Permaculture and Sepp Holzer
I *highly* recommend this ~45 min documentary on a man, Sepp Holzer, who I'm pretty certain is a genius - http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/930/The-Agro
I've seen documentaries on him before, but this one is also worth watching. He has turned some land in the Austrian Alps into an amazingly productive and diverse ecosystem, growing fruit trees in places they "aren't supposed to grow", raising unusual and usual foods in unconventional ways. He builds ponds to slowly radiate heat, and plants around rocks that quickly radiate heat that creates a wonderful microclimate. Berms and wildflower and most recently in this documentary he has animals too, pigs that he uses to do some of his farming work, letting them roam about instead of cooped up indoors. It's truly inspirational stuff though I don't foresee us having animals, at least not ones that we'd sell off or eat. V has made it clear that he's open to having more cats in the future, and cats are actually useful in gardens, but they won't plow the earth or anything.
Although we aren't at his altitude, we are similarly working with steep steep grades, and would like to improve our microclimate which, as it turns out, has cooler nights and warmer days than would be usually expected. Our garden future is full of terraces. And cherry trees, V really wants cherries.
I've been tweeting some garden things lately, but really I've been having such a revelation over growing greens. Romaine gets a bit wonky when it's about to bolt, but spinach (bloomsdale) and collards (Georgia Southern) are fine to eat even when they've bolted. As it turns out I don't eat nearly as much lettuce as I thought I would, though I prefer romaine to everything else. Apparently cilantro seeds got mixed up in our compost b/c it's coming up EVERYWHERE here in the ATL. In retrospect I wish I'd grown more spinach, though that may change in the future, when I have less time to be making everything from scratch like I have lately.
The weather has been so strange, so cold and wet. I've been going a little stir-crazy with this constant overcast thing, though I appear to have been spared allergy issues so far.
In NC, I started some tomatoes, but not very many. We've both realized that we get nasty heartburn from tomatoes. My reflux is pretty crazy these days. I've switched over from aluminum-based antacids to calcium carbonate (tums). As a bonus, my calcium intake has dramatically increased, which is good.
Thursday I will make another trek up to NC. Taking another load of fragile things, family china, antique pharmaceutical bottles from my great-grandfather. V has been sanding and mudding and sanding, correcting some of his mother's work and such. I don't know how far he's gotten in this process, but once he has finished with that part I will paint the kitchen+dining room ceiling and walls, if I understand things correctly. Apparently sheetrocking these 2 rooms has been an unbelievable PITA due to how it was constructed - studs are very small and in strange places. Poor V. He's been working his ass off.
I've seen documentaries on him before, but this one is also worth watching. He has turned some land in the Austrian Alps into an amazingly productive and diverse ecosystem, growing fruit trees in places they "aren't supposed to grow", raising unusual and usual foods in unconventional ways. He builds ponds to slowly radiate heat, and plants around rocks that quickly radiate heat that creates a wonderful microclimate. Berms and wildflower and most recently in this documentary he has animals too, pigs that he uses to do some of his farming work, letting them roam about instead of cooped up indoors. It's truly inspirational stuff though I don't foresee us having animals, at least not ones that we'd sell off or eat. V has made it clear that he's open to having more cats in the future, and cats are actually useful in gardens, but they won't plow the earth or anything.
Although we aren't at his altitude, we are similarly working with steep steep grades, and would like to improve our microclimate which, as it turns out, has cooler nights and warmer days than would be usually expected. Our garden future is full of terraces. And cherry trees, V really wants cherries.
I've been tweeting some garden things lately, but really I've been having such a revelation over growing greens. Romaine gets a bit wonky when it's about to bolt, but spinach (bloomsdale) and collards (Georgia Southern) are fine to eat even when they've bolted. As it turns out I don't eat nearly as much lettuce as I thought I would, though I prefer romaine to everything else. Apparently cilantro seeds got mixed up in our compost b/c it's coming up EVERYWHERE here in the ATL. In retrospect I wish I'd grown more spinach, though that may change in the future, when I have less time to be making everything from scratch like I have lately.
The weather has been so strange, so cold and wet. I've been going a little stir-crazy with this constant overcast thing, though I appear to have been spared allergy issues so far.
In NC, I started some tomatoes, but not very many. We've both realized that we get nasty heartburn from tomatoes. My reflux is pretty crazy these days. I've switched over from aluminum-based antacids to calcium carbonate (tums). As a bonus, my calcium intake has dramatically increased, which is good.
Thursday I will make another trek up to NC. Taking another load of fragile things, family china, antique pharmaceutical bottles from my great-grandfather. V has been sanding and mudding and sanding, correcting some of his mother's work and such. I don't know how far he's gotten in this process, but once he has finished with that part I will paint the kitchen+dining room ceiling and walls, if I understand things correctly. Apparently sheetrocking these 2 rooms has been an unbelievable PITA due to how it was constructed - studs are very small and in strange places. Poor V. He's been working his ass off.