Ready to plant

Gardening can likely be done anywhere in the world with water and soil. I got some purple carrots and onion seedlings to plant. I have some seed I'll plant as well. The soil in the garden is heavy clay. I'll add compost and mix into a small area, then plant. Here are some photos of the garden! 

 This is a bed of kale (left) and chard (right).

 Here pictured are beets (front), artichokes (mid), and brussel sprouts (far back).

I'll let these continue to grow as the season changes. Eventually I'll redig these beds and add more organic matter. 

Gardening

     Hello, welcome to the blog. Gardening has been going well. It's near the end of winter and I am turning lots of soil.  I've been using an electric lawn mower to compost leaves weeds and grass to amend the soil. I saved some seed, though some has gone bad because I left outside and it got damp. I planted a bed of kale, Swiss chard, and parsley.  The kale started fairly well, some chard started. I haven't seen any parsley, not too sure what it looks like sprouting.  I think the bed could have used more compost before planting.  Also better sun while keeping a balanced watering would have helped more seeds grow. 
   I've learned a few recipes for cooking these plants. I've cut them up and added them to eggs and other veggies for a stir fry type thing. This works well.  I was reading kale has some type of acid that stops you from digesting the nutrients so it's important to cook lightly first.  Otherwise I'd saute it with some olive oil and garlic.
    So I haven't blogged lately.  I have been working a lot.  Learning to cook and prep food.  I moved pretty far to a larger city.  It was a really great time.  I'm going back to school now.  I guess being there made me see a lot of possibilities in life.  I'm relearning a lot of skills because I haven't been taking more than one class since I stopped going awhile back.  I like blogging and hope to continue more often.  Writing helps me organize goals and ideas.
   I suppose this is all I'll write today. Happy gardening!

Organics, Health and Mindfulness

   Organics is using no artificial sprays, fertilizers as well as following some standards like cleaning tools at the end of every day.  I believe there are some other rules; like no chemicals in the field for 20 years.   

Perma-culture: Healthy Food without the Cost of Our Environment

   So what is perma-culture? I chose to add a dash to the word, as I feel it should be a free word.  It's like the alchemist's stone of farming.  Throughout the years I've heard of it from time to time, but could never point a finger and say "There"!  Personally, I see it as closely related to food forestry.  I'll give some examples in my small garden.

   As you see here there are flowering broccoli, Swiss chard and a few lettuce left.  This bed was planted around march.  After around 3 months of lettuce and Swiss chard the broccoli finished.  Around this time I switched over to a bed with more sun.  I added heavy mulch, almost covering the lettuce(which was flowering), mostly stopped watering and left it.  Now the days have shortened and we had a few rains, I lightly weeded it and added more compost.  The Swiss chard is growing back from seed, it is also a well composted raised bed that remained mostly weed free through the summer.

   Sustainability is an important factor here.  Placing the bed in partial shade, I get slower growth.  By taking the time to understand plants needs, I can provide for them; without needing to be there all the time.  Which leads up to my next post on organics and why they are important.  

   Thanks for reading,

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Gardening

Greetings,
         It's the end summer, removing weeds is easier when they are dry.  I have been adding a few more plots. Most lettuces have gone to seed, I am leaving them alone because I don't have more to plant now. There are a lot of birds in the garden, they are probably getting some of the seeds. After the first few weedings, there are hardly any weeds in the beds. Companion planting seems to be helping a lot. 
       Water conservation is good for me because I often forget to water.  Heavy mulching and letting weeds grow around the bed seems to help a lot.  I've planted near a few fruit trees, on the sunny side.  Close plantings of vegetables, which start small and grow large after a few months, surrounded by greens. Greens become bitter the more you pick from them and as the season warms up.  By keeping lots of life in the garden it takes longer for the water to evaporate between watering.
       I'm working on potatoes right now, I'll clear the area of weeds and plant on a shallow layer of harder aged compost.  I'll bury them with a mixture of mostly dried grass (like the hay method) and some soil.
      Cooking has been something that also comes in handy when growing a vegetable garden.  Some things really aren't that good straight from the garden.  I've got Swiss chard and kale growing.  They can use light cooking with some olive oil. Things like fruits can be cooked in many ways; juice concentrates, fruit strips, or even made into sweet sorbets. When I had a lot of lettuce growing, Ceaser salads were a staple in my diet. 
      The healing power of gardening. Digging in the dirt with your hands is healthy, it draws toxins out of your hands.  Having a safe and peaceful place to go lowers stress levels greatly boosting the immune system.
       Growing lettuce is very difficult. It is sensitive to heat as it has a small root system.  A balance of some shade seems to allow more full flavored greens. When cutting I would switch off cutting every other plant allowing an extra close planting. Saving and replanting seeds can save a lot over buying starts. Especially because these are short lived plants. I recommend planting varieties separately both to make cutting faster and to keep the seeds more true to the original plant.
      I went Wwoofing abroad last year. It was a wonderful experience filled with adventure.  It brought to reality how much opportunity there is to help communities worldwide through agriculture.  I got to learn many thing from olive oil processes to using herbs in many dishes. I got to help plant a huge vegetable garden and was able to share things I've learned in the past while learning new things about building irrigation systems.  I was met with great kindness everywhere I went.  It was terrifying when I got off the plane, because I quickly realized I couldn't read anything and not that many people spoke more than a few words of English.  I made up for it by taking things slowly.  There were times I felt uncomfortable, was followed, and didn't have plan. 
     My primary means of transportation was by foot. After three days with a relatively light pack, my feet were blistered so bad I was having trouble walking.  So I found a pair of flip flops.  It helped a lot.  Another time, I had just enough budgeted for a hotel that night.  When I got there, those rooms were sold out. So I dug through my bag and had just enough to pay for the next one up.
    One thing that left me speechless was, I sat down to roll a cigarette, when a group of kids near by came up and gave me a cigarette.  That created a huge shift in my mind to realizing I was finally in a safe place. Then I was able to get where I was headed easier