Permaculture Beginnings...Slow and Steady and Sudden

Everything within me wants to race to the greenhouse before the rest of the good plants are gone.    My little tiny budget crimps those urges and forces me to plod along.

In the long run, it might be for the best.  


As I put one perennial in here and another tucked in a spot along the fence; ideas are planted and begin to bloom.

What if I dug out and sheet mulched the low spot beside my patio and moved one of my big blue stem grasses to it?  In this way, a new bed or niche will begin.

Then there is the tree issue. Three giant trees have had to be taken out of my yard this year.  My ONLY trees and it has been heartbreaking. 

By happenstance, I was outside when a landscaping company delivered a Pampas grass to my nieghbor.  After a polite amount of chit chat, I asked what time of tree they would recommend.  

"Hawthorn."  The young man said to his elder,   "Don't we have that Hawthorn at the place?"  

In light of the excited prattle of a dreaming woman and the excellent service of a good landscaper; I received the call.

"We have the hawthorn in town to deliver to you!"


 "Oh really," I say.  

"Won't my husband be surprised," I think.  

Soon after, a giant digging machine snatched out a triangle shaped chunk of earth.  I stood over it wondering how appropriately it looked like a graveside!  


The tree arrived and is absolutely beautiful and they put it in the exact right place.  Water well and watch it bloom, they beamed.

 It is a mid-layer tree.  

So...now on to add the shrubs and grasses....

Soil is full of the memories of how it once was.

Soil gets a bad rap.  Feet and hands and children are kept out of it.  

Noses wrinkled and head held high as we avoid it.

It is kept at arms length with shovel handles and spray bottles.

Keep it at a distance. Uninvolved and unmoved.  

Focus on the quick and away from the dirty and real.

Sometimes, the most important things around us, we take for granted.

Soil full of life.  

Full of the memories of how it was treated and what was once sown and thought hidden.

Soil is where yesterday, today and tomorrow merge and link arms.

Where the debris of the years is broken into particles and covered with the debris of today. Birds, worms, organisms and humans mix the layers.

Soil is where the broken, diseased, decayed and imperfect become treasure.

Where is diversity is invited and created.

"An exuberantly healthy soil is the cornerstone of a sustainable garden.  The virtues bestowed by a living, fertile soil are legion.  When we pack the growing earth with organic matter, via thick mulch, self-renewing roots, and buried debris, we're beckoning the industrious workers of the soil.  Worms, tiny beetles and mites, bacteria, fungi, and a host of other helpers arrive to feast on the offerings and on each other.  

They churn and tunnel and munch and spawn, chiseling minerals from rock and humus, all the while loosing a veritable avalanche of fertility to be shared with plants.  The plants themselves shelter, feed, and are nourished and protected by whole communities of soil life in a mutually beneficent partnership."  

 Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway (Published 2009)P. 95

Spring Has Sprung- Permaculture in Process

The butterfly bushes, Maximilian sunflowers,  yarrow, syliva, hostas and grasses are all trimmed back and confidently pushing up their new growth.  A little like three year olds testing their boundaries, or teenagers spreading their wings.

Leaves gathered around their roots over the winter, are in various stages of decomposition.  Beds and berms have been watered and cleaned.  I never tire of watching nature do what God intended it to do.  Working together to build the soil and community up around it.  

The soil is amazing and teeming with life!  Now to protect it until the plants do their job in the garden.  I'm looking for old hay and straw.  Hay breaks down more quickly.  Asking people who mow to share their grass clippings with me is going to be critical.  My goal is to have 8 inches of mulch on my beds and around my plants.

The electric company shared a wealth of wood chips with me.  Family and friends shook their heads at the giant pile in my driveway and I secretly wondered where it would all go.  Surprisingly, they have gone quickly as I add more around this perennials, or that tree as the ground settles in.

Although our area continues to be in a drought, a spring rain a few days ago has given the ground hope.  As it rained steadily through the night, I could not help but imagine the water seeping through the mulch and pea gravel to be stored in the soil beneath the swells and berms.  I imagine it being held by organic bits and pieces within the soil.

Permaculture is simply helping create community systems!