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Tag: Nutrition
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Permaculture Paradise: Val and Eli’s Garden!
Val and Eli take us on a tour of their magical permagarden in Jacksonville FL. They have created a wonderful, natural space filled with self-sustaining fruits, vegetables, herbs, medicines, colors, water, fragrances, and wildlife. This is the very best fast food!View more permaculture videos here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA302F7D0CEA4F65A
Val can be reached at 904-476-6388, www.meetup.com/Permaculturejax.com, and at www.thefoodparkproject.com.
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How to Permaculture Refugee Camps
How to Permaculture Refugee Camps
Malcolm JohnstoneThursday, 9th March 2017How permaculture principles and design can be applied to refugee camps to make them more sustainable and liveable.
Temporary IDP camps (internally displaced camps) built for those in Iraq, as well as many other conflict situations, are often more permanent than initially planned.
Camps built in a few weeks for an influx of people are, years later, small towns with shops, schools and bustling social activity. These towns however, are not sustainable due to the lack of an industrial or agricultural base. Simply, they don’t create any internal value to trade with outside. Instead they rely on external inputs – government salaries for a lucky few – but more often, food vouchers, goods and cash from humanitarian organizations.
Aspects of permaculture can improve the sustainability of these camps and have positive effects on food security, nutrition, livelihoods and self-esteem.
Given that the camps are usually planned quickly in accordance with long-established planning guidelines, the usual starting point for implementing ideas from permaculture is in an existing camp, rather than in the spatial planning phase. (Though, permaculture has a lot to say about spatial design). That said, there are many permaculture aspects that can be implemented at the household plot level and in the water reticulation system that have excellent impacts.
WASH, or Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, in the humanitarian sector has the most promise from a permaculture perspective. Innovations in this area have the potential to assist in the production of food, help protect shelters through establishing wind-breaks, beautify a neighbourhood, employ people and increase the skills, social interaction and self-esteem of camp residents. Here is how to get there:
Food
Thinking in zones is a design technique in permaculture that helps reduce the effort required to make a system work. The zones are determined by the place where most of the activity happens – usually the home – and the availability of water – which could be from the roof of the house, or another location.
The inner zone is a great place to grow herbs and vegetables for use in the kitchen. These kitchen gardens require a relatively high amount of water, so should be placed near to both the kitchen and a water source. In camp settings there is often enough space around a shelter or tent for a small and productive kitchen garden.
Slightly further away, in zone 2, fruit trees might be planted, as they require less water. Raising chickens might be considered here to keep the weeds down, fertilize the soil and provide eggs and meat.
Taking advantage of paths that are travelled often is a useful innovation of permaculture systems. If people are already moving in a direction, why not plant something along the way that they can tend or pick? In a camp situation if water must be carried some of it could be used to water plants on route. If the chickens are on a convenient path then kitchen scraps can easily be fed to them.
Protecting shelters
The borders of the camp, or along the sides of streets are good places to run drains, and to grow trees as windbreaks. Exposure to the wind and sun reduces the life of an emergency tent and protection from these elements makes a camp a more pleasant place to live. Fast growing trees can be planted at the outset of camp construction.
Employment
Permaculture relies a lot on manual labour so is suited to camps where labour is one of few assets people have. Setting up systems of water reticulation and planting trees can often be supported financially by humanitarian organizations. The systems can then be maintained by camp residents.
Skills, Social interaction and Self-esteem
Boredom in IDP and refugee camps is a real issue for residents. Learning skills and undertaking activities can be a way to achieve various aims at personal and community levels. The process of planning, digging, planting and tending can be therapeutic, can deliver new knowledge and can integrate a community together.
Beauty
Stark rows of tents, often in remote locations, provide uninspiring views for camp residents every day. Permaculture, with its focus on gardening, can assist with beautifying an environment with plants. Living fencing can replace fences, and if planted in a zigzag can provide plenty of ecological niches to support other types of plants and animals.
It’s never too early to start thinking from a permaculture perspective. Humanitarian organizations in Iraq should start now!
Useful links
How permaculture can respond to refugee camps
Building resilience after earthquakes
Creating community through language
https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/how-permaculture-refugee-camps
On – 09 Mar, 2017 By
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Vegetable troubleshooting workshop prepares you for spring
Vegetable troubleshooting workshop prepares you for spring
Apr 10, 2017 | Lawn & Garden
BOULDER COUNTY –Pursuing the dream of the perfect vegetable garden is a Don Quixote-esque exercise in Colorado. If the heat doesn’t crisp your crops, an unseasonable snow squall freezes them; hail, micro-bursts, and gale force winds are common. Yet still, we persist in unvanquished hope that the garden will be effortless this year.
Mother Nature always brings us back to earth. Insects and diseases that overwinter in fallen leaves or garden detritus return each season, rising from the debris to feast on our vegetables. Like a zombie horde they munch through the vegetables like a buffet of brains.
Gardening through the challenges is just how we roll, but if you’re looking to increase your success, the best advice is: know your enemy. Colorado State University Extension is helping you do that with its Vegetable Troubleshooting Workshop, Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Best Western Plus Plaza Convention Center, 1900 Ken Pratt Blvd., in Longmont (https://2017-vegetable-garden-troubleshooting.eventbrite.com). The two-day workshop is designed to cover all of the thugs, bugs, and disorderly conduct that can occur in the vegetable patch.
Understanding your soil is the foundation of successful gardening, and Dr. Jean Reeder, retired soil researcher, kicks off the workshop with Soil Savvy, a look at the most fundamental component of a healthy garden. This class discusses how to interpret the data provided by a soil test, and how to incorporate knowledge of basic soil properties into management practices.
Reeder then dives into fertilizers and amendments, demystifying the differences between organic amendments and organic fertilizers, organic and inorganic fertilizers, and mulches and cover crops. She’ll discuss the different types of amendments and fertilizers available, criteria for evaluating the quality of an amendment, and determining whether or not plants would benefit them.
IF YOU GO:
WHAT: Vegetable Troubleshooting Workshop
WHEN: Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13, 9 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. (single-day purchase not available).
WHERE: Best Western Plus Plaza Convention Center, 1900 Ken Pratt Blvd., Longmont.
TICKETS: $75 plus EventBrite service fees, available at
https://2017-vegetable-garden-troubleshooting.eventbrite.com.
Weeds, diseases, and operator errors that seem to spring out of nowhere are topics covered by Dr. Tamla Blunt, Director of CSU’s Plant Diagnostic Clinic in Ft. Collins. Where weeds come from and what they want, plus which ones are common and controllable are discussed, before Blunt talks about spores, molds, fungus, bacteria, and viruses.She’ll also discuss problems caused by non-living factors, called abiotic disorders, some of the most elusive problems to track down. Like Goldilocks, sometimes the plant’s worst enemy is that it’s too hot or too cold, when it wants it to be just right. Environmental, nutritional, or operator error all play into whether plants thrive or die.
Rounding out the discussion of thugs is myself, talking about insects, both pest and beneficial. Not everyone enjoys a bit of protein in their salad that comes with six legs, but not every bug is an enemy. Learn which ones are munching marauders and which ones are the good guys, and how to control – or encourage – them.
We won’t send you off on a low note, though, so stay until the end when we discuss Post Harvest Handling of your bounty. Get tips for treating your produce to the care it deserves after it’s plucked from the vine.
Do you have a passion for potatoes and an interest in research? CSU Extension is looking for participants to trial potatoes in their home garden. Participants must be willing to grow two types of potatoes, 10 plants of each type for a total of 20 plants and fill out a form on growing, cooking, and eating the potatoes. For details or to sign up, e-mail [email protected].
http://athomecolorado.com/2017/04/10/vegetable-troubleshooting-workshop-prepares-spring/
On – 10 Apr, 2017 By crandalla
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8 Reasons to Include Rosemary in the Garden
Growing food at home is much more than vegetables alone. Culinary herbs are not only one of the easy crops to cultivate, but they improve the flavor, as well as the nutritional content of the dishes we cook. What’s more is culinary herbs have tremendous functional quality within gardens, as well as medicinal qualities, especially preventative measures, within our bodies. Dried or fresh, if we are producing herbs in the garden, we have easy access to them for much less cost.
Rosemary is a familiar culinary herb, one that pairs particularly well with potatoes and artisanal bread. It also often works its way into holiday dishes, like stuffing or gravy, and those with rosemary plants at their disposal regularly use it as an air freshener or home decoration. Along with basil, oregano, thyme and mint, rosemary is nearly a standard in even the most rudimentary herb and spice cabinets, so it only makes sense that we include it in our home gardens.
But, there are so many more reasons…
1. Flavorful Harvest
Rosemary performs well in the kitchen, and a little bit can go along way to elevate dishes. It pairs particularly well with starches and works wonders on squashes and stews. Inventive mixologists also utilize it in drinks, like lemonade, and innovative chefs have accented with it in desserts.
2. Health Benefits
In addition to enhancing the flavor of many of our favorite dishes, rosemary also delivers a wallop of health benefits. Like most culinary herbs, rosemary is loaded with anti-oxidants and vitamins, and it contains natural compounds that are anti-inflammatory and anti-septic. It is also a notable source of minerals, such iron, potassium, manganese, copper, magnesium and potassium.
3. Perennial Plant
Perennial plants are great additions to food gardens because they can provide food but don’t require that we cultivate them year in and year out. Many culinary herbs are perennials, and rosemary is most certainly one of those. Other advantages to having perennial plants is that they help to stabilize soils and feed soil life, and they prevent gardens from looking empty when the annual crops have been removed.
4. Lovely Aroma
Larisa Blinova/ShutterstockRosemary has a very distinct and powerful aroma, one that we readily identify in cooking and often in air freshening. Within aromatherapy circles, the scent of rosemary is known for being stimulating, helping sniffers remain alert and retain memory. In direct contrast, rosemary is also known to have relaxing effects that decreases stress levels.
5. Pest Prevention
Once again, culinary herbs can be somewhat lumped together in that nearly all of them are great for pest control in the garden. Rosemary is particularly powerful because of its aroma, which distracts pests from finding the plants that they want. Essentially, the more smells we can add to our garden, the more confusing it is for pests to hone in on specific plants.
6. Pollinator Attraction
While pests are being confused by rosemary, beneficial insects and animals, such as hummingbirds and bees are attracted to rosemary when it is in bloom. Rosemary flowers in late winter/early spring, which means it provides pollen when not many other plants are. This makes it attractive to wildlife looking for an early start.
7. Drought Resistance
Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean climate, which is why we find it so often in Italian food, but as gardeners, this tells us that it is able to sustain itself in a climate without an abundance of rain. It grows very well in Southern California, but for those of us not in this climate or one’s like it, it can make a low-maintenance pot plant or easily cared for garden addition.
8. Heat and Cold Tolerant
Maren Winter/ShutterstockRosemary is more or less a desert plant, hence the drought resistance, but that also indicates that it can handle both hot and cold temperatures well. Deserts have the reputation for being hot, so rosemary’s ability to withstand sizzling conditions should be no surprise. On the other hand, deserts are also notoriously cold at night, when the sun stops baking them, so rosemary is remarkably resistant to cold weather, well below freezing, as well.
All of these benefits come without even acknowledging that rosemary is a beautiful, evergreen plant that will keep the garden looking good year-round. It comes in both upright and creeping varieties, making it available for hedges or hanging over garden walls. It’s a great addition for both aesthetic and culinary gardens. Now would be a great time to get one going.
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/reasons-to-include-rosemary-in-the-garden/
On – 10 Apr, 2017 By Jonathon Engels
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5 Keys To Growing Cucumbers – Grow A Banner Crop This Year For Pickles And More!
Growing Cucumbers! When it comes to backyard gardens, cucumbers are right up there with tomatoes as one of the most popular home-grown vegetables.
It’s not hard to figure out why. Is there anything better than a fresh cucumber sprinkled with a little bit of salt? And beyond that delicious fresh taste, they are, of course, prized for making pickles. In our house, pickles rule! (See our Pickle Recipe Page)
Whether its making a quick batch of our overnight garlic pickles, or canning bread and butter, dill or hot pepper-garlic pickles, we simply love them!
But to make a lot of pickles, you have to grow a big crop of cucumbers. I have to say, it took us several years to really perfect the art of growing a banner crop. We thought we would share 5 of our biggest tips we’ve found to help grow that perfect crop.
5 Keys To Successfully Growing Cucumbers
#1 Plant In A Sunny Location
At the top of the list, sunshine. Cucumbers need the sun, and a lot of it! Locate your crop in an area that receives at least 8 hours of sunlight a day. Much like pumpkins, gourds and zucchini – cucumbers rely heavily on the photosynthesis process to grow the strong vines needed to producing heavy fruiting. No sun, no photosynthesis.
Locating your crop in the sun also allows leaves and vines to dry off from early morning dew. This is a huge help in controlling mildew and blight. Avoiding both of those issues are big to keeping your crop healthy.
#2 Provide Rich, Fertile, Well Drained Soil
Cucumbers love rich, fertile, well-drained soil. The more you nutrition you can provide at planting time, the better. We add a few shovelfuls of compost, and a quarter cup of worm castings to each planting hill or container. It creates a rich soil for the young seeds or transplants to get off to a great start. The worm castings / compost combo has made a huge difference in the health and productivity of our plants!
When planting directly into the soil, we plant in slightly tapered hills about 18″ in diameter, 3″ to 4″ high. This helps keep the plant stems out of sitting water during heavy rains or watering.
We prefer planting transplants over seeds. The added growth and strength help give them a better chance to avoid dreaded cucumber beetle attacks. If you are planting transplants, use two plants per hill. If you seed, plant 3 and thin to 2.
Cucumbers, especially bush-style varieties, can be planted in containers as well. Again, be sure start off with a rich, well-drained soil mix to give plants the nutrition they need. Use only one plant per container to avoid draining the soil too quickly of nutrients. Product Link: Worm Castings
#3 Be Careful What You Plant Nearby
What you plant around your cucumbers can play an important role in their productivity. One thing to avoid for sure is planting cucumber crops near potatoes.
Potatoes release a substance in the soil that greatly hinders the growth of cucumbers. Radishes, on the other hand are great, as they help to repel harmful insects like cucumber beetles and aphids that attack tender cucumber plants. It is also easy to sow a few inexpensive radish seeds around plants. They germinate fast and really do help stave away the beetles.
Nasturtiums and Alyssum are also excellent to plant right alongside your growing cucumbers.
The nasturtiums will help repel and deter a whole host of nuisance insects, while the alyssum acts as a sacrificial plant to beetles, keeping them away off of your cucumbers.
One final note on where you plant. Be sure to practice crop rotation. You can keep soil-borne disease at bay by rotating your crops each year to a new location. Wait at least three years before planting them back in the same location. This allows the soil to recover, minimizes disease, and reduces the possibility for infestation.
#4 Provide Support
If you are planting a vining variety of cucumber, be sure to provide support in the way of a trellis, fence, or rope or wire. A folded piece of metal fencing will work great in open garden settings. By providing a place for the vines and cucumbers to grow, it keeps the plants and fruit off the ground and less susceptible to mold, blight and disease. It also helps support them during winds and heavy storms.
Compact, bush varieties can usually be grown without support, but even with these varieties, a little help in holding them up goes a long way. Seed Links : For canning we grow Boston Pickling and National Pickling. For fresh eating : Straight 8,.
#5 Harvest Regularly
Once cucumber plants begin to produce, you need to pick regularly to keep them producing well. If left on the vine too long, cukes get woody, full of seeds, and bitter. In addition, the plants will put their energy towards making the existing fruit larger, and not producing new blooms. Check plants daily, cukes can go from 2″ inches to 12″ in a day or two!
There you have it! Five of our favorite tips for growing cucumbers successfully. We hope you enjoyed this week’s gardening article. If you would like to receive our DIY, Gardening and Recipe articles each week, you can sign up to follow the blog via email in the right hand column above, “Like” us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. This article may contain affiliate links.
https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2017/04/06/growing-cucumbers/
On – 06 Apr, 2017 By oldworldgardenfarms
