Saturday, January 31, 2015

Seeds

The topic for  From The Garden in the Tribune of  Feb 6, 1015  is seeds.


"However, if the seeds selected are of a poor quality, then, despite the other three factors being adequately met, the end produce, the tomato, squash or pea will not provide all the flavour, nutrition and beauty, that is possible. You do get what you pay for, especially when buying garden seeds."

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Moving Towards the Simple Life

Eight years ago, my wife and I began the journey towards the simpler life. The first step was to reduce the number of things we had. This was made easier by a move from Ontario to New Brunswick. Movers charge by the pound so we decided this was a good incentive to reduce the poundage.

We are now looking for a tiny home for our retirement years. We live in a small apartment under 800 sq ft, but want a bit of land for growing. This article can help motivate your move towards the simple life.

"a good time to think about where consumer-capitalism is getting us. The sad fact is that, with these values, our society can never be ecologically sustainable or just. Accelerating global problems cannot be solved in a society obsessed with production and consumption, affluent living standards, market forces, the profit motive and economic growth. The only way out is via a huge and radical transition to The Simpler Way

http://overgrowthesystem.com/the-simple-life-manifesto-and-how-it-could-save-us/
.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

A Tiny Home

We have 4 acres of undeveloped land in Nova Scotia we purchased some years ago. At the time we are considering moving there within a few years and building or having built a log cabin. However, our life choices lead us in a different direction.

Now a number of years on, we are again looking at that land and considering a tiny home. We will visit the site this July and  assess the possibilities of relocating from Northern New Brunswick to Nova Scotia within three years.

We are also exploring other options for locating our tiny home. We are in an ongoing downsizing mode, the only problem to date is that books keep mysteriously appearing. Stay connected for details on our progress.

Friday, January 23, 2015

An Exercise in Imagination

Picture this, it is mid-summer, you are travelling around Campbellton NB, or were you live, and everywhere you look there are plants growing. Local parks have fruit trees and berry bushes, front and backyards are growing, vegetables, herbs and flowers. 

Even along the sidewalks there are pots filled with herbs. All vacant lots and spaces have been planted with bright, beautiful, bounty. 

There are butterflies floating from plant to plant, bees are buzzing and birds serenading you. the air is filled with a gentle but uplifting fragrance.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Why I Volunteer

Volunteering is a giving, growing, learning, sharing and receiving opportunity.  I also see volunteering as an opportunity to apply and sharpen my permaculture design skills while helping to build a resilient community.

The Restigouche Community Inclusion Network (RCIN) is a provincial (New Brunswick) not-for-profit organization with the mission of improving the quality of life for people living on a low income.

I am a founding member of this organization and its current President. I have one more year in my mandate as President and have begun to tutor my replacement.

The RCIN has built community gardens throughout our region and is developing with the participation of those gardens a cooperative so they can work together for mutual benefit. RCIN has also started school gardens and the schools are incorproating into the lessons plans, lessons from the garden.

This is work that gratifies, satisfies and enlightens me. I work with committed, enthused and knowledgeable people and this energizes me. This is only part of my reasons for volunteering my professionals services.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

What is Enough?

The dictionary define enough as:

adjective
1.
adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the 
purpose or to satisfy desire:
enough water; noise enough to wake the dead.
pronoun
2.
an adequate quantity or number; sufficiency.
adverb
3.
in a quantity or degree that answers a purpose or satisfies a need ordesire; sufficiently.

How do you know when you have enough?

Permaculture Books

My personal library contains a number of excellent books about permaculture and related methodologies. I will, about once a week, talk about a book from my library, not a review so much, but a short note of why I feel the book needs to be read.

However, before I get to the books, I want to talk about a magazine, one that is also a source of excellent books and other great items, Permaculture Magazine. I just recently resubscribed, having been a subscriber several years back, but was moving around and did not get to renew, my mistake.

Permaculture Magazine is published by Permanent Publications in the United Kingdom. Editor Maddy Harland gets the mind working with each issue in her editorial. I could tell you more about Maddy but subscribe to the magazine and find out for yourself.

Each issue contains practical information suitable for anyone who wants to know more about sustainable living and permaculture. issue 82, Winter 2014 contains articles  such as Guerrilla Recycling- repairing the unrepairable and Build Your Own raised Beds, for free.

Do not wait drop by the website now and check out  this excellent resource.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Local Workshops

I will be conducting tow workshops later this year in March and April. The first will be on the topic: How to maximize your garden yield. The second, on creating a mandala garden. Both workshops will take place at the Campbellton Centennial Library.

Stay connected for dates and times.

A Puppet Play

THE GARDEN ADVENTURES OF WANDA AND WALLY EARTHWORM

#wandawally Bob Ewing and Jocelyn Paquette are the authors of the Garden Adventures of Wanda and Wally Earthworm. Bob is a gardener, garden writer and permaculture designer. Jocelyn is a librarian, storyteller and puppeteer. The Adventures is a puppet play that brings children into the world of the earthworm and the role they play in helping our gardens grow.

I am making the puppets (sock puppets) and rehearsing for an appearance for Earth Day.

If anyone would like a script ($1.00) let me know.

Next Article: The Organic Lawn

"Picture children rolling in the grass and then ask yourself why would anyone apply synthetic chemicals or perhaps any type of chemical to an area that is so well used and enjoyed?

The first step in going synthetic chemical free is to determine what uses the back yard serves, i.e. what does your family do there?"

The Soil Daily- January 17, 2015

"Our soils are in danger because of expanding cities, deforestation, unsustainable land use and management practices, pollution, overgrazing and climate change. The current rate of soil degradation ..." More


The Soil Daily

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

When The Trees Stopped Talking with People

Long ago, when the world was new and there was only one small village, Father Oak and Mother Ash would, once every three months, walk to the village so they could talk with the people living there.

Mother Ash and Father Oak would share the tales of the forest, and all who lived there, with the people. The people listened carefully and with respect. When the trees stopped speaking, the people would begin, informing the trees about events in the village, births, deaths, marriages and so on.

 The people would then ask the trees for their permission to enter the forest and gather nuts and berries, to hunt, fish and cut what wood they needed.

The people helped the forest to thrive because they only took trees from stands that were overcrowded and there were too many trees bunched together. This made it difficult for any trees to flourish; the people and the trees and, all that was, lived in Harmony.

to be continued.


Saturday, January 10, 2015

The Cob Cottage

Are you ready for the Cob Cottage? This is a building method so old and so simple that it has been all but forgotten in the rush to synthetics. A cob cottage, cobb, however, might be the ultimate expression of ecological design, a structure so attuned to its surroundings that its creators refer to it as "an ecstatic house."

The Hand Sculpted House.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Ecocentrism

Ecocentrism is how I view the world we inhabit, in other words, non-living things are of equal value to living things, and that the functioning ecosystem is the most important. Consider soil, soil is created through the interaction of rocks and weather, without soil we would not have vegetation, at least as we know and depend upon it.

The stories I will be sharing here are set within this context.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Companion Planting

Next Friday Jan 16, I will look at companion planting.

Companion planting is the idea that certain plants are planted close to other certain plants there will be a mutual benefits to the plants.

Are You Biocentric, Ecocentric or Anthropocentric?

Biocentrism puts living beings—animals, humans, plants—as the most important.

 Ecocentrism notes that non-living things are of equal value to living things, and that the functioning ecosystem is the most important.

 Anthropocentrism values human beings alone above all else. (courtesy David Suzuki & Facebook)

What do you believe?

Friday, January 2, 2015

2015 Year of the Soil


I maintain two blogs, this one From My Garden, is connected to my weekly column is the local community newspaper, the Tribune. Each week, I will preview here, what the following week's article will be.

 For example, 2015 is the Year of the Soil. 2015 has been declared the International Year of Soils by the 68th UN General Assembly (A/RES/68/232).  The IYS aims to be a platform for raising awareness of the importance of soils for food security and essential eco-system functions. 


My other blog, The Permaculture Gardener, concerns storytelling, permaculture and the nature of reality.

The Soil Daily

The Soil Daily

Thursday, January 1, 2015

New Year's Greetings

A new calendar on the wall and 2015 begins. What will the year bring, well, that depends upon you. We set our own stories or live by stories other tell us. What will you do?

Native Plants

There are two projects happening here in Campbellton that have me turning to the subject of native plants. When we are discussing native pl...