Learning Yard Gardening

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Here and now finds me living in a house with a concrete yard, which at first sight is totally unsuitable for producing food.

Picture

However, by observing, and following hunches based on observation, things seem to be working out.

This “non-planned” approach is rather scary at times, but is part of the technique of “insight gardening” promoted by the wise folk at Karuna, the Uk's leading permaculture project. So don't be frightened to ignore your mind, and follow your heart.

The simple fact that you are reading this means that you use the internet to help solve problems and to learn about specific topics, so if you have a wild idea, you are able to avoid unnecessary frustration by checking to see if others have tried it and failed, or can provide advice when tehy were successful.

Trial-and-error is the order of the day – that's how nature and evolution work!

I would expect to be living here for at least another two years, so there can be much benefit gained from short-term crops.

PICTURE 2 PUMPKINS

I have been encouraged by the first project which produced two huge pumpkins from nothing

Pictures YARD NOW

So now is a good time to summarise our first 6 months of observation and trial and error, and to restate the objectives.

1) To provide an example which can be copied by the local people living in the area,

2) To provide food healthy, organic, nutritious food.

3) To reduce the heat during the hot season.

History.

I slipped over in the yard on the second day of living here, fortunately without lasting injury. The rain shower had left the yard in a very slippery condition, and on examination a kind of slime could be found growing all over the yard. This needed removing, but also seemed as though it might be useful for making soil, and so a permaculture project was born.

By scrubbing the entire yard into a pile, two or three shovels-full of black slime became available, and this was used in the base of a compost bin. Fallen leaves and twigs, kitchen scraps of all kinds including egg shells, coffee grinds vegetable and fruit peelings but excluding all plastic.

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