Thriving Community News – Without the Noise
It is still March. The last frost in NE Kansas is still over a month away. It is encouraging to see the perennials – walking onions, bloody dock sorrel, and plantain already prominent and harvestable in modest amounts. I plucked some Narrow Leaf plantain (perennial) and some mustard that overwintered and fed them to my … Read more
Prepping for the Property Walk A new member to my local community group and his wife asked me to come over to their property and do a property walk – give an assessment and a plan for adding a food forest and regenerative practices to their unused pastures. In typical fashion, we turned it into … Read more
Are your neighbors growing gardens or lawns? Evaluate My Land series – Homestead Property True story:Susan and her husband, both early 50s, decided to move out to the country. Mostly for the quiet and sunsets. Susan was horrified that her neighbors rode ATVs up and down the gravel road, and she could hear gunshots at … Read more
Evaluate My Land series – Grow Your Own Food You want to grow your own food. You want your own land. The first step – Identify your goals. With all the craziness in the world, you want to get out of the city, grow your own food, and perhaps have one of those food forests … Read more
Permaculture – Your Plants Will Tell You What They Want by Thriving…Or Not In my previous article, How I created a Food Forest, I documented what I did in 2021 to turn an 80’x30′ corner of my pasture into a permaculture orchard/food forest. The Original Design The original design included hand dug swales, and rows … Read more
Permaculture Orchard from Design to Delivery Chestnuts, apples, hazelnuts, asparagus, herbs like Wormwood and mint, comfrey, blackberries, Milpa garden beds, and annual beds. In Spring 2021, I extended my homestead/permaculture orchard by 80 feet. This was the initial design: Initial rough design. Bet you can’t read my handwriting! This was a section at the edge … Read more
Mixing different kinds of seeds in one garden plot Milpa is a warm season cover crop mix that includes greens, squash, beans, corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, and annual and wildflowers. It is designed to grow as much food as possible in a space without weeding, tilling, and planning. In addition, it also adds nitrogen to the … Read more
Turn a corner of your garden into Hassle-Free Permaculture Perennial Production Look at this picture. What do you see? A mess of plants and weeds? This is a permaculture apple guild, with multiple perennials, in the corner of my garden area. This has two apple trees on dwarf/semi-dwarf rootstock (an Arkansas Black, and a Golden … Read more
