Learning to Sit

In the "balance" of life, which is more of an ideal than a reality, I find myself on the go most of the time. Even when my job requires that I sit at the computer for hours, my mind is often going a mile a minute. The fullness of life has caused Fawn and I to do a lot of her home study work in the evenings... so the idea of down time has been a little elusive. 

However, in the intense beauty of early autumn, I am learning something new. Sitting doesn't need to wait for the right moment. I don't need to get all of my work finished first; being done is only an imaginary concept anyway. The epiphany here is that in the middle of it all, I can take ten or even twenty minutes to sit down with both my body and my mind, and just be. And you know what? It doesn't mess my day up at all. It makes everything that much better.

With this spot waiting for me, how can I not sit? Yet the days slip quickly by, and I may not make it into this chair for a week or more. The Zen idea, "Devote time to sitting," is making more and more sense.

Yes, there is canning and dehydrating to do. But this is also the time to soak it all up and appreciate the gifts of the garden.  I would never have guessed that we'd have a huge ripe beefsteak tomato in our garden. (We grow lots of green tomatoes, but not necessarily red ones.) Better to sit and marvel for a moment instead of hastily chopping it up for the dehydrator...

...because as it turns out, an important part of being ready for winter is having enjoyed summer and fall.

This was tonight's sunset as seen from above the asparagus garden, reminding me that the natural world provides every reason to learn to sit. 

Wood Converted to Food

So what has all this wood produced, anyway? Well, let's take a look...

This is the earliest full size ripe tomato to come from the Wood for Food garden -- and my first time growing Japanese Truffle tomatoes. I can't say I've ever eaten a tastier tomato. Gardening at 3,000 ft elevation means that some years, the only large ripe tomatoes are those that ripen in the house after the frost. This one was a record for us, on August 30th! The plant is growing in the second aspen hugelkultur bed we built, shown at the end of the post, "Hugelkultur Goes Underground." 

(Marjoram hanging from my finger, ready to dry for later)

I have fond memories of eating "green potatoes" growing up. My mother, having married a Dutchman, learned to cook some excellent traditional foods of the Netherlands. I remember sitting at the dinner table with my family in the wintertime, the sun long set, eating steaming mashed potatoes with dried kale mixed in. This year, the aphids left our kale alone, so I decided to try dehydrating some. I can't wait to try some with our garden spuds, to make wintertime mashed potatoes more tasty, and healthier too.

Speaking of spuds, here Fawn is pretending that the potato plant is a hobo's backpack. We harvested three plants together and left the rest to grow a little longer.

Cucumbers! Another first -- full sized Armenian cucumbers, before fall set in. These are our #1 favorite garden snack. A new routine Fawn and I have swung into is taking the compost to the garden, picking a cucumber to split, and munching on it while we walk the dog. This is an amazing time of year. 

You've heard about "the one that got away." Here's the one that got away on us! We've had a few cucumbers hiding in the cucumber tipi, growing bigger by the day, unbeknownst to us. The latest monster only fits in the fridge diagonally. In years past, we couldn't grow cucumbers larger than your average pickle. Yes, we have had great weather this summer for growing veggies, but it seems the hugelkultur didn't hurt anything either...

 

This carrot had to be photographed (yes, it is a carrot selfie). This is the largest diameter carrot we've grown, and it came from the Horizontal Spruce Bed.

This year I was able to get rainbow swiss chard seed in the ground on time for the fall garden. I can't wait to see how long I can keep these ones going! The feel of fall has been in the air each morning. It's not long now. I hope to keep the garden producing through Halloween.

What are your hopes for your fall garden?

The shift into Autumn

The heat of summer seems to have acquiesced, making way for cooler air and promises of a crisp feeling out there, not too far away. Meanwhile, the vegetables begin to mature, bringing smiles to our faces and goodness to the dinner table.

Volunteer squash are especially fun this time of year! We are guessing this might be spaghetti squash(?). We'll know once we cut it open! This volunteer came from one of the first aspen hugelkultur beds.

Speaking of volunteers, I had just finished lamenting the fact that we didn't grow tomatillos this year, when a robust looking tomatillo plant emerged from underneath a volunteer pumpkin plant. Life is good in the jungle!

The garden is buzzing with activity. With so many kinds of bumblebees, we are inspired to try to learn what kinds we have... Thanks to Dana Visalli, we have a regional bumblebee key to look at! It's a good place to start. We love pollinators!

The cucumber tipi has come to life! The plastic has been pulled away so that the plants can stretch and grow and breath. Amazingly, this weekend we got our first cucumbers from it! This is the earliest we have ever had cucumbers. Joy!

Asparagus and nasturtiums... a vibrant part of the Aspen Hotbed

Another view of the Aspen Hotbed, with a volunteer pumpkin that is jungle-ifying the garden. Those pumpkins sure love the hot, rotting aspen, baking in thousands of pounds of horse manure. 

Inside the sheet house, the marmots still have not entered. I have never been so happy for a wall of old sheets! Lettuce round 3 is taking off. 

We harvested a lot of marigolds yesterday to dry and put up in jars for medicinal use. When Fawn was smaller, we were able to heal her pinkeye with compresses made from an infusion that included marigold (as well as camomile and fennel). The raging infection healed completely without antibiotics. Now she is the one to remind me, "Better harvest some marigold today, before it's too late!" 

Now is the time to take advantage of all that's growing and save it for later.

Midsummer Gratefulness

Thanksgiving may officially be in autumn, but summer inspires its own thankfulness.

Grateful that we got real rain, even though it also brought hail and wind.

 

Grateful for the large number of plants that survived the hail and wind storm despite getting beat up...

...and grateful that I took some pics before the hail.

(Asparagus and nasturtiums)

Grateful for the blueberry bed made with spruce hugelkultur -- with catnip to help attract pollinators, Wee Willie Sweet Williams for the butterflies, and fireweed and raspberries on the periphery.

Grateful for my first ever echinacea flower, and for my neighbor who shared the plant with me. I have always wanted to grow echinacea!

Grateful that we caught this fourth little monster (not so little after all the produce he's eaten)...

...and that I have such good help in relocating them. Fawn gives them a nice send-off, with songs about not being scared and heartfelt well-wishes. 

Grateful for the Dusky Grouse, our native counterpart to chickens, but totally self-reliant. They often take dust baths in my decoy garden beds outside the fence. The sound of the male grouse displaying throughout the growing season is an intrinsic part of the soundscape of the Wood for Food Garden, along with the baby kestrels calling out for food, then learning to fly above my head.

 I can hear the Dusky Grouse clucking all around the garden area, and sometimes they come in and help by eating slugs and other creatures that compete with us for food. One of this year's young spent some time in the garden recently (above).

Grateful that the cucumber tipi didn't blow down in the wind storm! 

Grateful for all the people who have helped me so that this garden could come together. And for the new birdhouse, another beautiful contribution from Lee! (Note the rounds stacked in the background -- more Wauconda wood for a new above ground bed for next year...)

Grateful that the aspen hotbed came through again, this time with a robust garlic harvest...

...and grateful that I have the health and wellness not only to grow these foods but also to harvest and enjoy them.

Gardening with Marmots, Part II

You may not realize it, but old sheets can make the difference between wildlife getting everything, and having food left over for humans to eat from the garden. I have lettuce growing all throughout this garden. In all places where it is out in the open, it is eaten down to nubs, mainly by marmots. However, within the circle of sheets, there are some beautiful lettuce plants especially for our family to eat. They were intended to be "round two" of successional planting, so they're not quite ready to sustain our salad habits, but they will be soon.

Big thanks to everyone who shared old sheets with me. Cheers -- it's working!

The sheets surround the majority of the Alderwood Patch. The fabric creates a visual and perhaps an olfactory barrier, so far making it much harder for the marmots to discover these plants. This is the first year that we have grown peas without them being eaten down -- not even once! It's not that the marmots couldn't get into the sheet house, it's just that they don't see what's inside, so it doesn't occur to them. (Let's hope this continues...)

My daughter and I build this cucumber tipi together. At first it was intended to simply be a trellis for the plants; then I draped an opaque curtain over one side as a wind break. 

When our cucumbers plants became a marmot target, I realized that I was "most of the way there" in protecting the cucumbers. I added one wall of plastic sheeting on the south side and used clothespins to keep everything in place. So far so good!

Now, if I were a marmot, I would want to investigate this further! It was our daughter's idea to camouflage the Havahart trap, then Lee suggested it as well, along with the strategy of a trail of goodies leading to the opening. Thank you Lee, for lending us your larger trap!

I didn't want to disrupt the trap's function but I layered on vegetation wherever I thought it would be out of the way. Notice the carrots growing in the foreground on the right, half-eaten by the marmots. They love carrot tops!

This was Marmot #3 caught this year, named "Chirpess" by our daughter.

Here M is releasing "Chirpess" at a location where another young marmot greeted us upon arrival. She is sure this other marmot was "Chirper," Marmot #1 caught and released earlier this year.

This is "Chirpess" after leaving the trap. Looks like a good release location!

I believe that in every situation in life, there is something to be learned. 

Okay, so what can you learn from marmots in the garden? 

Well, there is a good reason the marmots eat so many of the carrot tops. The greens taste great and are good for you! Carrots are part of the umbelliferae family (celery, parsnip, fennel, cumin, cilantro, and parsley, etc.). They do have alkaloids -- along with lots of other greens -- so I'm not going to over do it, but throwing some into my salads adds chlorophyll, potassium, and lots of other great minerals and vitamins. Everything in moderation, and it's always good to rotate your greens. I hear some people are allergic or intolerant of carrot greens, but I really enjoy homegrown carrot tops, knowing they haven't been sprayed with any pesticides. I'll follow the marmots' lead and harvest some before they do!

I first heard about eating carrot greens from local organic farmer and Netherlander, Ton Rietveld of Leaping Sheep Farms. I was thrilled to discover this additional crop (thanks, Ton!). As 'Garden Betty' says: "Just because these things are not culturally popular does not mean they’re not nutritious or can’t be eaten; in fact, the leaves of root vegetables tend to be more healthful than the roots themselves." So as you are thinning those crazy twisted carrots from your garden, don't forget to bring some carrot greens to the table, too! 

Most of my lettuce may be eaten down by marmots at the moment, but it will grow back. In the meantime, they won't stop me from enjoying salads! I made the above salad this morning from carrot greens, chopped snap peas, baby carrots (harvested during thinning), sprouts from a jar in the kitchen, and organic pinto beans from Azure Standard. A little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and I'm in salad heaven! I may be frustrated that so much lettuce has been eaten down, but the marmots are causing me to be more creative in making salads -- and it's good to eat a diverse diet, right?

Do you like to eat carrot greens? 

If so, what's your favorite way to prepare them?

Please leave your comments below.

Going Vertical

"Before" 

This is what the central vertical pit looked like before digging commenced.

This pit began with a lot of weeds for green manure. Our neighbor Ron stopped by with a generous load of rotting pine. His timing could not have been better! I had the good fortune of a visit from the Tonasket Permaculture group planned for that same day... perfectly serendipitous timing. 

We were a small but hard working party of three and we got a lot done! This pit has the most pine of any, and it is on the bottom layer, where I'm most likely to use pine. However, if the pine is well on its way to being rotten, I've found it works well in any of the layers. In this photo, Jason is helping lay down the base layer of pine.

This work party happened in the fall of 2013, just as the first frosts were starting to claim some of the plants. It was handy to be able to use a lot of frosted or finished plants for green manure.

I took down my daughter's Mammoth Sunflower using my bow saw and here Jason is about to toss it in.

Lots of water in between layers...

Next a layer of horizontal spruce.

There was plenty of soil to work with, so we added a layer of dirt. 

And now for the vertical layer! This bed is an experiment that will allow plant roots to access the vascular tissues of the rotting wood more directly. A big thank you to Lee Johnson for bringing the exquisitely punky spruce that made this experiment possible. 

Why vertical? 

The theory is that placing the wood vertically allows the direction of the vascular tissues in the wood to help make moisture accessible to the plants' roots. If you picture the tubular structures of the xylem and phloem running lengthwise through the trees, it makes sense that the roots of your plants might more easily access water by growing into those structures, which are opened into cross sections when the logs are cut to length (like straws within the logs). Compare that with plant roots meeting the smooth natural edge of a log, and it seems feasible that the orientation of the log might make a difference. I haven't seen any scientific studies done to prove one method over the other, but someone did get creative in doing comparisons of wood orientation in large tubs: http://lowcostvegetablegarden.blogspot.com/2012/07/vertical-hugelkultur-eliminates-wilt.html. Also, if you look at John Elliot's video post on this thread: http://www.permies.com/t/28038/hugelkultur/Direction-sticks-Hugel-vertical-horizontal, you can also see how roots may like to grow in between the bark and the wood. Pretty interesting!

(Pasted from the comments section of another post, as it's relevant to this situation)

Here you see Jason and Barbara placing Alpaca manure on top of the vertical pieces, a beautiful dressing to use near the surface where plants can best benefit from the nutrients. (The Alpaca manure came from Chuck and Kathy Mowry on Nine Mile Ranch and can be purchased for $25/pickup load, loaded for you with a tractor). It is an incredible material to bring into your garden. I like to put a handful of it in with every transplant if I can! 

More plants for green manure and lots more water...

And a final layer of soil for planting into.

The following growing season, 2014:

"After"

And to recap...

Mid-stream:

After:

(June 28, 2014)

Side note: It always seems like I have gargantuan amounts of path space in June... but somehow by August there is hardly any place to walk! So I must be on track. The bulk of the vertical spruce bed is planted with potatoes, which are interspersed with onion, cabbage, and marigold companion plants. Sunflowers volunteered throughout the garden and are a welcome addition in most places. 

I would like to put out a hearty thank you to the Tonasket Permaculture group for being involved, and particularly to Barbara and Jason for their hard work in helping build the central vertical spruce bed! What fun it is to work as a team. Thanks again!