Regine Maligne has been garderning during she and Tim's summer sojourn to North Carolina. They have now gone on to France to spend time with Regine's mother but she has shared with us what she has learned this summer about gardening in a challenging location. See Regine's notes on cover crops, water catchment, etc.
Regine also furnished a copy to our teacher and inspiration, Anna Lee, who had the following comments to add:
"I was fortunate to have
a few days to visit Regine and Tim at their vacation home near Franklin, NC in
late July. I had seen pictures of the garden Regine had been working on
for two summers before and was tickled at her irresistible inner drive to
garden no matter what the circumstances and obstacles.
In this case, part of
the problem is that she is there for so little time (and in and out during that
short time!) that one might wonder if it is worth the trouble to set up a
garden which will only be able to yield for a limited time before having to
leave until the next summer. The mountains are very shady, steep in
slope, and have different temperature ranges than that of Tallahassee.
Not many people have gardens in the neighborhood because of this and also
because some of them aren't there year round. Regine, a natural
permaculturist, has turned the "problem into a solution" in several
ways:
When some dying trees
had to be removed she immediately saw the opportunity to use the increased
sunlight in a very shady environment. The large stumps that
were left nearly level to the ground are now fine "stepping stones"
in the landscape.
When some soil needed to
be moved alongside the house, her neighbor who was removing it added it to the
very steep edge of a ravine on the opposite side of the house and this
gave more garden space than possible to use before.
She has learned to bring
some seedlings with her to give them a head start rather than starting
everything from seed.
She is closely watching what plants grow best and fastest in this mountain setting so as to gain the most in the least time.
She has figured out how
to cover crop and then leave this mulched to enrich the soil for the next year
and is experimenting with different cover crops.
She has connected with
her neighbors to let them know the bounty of food left for them to come enjoy
which gives her pleasure and community connection.
She has set up different
types of beds with some in more shady areas and some raised to hip level which
give her access from her deck and offer different micro-climates to
experiment with.
She is planting perennials like blueberry into the landscape.
She has brought in
various native flowers and plants to become permanent members of her garden
family.
She has utilized space
that was allowing water to run on one side of the house to create beds to catch
and store this water.
She reconfigured her
initial beds into a "fish scale" pattern to better utilize the slope
and provide better water catch.
She took roof top runoff
and captures it in a big garbage can to gravity feed this rainwater to the
garden and is planning more ways to utilize this.
But what the pictures
and drawings cannot tell you is something I was able to observe and enjoy while
there. Each morning Regine goes out to her garden and visits her plant
friends. She picks greens for her morning green smoothie and herbs for
her tea. She gains such pleasure and healthful benefits from this morning
connection with her garden. It is a beautiful thing to see.
So you can see how many
ways Regine's intelligent observation and reflection has continued to not only
grow her summer garden but also to grow her understanding and
appreciation of her mountain home. The permaculture admonition of
"obtain a yield" is well used here in so many ways! What isn't
always stated in permaculture terms is what Love can do in the whole scheme of
things which is well demonstrated by Regine.
Anna Lee"
It all started with an email about bunnies. Permaculture graduate Cap'n Dave emailed from his "park" in South Leon County that he had an overabundance of bunnies and I, in a moment of madness, decided raising bunnies might be a great idea since I had recently had two great rabbit meals and I could use the rabbit pellets to fertilize my garden. Dave invited me over to view the bunnies and to pick some blueberries..jpg)
N-vision is a permaculture farm using animals, manures and food sources in building and amending healthy soils. ...Always a work in practice, creating the cycle. Come early or stay late, but don't miss this experience!!!
Join us at LuLuLand Sunday, March 9, 2014, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
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If we all had half of Regine and Tim's energy, who knows what we could accomplish. This is Regine's report on the Hugelkultur bed she and Tim built recently: .jpg)
