Experiments in the Kansas garden…

My Permaculture Experiment…
With the scarcity of rain becoming more and more of an issue across the US and me planning to grow my own food, now and into the future, I figure I better learn how to conserve water when growing said food. When I learned about a guy named Sepp Holzer growing his food without irrigation, I was baffled. Especially when I saw him pull up radishes the size or turnips! How could he do that?! What magic techniques did he use?
 
I’m brand new to this type of food growing but it uses principles that make sense. So here’s my very first baby step down the road of Permaculture… wish me luck!
 
I’ve had these raised bed for a few years now and I’ve also been doing extended season growing by using hoop houses. This has been great fun. Now to become more efficient in my growing—that sounds like a giant leap forward. I decided to try this in manageable chunks. I started with one small section of a raised bed. I dug out the greens that were past along with a layer of dirt and weeds, placing all of that into my wheel barrel. I still have to separate the weeds from the dirt, but I’m saving that job for tomorrow night.
 

 
Excited to see some progress and work through the steps, I dug out another layer of soil and placed it on a large sheet of cardboard. I separated the weed roots as I was digging since there weren’t nearly as many the second layer down as there were in the wheelbarrow layer. The principle with permaculture is to layer things with wood fibers that contain cellulose at the base of the bed. When it rains or gets irrigated, the cellulose fibers will swell with water and retain it for use later by the plants. The roots will grow toward the water source. Ingenious! For the first layer, put down newspaper…
 

 
The next layer place cardboard. I happened to have this very large chunk of cardboard from something that I decided to save rather than take to recycling. I’m recycling in my own yard! How’s that?!
 

 
On top of the cardboard, you place logs. I happen to have a lot of logs from all that logging I did at my property last winter; so now I can use some of them in these permaculture beds that I’m setting up.
 

 
I don’t really know if three logs are enough or if I should put in more. If you have experience with using permaculture, I’m open to suggestions. Send them my way…
 
I placed a layer of black plastic over the dirt I dug out tonight thinking that by heating up the dirt, I have a chance of baking, aka killing, the weed remnants. I’m not sure how long I need to leave the black plastic on, so again, I’m open to learning.
 

 
That’s as far as I got with this project tonight… I plan to work on it a bit every night that I don’t have some other pressing thing to do.
 
Just to let you know… after the logs you place the soil… then seed it. Sepp uses a mixture of seeds that he just casts onto the ground. No straight rows or little holes or trenches for him. On top of the seed, place a layer of compost or manure, depending on what you’re growing. For mushrooms use manure. For vegetables, use compost. I have a bunch of compost that I’ve been collecting for a few years now in the back by the shed. I think it’s getting time that I start using it.
 
You may be wondering why am I prepping a bed in August… I’m creating this permaculture bed in my hoophouse area so I can grow through an extended season by covering the area with plastic when the weather turns cool to cold. I’m hoping to have potatoes by winter : )
 
Other projects that I’ve been busy with…
 
Dehydrating herbs and packaging them for use in teas and cooking:
 

 
Preserving the abundance of tomatoes this year, Hallelujah! I’m dehydrating both the yellow pear and red tomatoes. 
 

 
Don’t they look terrific?! When you bite into a dried tomato the intensity of the flavor is astounding. It hits your taste buds like nothing else. Some people call them candy because they are so tasty. Really… who’da thunk?!
Then I use my seal-a-meal machine to suck all the air out of the bag and make a seal. It’s pretty cool. I’m trying some with olive oil and some just dry.
 

 
It almost looks like beef jerky or something… but it’s really just tomatoes. Yum… : )
 
There was also the fun I had with growing Yellow Eggplants… aren’t they the most adorable things you ever did see?!
 

 
Here they are after harvesting… : )
 

 
I turned them into a persian stew, called koresh. Eggplant koresh with lentils is one of my favorites. Really I like many of the koreshes, but it’s fun to have enough time to make one now and then. 
 

 
 
One day we ran across an apple tree (MacIntosh) on sale, so we snatched that up and planted it. With a peach tree and a pear tree already established, I figured adding an apple tree to the mix was a good idea.
 
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One day we decided to harvest the volunteer potato plant that showed up this season… Trying to teach my kids that food comes from the land, I try to involve my kids a bit at a time so they have these memories to draw from as they go out into the world and need to make their way. Who knows what they may need to do in life and if they know that they can grow their own food and what it looks like, they’re way ahead of many folks these days.
 

 
We cooked those spuds into one tasty treat. It’s really fun to eat food that is just that fresh! Every one walks away with smiles on their faces.
 
Bon appetit!