garden
  - 2500 square feet or more of new garden space
Grow and harvest 4 million calories in one year  
Build a 1-acre food forest
   - At least one sun scoop shape
   - At least one frost pocket
Graft fruit trees
Landrace seed saving for 12 species

For the planting BBs, I imagine as I read them that the seeds or seedlings are for something one would consider a vegetable. But it could also be herbs, or a bush/tree with edible leaves, or berries, or fruits & nuts. Or it could be open to something like grass seed and ornamental trees.
What do you want to see and what might you be willing to see? Anything off limits?

I think they all say "garden seeds/seedlings" so if it's something you'd reasonably plant in a permaculture or annual garden, I'm good with it.  Grass and non-wildlife supporting ornamentals wouldn't fit the bill for me.  Are the BBs clear enough or should I massage them a bit?

I think they could be massaged a little. I was specifically thinking about planting flowers, and also mulching a flower bed.
I remember now why I was thinking about this, in the UK a 'Garden' often refers to a lawn, mostly grass.
I've been trying to think of another term that fits the US definition of garden but, I haven't found one yet. Maybe 'culinary plants'?
I finished reading Restoration Agriculture and it's really changing my frame for what growing food look like.

Ok, I fiddled with them a bit, thanks!

You have people planting seeds, seedlings, and trees. Do seed potatoes (tubers, not TPS), garlic, onion sets, etc fit in anywhere? (They're sort of seedlings, but not really.)

There could be all sorts of gardening things in this badge but I just tried to cover the bases I think are important and maybe different.  Tubers and bulbs would fit in Straw for growing 100,000 calories for sure!