The Fat Ewe Farm and Bed and Breakfast
The Fat Ewe Farm and Moose Hills Inn
Organic Permaculture Farmin' for
the Lazy Ewes
  • The Fat Ewe Farm
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • The Fat Ewe Farm Store
  • Livestock Breeds (click here to see all the breeds)
    • Angora goats
    • Icelandic Sheep
    • Jacob sheep
    • Old English Southdown Babydoll Sheep >
      • Babydoll Sheep on the Fat Ewe Farm
  • Contact Us
    • Photo Gallery (click here for some awesome photos or watch the slideshow) >
      • Video Slide Show
    • Phone Number
    • Map
  • Sale Barn
  • Recipes From the Fat Ewe
    • Old Stuff
  • How Much Meat Do You Get?
  • Ukrainian Easter Eggs
  • Moose Hills Inn

In Praise of the Permaculture Garden

8/16/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Permaculture, permanent agriculture or crops that one does not have to plant year after year, is the absolute most fantastic way to produce food. Not only is it simple, easy and less time consuming, done properly, it uses little water in comparison to other methods and is self sustaining to a certain degree. 

This year the Parkland apple is spectacular for such a young tree. The apples are sweet and tart with a hint of blush, would be fantastic in pie or as apple sauce or butter and are scrumptious to eat right off the tree. There were maybe 20 this year, a good harvest for a little young tree! The other combination apple trees did not fare so well, but they are going to do better in the future. 

On each apple tree there are scarlet runner beans climbing up to produce lovely showy red orange blossoms and soon runner beans. Under the trees are berry bushes: gooseberry and raspberry so far. There are nasturtiums planted randomly and marigolds too, because pests often like nasturtiums better than my food crops, especially aphids and marigolds deter some bugs. Potatoes were once again laid on straw and covered with more straw and are growing nicely. The hugelkultur berm garden is the best this year that it has been thus far, teeming with roses, squaw corn, peas, potatoes and prairie sunflowers.

There are seven levels to a permaculture garden from the floor of the canopy. Each level can contribute food in a garden, plus the weeds are mostly edible too. I make a weed salad and cook weeds as greens too, plus harvest them for tinctures. Sunflower petals give a nice yellow colour to soap and cucumbers make a great bar too. Everything is important. 

The squash is forming, especially the spaghetti squash. The Kabocha squash will only be great if we have a long fall with on heavy frost. Otherwise the fruits are too immature to be of value. There is an abundance of kale and chard, golden beet tops and malva greens and there will be an abundance of carrots too. I have been harvesting zucchini for a week and it is outpacing me rapidly. The joy of the system is that very little if any watering has been done and very little weeding as well. Only the first set of large weeds were pulled to allow the seedlings to outpace the weeds. The weeds actually act as a green cover for the ground keeping the moisture in like a mulch. Where the ground is bare the plants need water, but where the weeds are thick, it remains moist. 

As time goes on, cuttings from the berries will be taken and rooted, but not in patches like a traditional garden. Everything is in a cluster instead and the clusters are far enough apart so if one becomes infested with a pest, the others do not suffer the same fate. Plus there is enough diversity around and inbetween the plants to discourage pests that like a particular plant exclusively. This works, folks. And it is only going to continue to improve. Swales , or shallow ditches collect the runoff water and help create a microclimate for the plants. Even small rains will collect in the swales and as it evaporates, the moist air will provide water. The plants that need the most water are closest to the swales and the drought tolerant ones are located some distance away. Root systems develop to draw moisture from the ground and the dew in the air too. 

Permaculture can change a desert to an oasis. This has been proven more than once. The key is diversity and understanding how Mother Nature gardens. Want to try it?
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Airstream Land Yacht 1964
    Alpacas
    Alpine Goats
    Ameraucana Chickens
    American Buff Geese
    Ancona Ducks
    Angora Goats
    Angora Goats
    Angora Rabbits.
    Babydoll Southdown Sheep
    Babydoll Southdown Sheep
    Bed And Breakfast
    Berkshire Pigs
    Blue Faced Leicester Sheep
    Blue Swedish Ducks
    Boer Goats
    Border Collie
    Border Collie
    Bronze Turkey Standard
    Bronze Turkey (Standard)
    Canadian Horses
    Canadian Horses
    Cats
    Chickens
    Cotswold Sheep
    Crafts And Hobbies
    Cream Legbar Chickens
    Dorset Sheep
    Ducks
    Embden Geese
    E'st A Laine Merino Sheep
    Farm Life
    Farm Life
    Farm Store
    Finnsheep
    Flemish Giant Rabbit
    Flowers
    French Lop Rabbit
    Galloway Cattles
    Gardening
    Gotland Sheep
    Guinea Fowl
    Herbs
    Holstein Steer
    Icelandic Sheep
    Jacob Sheep
    Japanese Bantam Chickens
    Jersey Cow
    Kahaki Campbell Ducks
    Karakul Sheep
    Kiko Goats
    Kilo Highland Cows
    Light Sussex Chicken
    Livestock Guardian Dogs
    Livestock Guardian Dogs
    Maremma Sheepdogs
    Maremma Sheepdogs
    Meishan Pigs
    Miniature Nigerian Dwarf Goats
    Moose Hills Inn
    Muscovy Ducks
    Norwegian Red Dairy Cow
    Nubian Goats
    Nygora Goat
    Ossabaw Hogs
    Partidge Chantecler Chickens
    Pekin Ducks
    Permaculture
    Pied Guinea Fowl
    Polish/Ameraucana Bantam Cross Chickens
    Polled Dorset Sheep
    Potbelly Pigs
    Pygmy Goats
    Recipes
    Rigit Galloway Cows.
    Romanov Sheep
    Romney Sheep
    Rouen Ducks
    Saddleback Pomeranican Geese
    Saxony Ducks
    Sebastopol Geese
    Sheep And Goats
    Shetland Sheep
    Silver Spangled Hamburg Chicken
    Soap And Hand Made Cosmetics
    Standard Jack Donkey
    Sustainability
    Swiss Blackneck Goats
    The Llamas
    The Llamas
    Toulouse Geese
    Tunis Sheep
    White Chantecler Chickens
    White Danish Geese
    Wool

    Author

    Fluffy writes daily about the experiences on the farm and with the bed and breakfast patrons. 

    Archives

    October 2020
    September 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    view old blog site

    RSS Feed

Contact Us
Home

The Fat Ewe Farm 

All text and photos are the sole property of The Fat Ewe Farm  and may not be used without written permission.