Paradise Lot by Eric Toenemeier (Zoom Discussion)

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we need to listen to the land

150-200 food and nitrogen producing plants, thus your eatable landsape (a small city block).

This is gardening for everybody else

published in 2013

Germination is the beginning of the garden

• permaculture  permanent agriculture  (need low maintenance)  help out the environment
• talk about heat BTUs of chicken by a greenhouse
• these chickens made less work for the gardener
• Gave lists of reference’s about permaculture
• Author had a head injury

Chapter 2 – starting a seed company

• look for insect and pest-control strategy
• goumi bush that fixes nitrogen
• use polyculture can yield more than monoculture
• can limit weeds and control pests
• made room for frogs and toads
• nitrogen fixing plants make their own fertilizer!
• “The Tofu line” North & South of western Mass.
• use of infrastructure of Holyoke
• parents bought their first house for an investment
• permaculture experts say you should spend at least a full year observing your site before deciding what to do with it.

Sun, Shade, Soil, Slope

• with a goal for a specific site
• use series of graphs for analysis and assessment
• can determine the sun and what provides protection from the wind and provide shade
• talk abouecosystemt different type of soil on the property (did a soil test)
• talk about water needs!
• this leads to an overarching vision to tie your land into a garden. p. 37
• after testing soil & sun was most important

A Model  Ecosystem chapter 6

• behind K-Mart
• they used wild urban plants
• p. 38 Goldenrod heals cities from the damage we have done to them  (good for ecosystems)
• the k-mart field was from a construction fill -was used to mimic the process
• the whole idea was for regenerative design to bring back a site of life

Guild-Build

• make a list of what you want to grow
• The thought was a make edible plants
• use nitrogen-fixers and nectar plants
• talk about Ecological footprint (buying food from overseas)
• no native nitrogen-fixing shrub
• use goumi as a nitrogen-fixer
• could they bring back birds
• a salamander was caught showing improving ecosystem health
• many pictures were shown on construction/use of the garden

Part 2 It takes a Village to Plant a Food Forest

• organized a “permabliz” to rapidly transform a landscape
• use sheet mulching
  • lime/mineraal fertilizer
  • add organic material
  • add a weed barrier (3 to 6 months)
    • used cardboard
  • add carbon rich material p. 65
• need to shred leaves to speed up the decomposition
• built spoil also buillt community

Tacky Tropicalesque Takes Off chapter 9

• author was inspired by tropical plants
• figs grow to 8 ft.  P.68
• start of a productive paradise with the front yard tropical garden

The Edible Water Garden

• mosquito eating fish?
• used a lotus as a centerpiece
• lotus roots are killed by freezing  (have deep roots)
• native water lillies help shadde garden
• talk about a good relationship with neighbors is a key part of permaculture
• goldfish eat mosquito larva
• used rugs to shield rubber linear from stones

URBAN FARMING IS MY DAY JOB

• worked on all organic

MAGIC IN THE GARDEN

• growing mushrooms
• on page 78 the top 5 are listed
• author liked to hunt for mushrooms
• without mushrooms, compost wouldn’t

THE GREENHOUSE: GETTING SERIOUS

• growing fruits

PERENNIAL VEGETABLE SPRING chapter 13

• perennials produces better than annuals
• Sorrel plant/ water celery (greens for salad)
• sunchokes????
• scallions (perennial)
• maybe fuki???  Japanese’s
• asparagus
• sweet cicely
• garlic chives
• red Russian kale
• yellow pair tomato’s
• black nightshade fruit

BROCCOLITAS FOREVER

• can be mixed into salad  (sea kale or turkish rocket)

PUTTING DOWN ROOTS AND A PARAKEET VISIT

• weeds were coming into the garden
• a parakeet came to the garden to “check it out”

MEANWHILE BACK AT THE FARM  chp. 15

• getting a larger farm
• wanted wells, barn, and fencing
• Non profits wanted free work
• they got free goats (they liked eating poising ivy)
• working with spanish farmers
• big  on social  justice!

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME 

• can  the author build a shed?
• thus, a skunk problem arose
• wanted ecological integrity
• married Meg

A MOVEMENT GERMINATES

• Steps to fence out animals
• have water needs irrigation system
• green house gives you a 2-3 week difference
• use cow parsnips to attack beneficial insects

PART 3  LEAD

EXCESS SUCCESS

• GET ESTABLIDHED  COULD TAKE 3 YEAR
• SLEEP, CREEP, AND THEN LEAP

TURNING WEEDS INTO EGGS

• START CHICKEN RAISING
• the chicken started eating the leaves from the weeds
• The Weeds were chicken feed
• the chicken manure was good for compost
• garden fertility’s cycle
• silk worms eat nothing but mulberry leaves
• chicken like to eat bugs
• silk worms growing to about 2 inches (harvest the silk)
• life from insects were happening in their garden

GRAZING BERRRIES

• JUNEBERRIEW have knock out flowers
• red, white, and black currants….and gooseberries
• “mango berries”
• ground cherries
• lingonberry’s?

SECRETS OF RESILIENCE  Catch Water

• point roof water to the street
• need to redirect water into the garden
• use rain barrows
• water has been moving through our lives for years
• build soil
• important for growing things
• aeration of the soil
• good compost
  • purchased compost
  • organic vegetables
• gardens need minerals (like rocks)…invite diversity with insects

FRUITS AND NUTS CHP. 20

• uses trellised to support grapes
• beach plums
• hazel nuts dwarf???
• Korean Giant
• pawpaw flowers
• hand pollinating could lead to more fruit
• pawpaw’s are native
• Talk of growing kiwi’s
  • great flavor
  • looks over ripe
• vitamin C comes from Brazil
• Chesnutt grafting

A NOURISHING NECTARY NEIGHBORHOOD  chapter 21

• lack of toxic sprays
• flowers that provide nectar
• the author think its a sign of success for not using spray

FOOD FORESST FARM IS BORN

• talk of good livelihoods
  • selling extra plants
• “Tilling the Soil of Opportunity” program
• plants to customer was the best way.

PATTERRNS OF NITROGEN FIXATION     CHAP 22

• nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs are a must
• bush-clover (you need between 25 to 40 percent of plants in full sun to be nitrogen-fixers
• Hog peanut and licoricw milk vetch
• look at ground nuts
• use white clover for nitrogen-fixer (like ground cover)
• nitrogen-fixers grow excessively

GROUNDCOVER CARPETS

• serves as a living mulch
• water celery grows in summer
• gooseberry is a native??
• strawberries are also groundcovers
  • Kelly’s blanket
  • Alpine strawberries
  • use baron strawberry
• talk of horsetail!!!

THE GARDEN IMPACT BEYOND THE FENCE LINE

• Web site was launched to help other gardeners
• talk about happy geese
• permaculture king
• taught a class in Mexico on food forests
• perennial farming to fight climate change

PART FOUR   REAP

EMERGENT PROPERTY

• ecosystem was at a “life of its own”
• a salamander BLUE was taken from the garden
• this show the garden is now attaching different organism
•  CHAPTER 27the garden started to take steps on their own
• there was a spider mite attack
• letting nature do all the work!   One straw Revolution

LIVING IN PARADISE

• Creating a holistic plan for their own life
• is the life like our garden
• forest garden is established
• eating is now free
• 1/10th of a acre=400lbs.

GUIDING SUCCESSION

• SUCCESSION BEGINS FROM AN OPPPORTUNITY THAT ARRISES
• maybe create a design disturbance

INDIGENOUS MANAGEMENT INSPIRATION CHAPTER 27

• USED CONTROL BURNS TO LIMIT PESTS
• FOLLOWING A FIRE HUMAN FOOD FROM PLANTS INCREASE BY ALMOST DOUBLE
• fire kills some insects and pests
• sun flower is an oil seed plant (most important)
• permaculture is to imitate nature
• human impact could be positive
• practice of squirrel gather nuts and paying them with corn

NEXT-GENERATION POLYCULTURES

• maybe use hog peanuts and paw paw plants
• use unchokes  they fix nitrogen?
• growing something while waiting for a tree tto develop
• talking about bush clover as a cover

CHECKING BACK IN AFTER EIGHT SEASONS CHAPTER 29

• both of the authors achieved all their goals
• these two left their day jobs…cold climate forest gardens is a plus
• need to hav  open water, nectary plants, bird food for insects

PERMACULTURE GREENHOUSE REALIZED

• CLIMATE CHANGE HAS GIVING US A LOT OF OPPORTUNITIES
• intensity and frequency of extreme weather

WHATS STILL ON THE LIST

• talk of grafting species of plants
• adding rabbits with the chicks, plus native bees
• would like more people to work on the garden
• author talking about progessive policies
• Yield for permaculture all goes back to the designer
• most produced is for carbohydrates
• it won’t feed a city
• talk of planting Chesnutt (78% carbs)

EPILOGUE

• THESE TWO AUTHORS ARE PLANNIING ONLEAVING AFTER 8 YEARS

 

Nitrogen fixers are an important part of natural ecosystems, and an integral component of my recommend best practices for sustainable landscaping. Nitrogen fixers are plants that have the ability to take atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into forms usable by plants and animals.

 

The Importance of Nitrogen in Fertilization

Landscapers, gardeners, and farmers value nitrogen-fixing plants for their ability to contribute an essential plant nutrient (namely, nitrogen) to the soil. Nitrogen is one of “the big three,” being the “N” in NPK, the three letters that form a virtual stamp of approval for a complete fertilizer.

 

From Gardening knowhow:

How Do Plants Fix Nitrogen? Nitrogen fixing plants don’t pull nitrogen from the air on their own. They actually need help from a common bacteria called Rhizobium. The bacteria infects legume plants such as peas and beans and uses the plant to help it draw nitrogen from the air. The bacteria converts this nitrogen gas and then stores it in the roots of the plant. When the plant stores the nitrogen in the roots, it produces a lump on the root called a nitrogen nodule. This is harmless to the plant but very beneficial to your garden. How Nitrogen Nodules Raise Nitrogen in Soil When legumes and other nitrogen fixing plants and the bacteria work together to store the nitrogen, they are creating a green warehouse in your garden. While they are growing, they release very little nitrogen into the soil, but when they are done growing and they die, their decomposition releases the stored nitrogen and increases the total nitrogen in soil. Their death makes nitrogen available for plants later on.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Nitrogen Nodules And Nitrogen Fixing Plants https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/nitrogen-nodules-and-nitrogen-fixing-plants.htm