Suburban Adventures in Permaculture and Self-reliance: February 8, 2013

Going to start with some more reference panoramas.

If you look closely at the dirt compared to the hugel mound, you will be able to see how smooth the dirt has become and see the grass roots on the mound. As the roots and dirt dried out, pulling a steel rake through the dirt and separating the roots was a breeze. If anything, it was too easy. The rake kept clogging up after only a few strokes. Honestly, I'm not complaining. Once those roots get covered, they will simply become compost...I hope.

Don't think that I mentioned it, but I was driving back from picking up a load of rabbit manure when I passed a dumpster full of construction wood. Had to stop, of course. The site supervisor was happy for me to take anything from the dumpster AND he offered all of the plywood pictured to the right. Absolutely nothing wrong with it except some screws. One man's trash...as the saying goes.

I've completely trenched the pond. Looks like a giant bathtub now.

I can't wait to get this covered in plants or mulch. The volume of sand that I track into the house is astonishing. If my grandmother were alive, I would never hear the end of it.

The broccoli bolted.

I really like the flowers. I'm going to leave them alone; the bees seem to like them.

The radishes just keep kicking.

My hand barely wraps the diameter.

Can I tell you, kale LOVES North Carolina.

My experiments with carrot tops left over from my juicing. Okay, here was my mental dilemma about carrots. If a person is a seed saver, how would he know which carrots to let go to seed? If you pull up the carrot, you may find out that it's a beautiful one-of-kind root, but now it's useless. It's a Catch-22...or is it? Here's how it's done. Pull up the carrot, decide if it's good genetic stock, remove the greens, cut off the top and replant it. The portion that you replant will NOT grow another tap root, but it will send out roots and regrow the greens, which will eventually set out seeds.

I like doing this just for the greenery. Once everything is nicely layered in soil, I might do this just to have greens in the winter. Carrot greens are excellent for juicing. I wonder how many times the greens can be completely removed and still grow back. Will have to plan an experiment.

Those onions are still chugging along.

I cut the bottom off of some celery and planted it. This is a very successful technique.

I'm shocked by the root mass. This makes me wonder just how much we humans restrict plant growth by growing them in pots. Or, conversely, just how much roots can spread from a single plant. Honestly, that's a impressive amount of roots from just a stump cutting.