It's done! Sort of. 😅

As I sit here typing I am listening to the sound of thunder and rain, and the slow breathing of a sick little girl.  There is so much peace in that.  I need to remember to slow down more often and feel the peace I find in the life I chose.  I let myself get too busy doing all the things that I lose sight of what I really want, to be with my kids and my plants.  

This update was supposed to come weeks ago, but the planting party I planned was rained out and some health challenges have forced me to slow down.  I've finally finished the front yard though!  Sort of.  I have the frame work down and while I will be adding more it will be more slowly.  I do want to add more flowers, of course.  As the tree guilds grow I will add plants as needed.

My bottom berm has garlic, raspberries, and black berries.  I want to add some flowers to it. In the back is a fruit tree with flowers planted underneath.

Here we have two more fruit trees and between them a willow tree.  Under the fruit trees I have flowers, mint, and horehound planted.  The horehound isn't happy, but I'm hoping it will pull through.  I have tried twice to seed clover, but the birds keep eating the seeds.  I'll have to start a bunch inside and then move it outside.

My top berm has a profusion of sunflowers re-seeded, with the help of birds, from last years sunflowers.  I also planted 4 honey berry bushes, and two forsythia bushes.  I would like to add some herbs and low growing flowers in between the bushes.  You can't see it, but my rose bush is very happy.  I have some rose buds getting ready to bloom.  Under the rose bush I have creeping mint, lupine, nasturtium, and strawberry mint. Along the wall of the house I have a sage bush, three lilacs, one full sized and two dwarf boomerangs, and two mountain bluebeard bushes.

As you can tell, there is still a lot of open space that I need to plant, but a lot of that will be taken up as the trees grow because the guilds will grow with them.  I'll add a little more here and there, but for now It's time to move to the back and get started there.  I have four more dwarf fruit trees on the way and I'm going to the nursery this week to buy four semi dwarf.  Our goal is to plant every available space with food and flowers.

I'm back!

     It's finally Spring in Utah!  This has been a crazy winter and a crazy Spring.  We got so much snow over the winter that some areas are flooding.  Reservoirs are filling up quickly though and that's very good news.  We are also having a very wet Spring with a lot of rain.  I have not had to water anything more than 2-3 times, even direct sow seeds that need to stay moist. 
     The wood chips are doing their duty!  As you can see they are not completely keeping out the weeds, especially where we forgot to overlap, like this nice line here.  You can see how the carboard and wood chips have helped immensely though, otherwise my whole property would look like that line. Yikes!  In addition to discouraging weeds the wood chips are also holding in the moisture and have already begun to make a difference in the soil.  It's darker and breaks apart easier than ever!  I have pulled up mallow and dandelion and gotten all of the roots. The wood chips are fantastic! 
     We have finally finished planning our plan.  Maybe it was crazy to start without a plan, but it was starting that allowed us to create a plan.  The way I figure it, we are in year three of five in our permaculture plan. 

     Year one was digging swales and creating berms.  If I could go back the only thing I would change about that year is wedding and planting those berms ASAP.  They haven't eroded, but the ones I DID plant don't have nearly as many weeds as the ones that were left bare for two years.  That being said, I'm not sure I understood enough about guilds and what I wanted to be able to plant them well yet.
     Year two was laying down cardboard and woodchips.  We got two pallets of cardboard at the local super market.  By pallet I mean hundreds of pounds of boxes bound together with metal ties.  They had to lift it onto our trailer with a forklift.  It was a gamble because many of the boxes weren't the best and some were tiny candy bar boxes good for very little, but it gave us enough to finish  almost our entire yard.  The cardboard has helped immediately to keep down the weeds.  I know it isn't a perfect solution, nor is it permanent, but I think it will do until things are growing well.
     So here we are in year three.  This is the fun year.  The year I get to go hog wild and buy more plants than I ever thought I would and then plant them!  This is the year of designing and planting.  Just today I went out and bought enough plants to almost entirely finish all of the guilds, berms, and planting beds in the front yard.  I wanted to start there because it's smaller than the back and so that people driving by can stop asking what the crazy wood chip people are doing.  We bought a trailer full of good soil that we are putting right on top of the wood chips in a thick layer to create planting beds and provide good soil for what we plant.  That way the cardboard will still help to keep down the weeds and the wood chips will help to provide water as they soak it up, kind of like a hügelkultur.  As they break down they will help create great soil underneath as well.  In each guild and bed I am making sure to have a nitrogen fixer, a ground cover, a smelly herb to keep away bugs, a miner to bring up nutrients from deep below, and a Spring, Summer, and Fall bloomer for the bees.  I'm not super creative with designing so I've enlisted the help of some fellow plant addicts to help design and pick plants.  I want to make plant markers for everything so that when I give people tours and walk throughs they can identify plants, like you would at a botanical garden.  I always love those little signs.
     Year four is going to be our water year.  We will be setting up our grey water system, planting a marshy area to help filter the water, digging a creek, two ponds, and creating a small waterfall.  I am very excited for that next year, but there are still some problems we need to figure out.  I am just so stinking excited for the marsh, creek, waterfall and ponds!  I am going to need a couple of tiny bridges and I want a bench right by the waterfall.  That waterfall will be tiny, but if I can make it happen it will also be a bit of magic in my little corner of heaven.
     Year five will be watching everything grow, filling in gaps or fixing problems, paving paths with stones and groundcover, and making signs, painted rocks, and other little touches to make our garden magical.  I might make a few signs for the front yard this year.  I really want to make it look nice.  
     Tuesday I am having some fellow permies over to help plant the front yard, so stay tuned for an update!

Autumn is here

    Autumn is here in full force.  We actually got our first snow a week ago, just a few days after that adorable picture of the kids playing in the park.  That's how Utah is.  That day was nice, then snow, and now it's nice again.  The snow made the the netting roof of the chicken run collapse, but they hated the snow and didn't try to escape.  Now that it's nice they are hopping the fence to eat everything.  It guess it's ok though, all the plants are done for the year and will come back in the Spring.  The only bad thing about it is that our new puppy who is four months old likes to chase and chew on our while leghorn, Angel.  So far she hasn't been hurt, so I think he is just trying to play.  Still, we can't have a chicken eater so he needs to learn not to chew on the chickens.

        I don't plan to write again for awhile. Winter is for garden dreams, not garden work.  My girls and I are planning a sunflower house they can use for their secret hideout with friends.  They helped me harvest sunflower seeds.  I don't know why, but most of the seeds from our mammoth sunflower were empty, no seed in the shell!  It could have been drought, poor pollination, or poor nitrogen in the soil.  It put a wrench in my daughters plans to make millions selling sunflower seeds at the local market. :'D

        I love autumn.  The harvest.  Winding down for the season, like the Earth needs a rest as much as I do.  Preserving the harvest, mine and what others give me, knowing I'll use it.  This week my kids and I spent all day Thursday bottling apple sauce.  We got 17 bottles of applesauce, plus two bottles of grape juice, 4 bottles of peppers pickled and one bottle of beets pickled.  I'm disappointed I didn't get any peaches this year.  I just can't wait until my peach trees are big enough to give me a good harvest to preserve.  I can never get enough peaches!

        I hope you have a lovely winter. I'll see you in the Spring!

Finished!

We are finished wood chipping!  Oh my gosh!  I thought we would never finish.  I guess it's a good thing my husband is out of a job because he suddenly had tons of free time to dedicate to yard work.  I wanted it all done by the end of August so that I could start formal lessons with my kids the first week of September without having the stress of trying to fit in yard work as well.  We ate pizza on paper plates more often the last two weeks of August than we normally do in two months and house work went virtually undone while we spent 4-6 hours working on the yard each day, but we finished!

    I've noted a few things you might be interested in.  

    First, while the cardboard boxes and wood chips to cut down on weeds they DO NOT fully prevent them.  Grass will be killed, most weeds were killed, but nothing kills bind weed. It's like the cockroach of the plant world, it could survive a nuclear blast.  BUT, it does get the weeds to a manageable level.  

    Second, it's HOT.  Is it hot where you live?  We should be cooling own to the 80s here in Utah, but instead we are experiencing a heat wave with temps near 100.  The lack of greenery in my yard is making it hotter.  I know it sounds crazy, but did you know that having plants growing can drop the temperature?  In fact, if you have a bit of water and plants you can drop the temperature in your yard by 10 degrees!  Shade from trees is cooler that shade from a building because the tree holds water.  I didn't think the weeds would make that big of a difference, but it's enough to feel it.  I need to get some plants in ASAP.

 Ok, so what's next?  Like I said, I need to get plants in as soon as possible.  As you can see in the picture with the wheel barrow I also need to finish a few berms that I have been hiding from.  They kind of intimidate me.  They should have been planted first thing to avoid erosion, but I wasn't sure what to plant and I'm always worried I'll mess up.  I have asparagus and strawberries in two berms, I might just do more of that, or maybe raspberries. I'm still not sure.  The front two will be flowers, I've already decided that.  Anyway, I'm going to get a trailer full of nutrimulch from the turkey farm and when I want to plant something I'll just put a pile of dirt and start a guild.  I've definitely got to make sure to have nitrogen fixers because as the wood chips break down they will cause a nitrogen deficiency.  I also want to cover the paths in a walkable ground cover.  Near the house I plan to use walkable mint and thyme as it should help discourage wasps.  Under the grape arbor and the rest of the paths I'm thinking microclover. I also want to plant microclover under my globe willow when it gets a little bigger so I have a nice soft spot to sit in the shade on a hot summer day.

I've got to be honest with you, so far the prep work has been torture.  I hate yard work.  I love gardening, but I hate yard work.  Especially when it's hours every day in the hot sun.  Last summer and this summer it was hours and hours of hard labor getting in the framework, but now comes the fun part.  Now I get to design fun garden beds and guilds, plant beautiful flowers and all our favorite foods.  I can put in the final trees and bushes, and a plethora of perennials.  Now I get to beautify our space.  The little pond and creek we have planned is an extra, there isn't a big rush.  The grey water system can come later as well, but I NEED plants.  I was going to wait until Spring, but why wait?  If I leave now I can still make it to the garden store before it closes.  :D  

The "back garden"
you can see the boxes that didn't
get completely covered and my sun chokes
getting nice and tall.

First harvest!!!

I was about to give up on my tiny tomato plants until I saw my first tomato! It's so tiny and funny looking. When I showed my husband he recoiled and asked if it was a mutation due to the weather. 🤣 I thought it was my cosmic black, but after tasting it I think it's a green zebra or something like that. No, that one was all green, I think... I marked them all, but the marker is missing. It was light and tart, reminiscent of citrus or kiwi. It might not have been ripe, but I don't know because I've never tried one before. 🤦‍♀️🤣

I guess where I'm going with this is, don't give up! Life will find a way. Plants want to live. If I'd given up I would have missed tasting this kind of tomato for the first time. And the look of revulsion on my husband's face. 🤣

Take a wander with me

I hurt my foot pretty bad and couldn't get out to do much in the garden for a couple of weeks.  I've had a hard time getting back to work.  It's not my foot.  I'm weary.  I'm tired of working outside for hours a day.  I realized today that it's because I'm not actually gardening, or doing the things I enjoy in the garden.  All I'm doing is laying down carboard and wood chips.  For hours.  Every day.  This morning I decided to do what I love best and take a slow wander through my garden, just enjoying the green life.  Come with me on my walk and I'll show you a few of my favorite spots.

Potatoes growing quickly

I planted three patches of potatoes this year, but this one is my favorite!  It's round, surrounded by an interesting wood border and interspersed among the potato plants is scarlet clover.  It's my favorite because it is the biggest and most lush, even though it was planted the latest of all three.  Last Spring I had a black tarp layed down to put soil on as I built grow boxes and it sat there for a year.  When I pulled the tarp back this Spring the soil was moist, dark brown and rich, full of mycelium and just crumbled in my hand.  It was amazing soil and the potatoes are enjoying it so much!

This is one of my yarrow patches, it grows along the bottom edge of my strawberry and asparagus guild berm.  I love the soft, feathery leaves and the tiny white flowers.  It makes me happy every time I walk past.  There is another patch around my apple tree, and another near the potatoes I just showed you.  

Yarrow

I have another favorite spot, two actually, wait...who can pick a favorite?  I love my patch of sunchokes growing.  I feel so pleased every time I see them, knowing they will help feed my family. I've never had them before so I am also feeling excited to try a new food.

I love my two strawberry and asparagus guilds.   I can't wait for fresh strawberries next spring.  Everyone in my family loves asparagus so I hope they, too, will take off like wildfire.  One of my few surviving rhubarb plants also lives in the guild.  Have you ever sautéed rhubarb?  It adds a lovely tart flavor to a savory dish.  You should try it.

Ok, now for my very favorite, my grape tunnel.  It's full of grapes, and even though it's only on it's second  year the grapes have really taken off.  I have tons of grapes growing this year and half of the tunnel is completely covered!  I'll plant some more this fall, some nice big, purple ones my neighbor has.  Next spring we also want to plant grass underneath so we can lay in the green tunnel on the cool grass.  Can you imagine how wonderful it will be?  I think this is my favorite place to walk because I feel completely surrounding by wonderful growing plants.

Morning sunlight filtering through my grape tunnel

Some of my other favorite are the sound of my chickens clucking along, eating grubs and bugs and making fresh food for us.  I love my catnip and watching my fat black cat lounge next to it, so self satisfied, as if he owns the whole world.  I love t
he morning sun touching my trees for the first time.  I can almost feel everything waking up and stretching to reach for the first rays, it's magical.  What are your favorite spots in your garden?

Neat and orderly...or not

Amongst the natural look I'm going for I also want a few neat and orderly areas. Areas where the lettuce grows in rows (because I forget what I plant) and the flowers are in a flower bed. I dreamed of creating this flower bed here for years, and I finally just got started on it. I've been putting it off because I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. You know the feeling when you've got a huge project that you need to do and you just don't know where to start? I'm feeling that a lot. Sometimes it's easy to look at a spot and I just see what it needs to be, I see the guild that I need to create, or I have ideas of what I want, but other times I look at this huge space that I'm trying to create in and I am finding it quite overwhelming. I just don't know where to start.

To help myself figure out what I need to do I sat down and I brainstormed with my husband. We talked about how last year we were really putting in the foundation of the permaculture by digging the swales and building the berms. We spent the entire summer doing that and we just barely finished before it started to rain and snow in the fall and then we moved into winter. This year I thought would be the year for planting, but I forgot what a pain the weeds are. So the more we talked about it the more we decided that the berms and the swales were the foundation of our permaculture garden, but the next step really needed to be to just lay down cardboard and wood chip over everything to cut back on the weeds. The two little guilds that I created a couple of weeks ago are so overrun with weeds already that I can hardly tell what I planted there, and I've weeded twice! So our new plan is to just lay down cardboard and wood chip over everything, and then next year after the wood chips have had a little bit of time to start breaking down and biodegrading and creating some soil that is when I will begin to build guilds and garden beds.

My plan there is to put the chickens in a spot as early as possible and have them get all of the weeds and the weed seeds and all of the bugs and everything that they can and then I will put down a big pile of healthy soil over the top of the wood chips and then I will plant in that. Honestly at this point I don't know if it's going to work. I feel like every time I've got a plan it doesn't go according to plan. If gardening is an experiment, permaculture is an even bigger experiment. I really want this to work though, I am determined to learn what I need to and get it figured out so that it does work. I just might have to change my plans every couple of months.