Permaculture At Its Best

The Edible Garden

Our hard work of double digging our gardens and following the planting regimen of biodynamic gardening are starting to pay off. The rain has stopped and the warm sunshine is blessing our plants. We have even been able to put on shorts. It is so strange to have gone almost a year without wearing shorts everyday. I felt strange when my white legs were exposed. Oh do I miss the warm weather of Hawaii. With the warmer days we are spending more time in the garden. We have about 1/2 an acre with over 50% of it planted so we have watering, fertilizing and harvesting to do on a regular basis. Each of us also have our own individual beds we can plant anything we want in them. We have decided to make ours the experimental bed. We have direct seeded many different things instead of using transplants. We have carrots, goldencup squash, tomatoes, red aztec spinach, eggplant, strawberries, and cucumbers so far. Excitingly things are starting to pop up for us. One of our intern's stepdad is a mushroom expert and he sent us some mycilia powder to sow with our plants. It is supposed to make them healthier and more resilient to pest and disease. I think it is working. I have been reading about mushrooms and fascinated at their powers. His dad has patented many different formulas, one which is a natural pest control especially for termites, one that helped clean up an oil spill, and is working with the gov't to ward against biological weapons. They also have incredible medicinal benefits against cancer, cholesterol, diabetes. I suggest everyone eat more mushrooms. We have been fortunate because we have inoculated strawbales with mycilia and have been eating fresh elm oyster mushrooms for the past two months. Paul our intern also propogated shitake mushrooms. Beside our supply of mushrooms, our red and green leaf lettuce have reached harvesting size. What delicious salads we have been having for the past two weeks. The kale, mustard, and artichokes have been for the eating. Many have been grazing on the strawberries and we have just begun eating the cherries and raspberries and mulberries.

We have so many cherries so everyone is pulling out different recipes for smoothies, pies, and jellies. In a few weeks we will have blueberries. It is great that our shopping expenses have gone down dramatically and once the vegetables start coming in we may not even have to go the co-op for anything. We should be able to supply tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, asian greens, kale, chard, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, carrots celery, garlic, onions, basil, mint, rosemary, dill, spinach, beets, turnips, brussel sprouts, several different kinds of squash, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, musk melon, and wheat, oat, corn and quinoa. We also have cherry, apple, pear, peach, quince, raspberry and blueberry bushes throughout the site along with a nut orchard. We definitely have been spoiled living in Mendo eating fresh organic fruits, vegetables, meat and wines. What a difference it makes. I highly recommend going organic. Watch the documentary Food Inc. and you will become a convert too!!