The design for our urban landscape is based on the food forest concept stemming from permaculture principles. One of the several important aspects of designing a food forest means utilizing “layers” in the garden. Here are those layers:
The canopy (large trees)
Low tree layer (dwarf fruit trees)
Shrubs
Herbaceous
Rhizosphere (root crops)
Soil Surface (cover crops)
Vertical Layer (climbers, vines)
Last year [...]
Tags: design · food forest · permaculture
Birds are an important addition to the backyard food forest. Although they will steal some of my berries and fruit, they give something back with their guano, insect-eating, and simple beauty. If the competition for my produce gets too severe I will cover the berry bushes with some netting. I am willing to take that [...]
Tags: permaculture · wildlife
There are some major projects going on in the backyard right now! Jay is building me an 8′ x 8′ four-post trellis for my hardy kiwis to grow up - aren’t I a lucky girl? He spent the whole weekend on the project: gathering the materials from multiple lumber yards, measuring off the area, digging [...]
Tags: gardening · permaculture
It will be a long time before I top the weekend I just had. My weekend was full of my favorite things: being with my best friend in the whole world, gardening in the sunshine, eating bratwurst at Otto’s, sharing Sunday brunch with friends, taking country drives, playing with ceramics in my studio, tango dancing [...]
Tags: gardening · permaculture
One of the great things about sharing your love of gardening with friends is pooling the harvest together. We have some friends in the neighborhood that have had great success with their tomatoes this summer. Last night we were taking a stroll by their house and they sent us home with a lovely assortment of [...]
Tags: gardening · permaculture · recipes · urban homesteading