Permaculture

Over the years I've been inching away at my lawn. I dig up a half foot off the perimeter of my veggie or flower gardens and in less than a season it's back. I first heard about permaculture in my local newspaper, then a friend told me about Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway.

                                                 Huckleberry, with permaculture beneath
 
Hemenway's basic recipe is to lay down vegetation and soil amendments, then a thin layer of manure. On top of those goes a thin layer of newspaper or cardboard followed by another thin layer of manure or a nitrogen-rich substance. Top that with a very thick coat of hay or organic material. Lay down some compost and crown the whole thing with straw, leaves or other types of seed-free mulch.

                  Area of my veggie garden I permacultured last year with mulch and first layer of     
                  vegetation down.

I decided if I followed the recipe exactly my yard would tower over my driveway and walks by several feet. So I modified. For areas I wanted to till -veggie garden- I kept it thin. It was virtually weed-free last year and tilled easily this spring.

                                                                  The evil Ivy

For an area on the side of my house that had been infested with ivy- I went thick. The ivy has popped up in only a few places but either the straw sprouted or some grass-like seed took root.

                                            My sprouting straw

Luckily it's on the surface, rather than running beneath, so it's easily plucked and used as a first layer elsewhere.
Now I have all my veggies planted I'll be after the big stuff- my front lawn.
In a later post I'll show some of the layers as I put them down.

Friends and Enemies

As the garden battle intensifies we line up with our friends to face our foes. Bees- love 'em or fear 'em- you won't have a garden without them. I'll write another time about how I learned to love bees, worms, and spiders.

Worms. I have a lot of clay in my soil, so these are my best friends. I even touch them regularly.
I don't call myself the gloveless gardener for nothing.

Spider momma and babies to the right. If she stays put I'll take some more photos of her. Years ago I would never have gotten anywhere near close enough to take this shot.

Good old ivy. We actually planted this stuff in the yard when we first moved to the Northwest 30 years ago. And we're still beating it off. I'm hoping eventually the perma-culture will win this battle.

Slugs, our Northwest favorite. (Enemy, that is)  With the wet spring we've had these beasties are a plague. More to come on using beer and copper in the fight against them.