Paradise Organic Plants

  We came to start laying out cardboard to kill the grass and make our life wonderful; we'd bought a 250 foot roll of corrugated paper, and who should be interested in it but the NonGrata Trio. (Can they read the Private Property sign?) Of course we will be planting food for them, but the cardboard is ours! At the left in the picture is the area we covered a few months ago. We put in some of our forest soil then and planted garlic and clover, and that has provided miniscule bits of green. That's ok; it is only March. The sticks on top are because we don't have a wood chipper yet, and we can't currently get a truckload down to the area. This trip we put in fava beans (broadbeans) and daikon radish--our goal at this time is to fix the soil. We'll be planting lots of beans to help turn the whitish silt into loam, and worms will feed on the daikon radish, leaving us castings. We ran out of time or we'd have covered the soil with cut weeds. Hopefully the clover will

by Debbie Brown Homeopathy does not mean "home remedies", but homeo - "same" pathos - "suffering." A homeopathic remedy will cure the same symptoms that a large or repeated dose of the crude substance it is made from will cause. I was taught this wonderful healing discipline by the late Dr. Todd Schlapfer, a kind, sensitive, and intuitive man. He gave me health. I could go on about how the remedies have helped me and my family, but I'm here to talk about healing plants.  It is amazing that the same remedy that helps a person with an injury will also help an injured plant. Arnica Montana is an herb, and if you were to ingest a goodly amount of it, you might start to feel bruised, sore and have other symptoms of injury. Using like cures like , the principle of homeopathy, taking homeopathically potentized Arnica will treat an actual injury. It is great (in persons and animals) for bleeding, bruising, swelling, and even infection or other effects from  in

 I guess I'm not the only person unaware of this marvel, or the Charming Gent on YouTube's California Garden TV wouldn't be teaching it. The benefits of this information, obviously, are that 1) you don't have to start or buy new pepper plants every spring, and 2) you can get mature plants going earlier and thus begin to harvest fruits sooner and longer. (I love poblanos!) Photo by  Desi Min  on  Unsplash To learn about overwintering peppers in various climates, please see the Charming Gent video link above for good visuals. It is some work in all but mild climates involving pruning the plants back severely with a well-cleaned and sharp cutter, leaving no leaves. Cut nearly to the nodes in the crotches and near leaves. Remove branches that have no nodes and spindly branches that won't bear fruit. Put the peppers into 1 to 3 gallon pots to bring inside. Don't water them during the winter unless the soil is very dry. (Don't be afraid to grow them in a sizable

There are many warnings out there today. Keith St. John of Canadian Permaculture Legacy (YouTube) says we have only 55 years of topsoil remaining. High carbon levels in the air are causing disasters. But charcoal greatly accelerates what sunlight, water, and plants can do to build the soil and clean the air--to a wake up and pay attention degree! Perhaps you are aware of charcoal being used in cleaning up oil spills and post-hurricane cleanup. But do you know the amazing effect it can have on your garden, both in the short and long term? It can amend your soil as follows for 1,000 to 2,000 years! Forest fires, within reason, have been considered beneficial in the long run. Carbon is stabilized into the soil. Biochar harbors microbial life necessary for healthy plant growth in the same way coral does, in microscopic pathways for the absorption of water (it holds a lot!) and nutrients. Its water holding properties make it useful in sandy soil, preventing the draining away of nutrien

I am linking to a video by Keith on the Canadian Permaculture Legacy channel on YouTube. It is called "Things I do differently now, compared to when I started my permaculture food forest." I chose this one to link to because it is what he learned with more experience. So I think it is a good starting point; afterward you can go back to his older videos with added knowledge. I started learning from Keith and have branched out, but his information is a good starting place for new ones and those who want more information.

It is easy to create a grass-free space, to begin with, by covering your gardening areas with a few overlapping layers of cardboard, paper bags, or thick layers of newspaper, whichever is most available. Hold them down with sticks and maybe topsoil, and mulch with woodchips. Never use plywood. Time and the lack of sunlight will kill the grass and its roots. Around the edge of your garden, dig a small trench which you could fill with a log, or you can buy various types of garden borders that will fit down into the earth far enough to block grass roots. Another option is to plant a border of comfrey or another plant with thick rhizomes to block the grass. The shade created by comfrey or other heavily leafed plants will also help prevent grasses. Permaculture gardening is one of the easiest ways to keep grass from taking back over your veggie spaces. With permaculture, you are not concerned about crowding (though you do want to consider the room needed by the full grown plant.) Inde