by Geoff | Jun 14, 2010 | CobraHead, Gardening
We firmly believe that small-scale agriculture plays a major role in efforts to create a world that supports all of us. Through our gardening business, we have been fortunate to get to know and support hundreds of community gardening and grow-your-own projects. A couple of years ago Noel met Peter and Kathy Wood of Bracebridge, Ontario at the annual Garden Writer’s conference. They have been assisting Ronnie Mwachia Mdawida in his efforts to improve...
by Noel | Jun 14, 2010 | Gardening
As a believer in a purer meaning of organic and sustainable, and opposed to the mistaken path of the corporate food system, I know the insane war on weeds cannot be won with chemical warfare. In fact, if weeds have to be killed, hand-to-hand combat is the only solution. I do not make war on weeds, but integrate their growth into my gardening system. My vegetable garden is a testing ground where I’m constantly confirming that it is logical to use weeds as my...
by Geoff | May 4, 2010 | Gardening
Noel recently gave a presentation on his raised bed gardening system at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. The UW videotaped the presentation and have made it available to the public here. The video is in a cool dual format that shows Noel talking side by side with the images from his slide presentation. The presentation is about an hour long but it is indexed so that you can easily jump to topics of interest. Interesting and inspirational! # Posted By MB...
by Noel | Apr 16, 2010 | Gardening
I picked the first harvest of asparagus, yesterday. Only nine small spears, but there will be lots and lots to follow in the coming weeks. Judy served it up with egg noodles sautéed with some shiitake mushrooms picked from our logs a couple days ago and fresh spring onions from the herb bed. Just delicious!
by Geoff | Mar 23, 2010 | Gardening
After enjoying a wonderful dinner of roasted parsnips, mixed with other root vegetables, we’ve decided that it is now our mission, at least for this month’s newsletter, to promote this wonderful vegetable. Roasted Parsnips with Other Root Crops Michael Schael, potter, gardener and friend, stopped by and gave us about a dozen of these roots that he had recently dug from his garden. Since Noel never got around to getting parsnips started last year, we...
by Geoff | Mar 22, 2010 | Gardening
Two years ago I picked up a copy of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway. The author packs the book with intriguing ideas. I am trying to adapt many of them to my yard in Austin, Texas. One idea is that of fruit tree centered “guilds”. Hemenway defines guilds as interdependent communities of plants with synergistic properties. He goes on to lay out some ideas for an apple-tree centered guild. I took a few of these...
