Gardening now. Oh and don't forget to get your HOA's approval-

It's way to early for gardening you say? Physically yes, snowy drifts are telling me your right. No I don't have plants ready to plop in the ground but it is time to start seed so in a few months they will be ready. WHAT months, yep it's Utah I can't plant most plants until late April early May. Nonetheless my plants will be healthy and quite large by the time I plant them.

I have been reading every permaculture, food forest, and homesteading gardening books I can get a hold of. There are quite a few REALLY really good ones. Most I got from my local library and and having a hard time parting with them. Too much information to let go of. Well I suppose since I have more than 20 sticky notes in several it's time to buy them.

I want a successful sustainable way to garden here in the Salt Lake Valley. That is what lead me to permaculture, food forests and perennial vegetables being the main topics I am researching.

Who knew how completely complex it would be to plan and plant? Coming from an immature ecosystem, mostly the savannah and prairie succession. To planning out an early succession food forest. Planning what will happen and how will my landscape adapt and change when it matures, going into mid succession. Making sure there are general and specialist nectary plants blooming from early spring to late fall. Ouch it makes my head hurt.

For every plant there are so many things to consider; from typical gardening light needs, soil preferances, USDA zone tolerances, root structures, benefits to other plants/animals and people and so much more.

I have ALL the seeds from the plants that I can plant from seed with somewhat ease bought. I have the shelving and lights to be set up this week in the basement to start the plants now. I'll post pics when my husband helps me get the very heavy shelves downstairs.

I also have a worm farm, a composter and a little help from mini manure machines I'm not at liberty to share what they are but they work great for our garden. No it's not our kids ha that's funny and gross. Every state, city and neighborhood has rules for pets, bees and such. Someday in the next few years we will add a beehive, they are legal here in Utah, and more so in our city. Also my HOA (Home Owners Association) did not outlaw them, although I'm sure they would if they thought about it.

Here is my HOA rant. It seems everything beneficial to our garden is a radical idea to an HOA. A worm farm, pets like rabbits or a beehive are frowned upon or outright illegal. I'm suppose to get approval from a committee before I plant a plant - even in my backyard. Before I get pets, before I put a structure up like my kids swingset in the backyard or a fence I am suppose to get written permission from (hold your breath) my HOA. My HOA fee gives me water both culinary and secondary. The secondary water the city has warned us, in writing - if you play in the water or drink it that you can get diarrhea for life. Seriously? Use it to water my food plants? No way. Use it to water the grass. Well in a few years I'll say what grass but right now I'm still converting my yard so, as bad as it is I do use it for that.

My neighborhood is gated and they spray chemicals like weed killer and fertilizer on our grass spring, summer and fall and mow our lawns. I've had them stop spraying and mowing so I can control what goes in my garden, what gets on our food crops. Which now is, well, every shrub, flower, plant, vine and tree in our side and back yard. Next year it will include our front yard. (with approval from our HOA of course ha!)

Anyways. I will print my list of annual plants next time and photo's of my basement plant setup.

My plant lists; dynamic accumulators, nitrogen fixing & nectary plants.

Most of my plants serve many purposes. ALL of the plants I list are plants that I have seed for and am starting or like the skirret I have purchased a cloned plant because plants started from seed are oft inferior from the mother plant. I do not list plants already in the ground. That I will have to do later. Also I have a list of annuals that I am mixing in, edible like tomatoes that are not listed. I will list them in plant guilds later. Enjoy.

1. Dynamic accumulators. These mine for minerals deep within the soil, and enrich the soil with which they have mined as they decompose. DA
2. Nitrogen Fixing. Basically they enrich the soil and those plants surrounding them with nitrogen. N
3. Nectary, generalist and specialist. Both Generalist and specalist plants muct be continnually in bloom spring through fall. Generalist is flower that all beneficial insects like bees, will come foraging for. Specialist is smaller flowers that parasitic wasps and their ilk will feed on. GN SN
4. Confusers. These are usually highly aromatic plants, that confuse the bad insects. They can't small the peaches when chives, onions and or mints are planted below. C
5. Use. Edible, tea, herb, fruit, nut and poultry forage.

Dynamic accumulators: 

German Chamomile - self seeding annual, tea, GN, DA

French sorrel - perennial, edible leaves, poultry forage, GN, DA

Sorrel Profusion - perennial, edible leaves, poultry forage, DA

Dwarf Comfrey, perennial, green manure, poultry forage, GN, DA

Comfrey Bocking 14, perennial, green manure, poultry forage, GN, DA

Nasturtium Black Velvet & Milkmaid, annual, edible seeds leaves and flowers, GN, DA

Nitrogen fixing: 

Lupine prairie & mix, perennial, not edible, GN, N

Goumi - perennial, edible fruit, GN, N

Siberian pea shrub - perennial, edible peas, poultry forage, GN, N

Clover - perennial, living mulch, SN

Nectary generalist and specialist: 

Sweet cicely - edible seed, herb, self seeding annual, SN

Yarrow - self seeding annual, not edible, SN

Hyssop -  perennial herb, native, bee, butterfly and hummingbird attractor, C, GN

Bee balm - perennial herb, tea, bee and butterfly attractor, GN

Borage - self seeding annual, edible flower, medicinal, GN

Echinacea prarie & other - perennial, native, tea, medicinal, GN

Foxglove - self seeding annual, family heirloom, not edible, GN

Miners Lettuce Greens - self seeding annual, living mulch, edible leaf, GN

Lovage - perennial vegetable, SN

Skirret - perennial root vegetable, SN

Good King Henry - perennial vegetable leaf & seeds, GN (minimal)

Lily White Seakale - perennial vegetable, GN (minimal)

Pest confuser: 

Garlic Chives - perennial, family heirloom, edible leaves & flowers, GN, C

Garlic - annual, family heirloom, edible, GN, C

Ramps - perennial, edible, C

Lemon Balm, perennial, herb, GN, C

Lemon Mint, perennial, herb, GN, C

Welsh Onion - self seeding annual, C

Food worries.

I'm sick to death of worrying about food. Where it comes from, what is on it. What they grow it in. And the taste. If it's not meat, fruit or vegetables, I worry what they put in it. I'm a picky person, I'll admit it. I tried buying local. I want to support my local farms. It's more than being picky though, it's about sustainability. I want to provide for my family and have my extended family and neighbors benefit from my labors.

Farms. It it hurts knowing that the blocks of soil open to the sun & wind are losing more fertility than is being put in it. Chemical warfare, right down the street. We eat it. We breathe it. Sighs.

Annual beds are hard work. I'm all pumped up for the gardening season and go a good 2000% for the first month or so, but by the end of the season my crops are fending for themselves and sometimes, more often than not I don't even pick them. Nope my children get there first. Tomatoes, apples, peppers, peas and other precious vegetables and fruits all strewn about the lawn rotting for a week before I get myself outside to do what needed to be done.

So all annual beds? No. I want perennials, vegetables, herbs, fruits and nuts. There's perennial vegetables? Yes there is. Check out the book "Perennial Vegetables" By Eric Toensmeier. I will interplant some annuals with my perennials throughout the garden.

Goals of my garden;

• self-sufficiency & sustainability
• fresh food for our family
• building soil fertility
• provide privacy
• provide a safe haven for our family, insects and local animal life

Good-bye lawn hello mini-food forest.

I'm saying good-bye to my lawn and hello to sustainable agriculture. How? I'm starting with a mini-food forest in my backyard.

I live on a fifth of an acre. My home is a rambler (single level house with a large foundation) and driveway is more than 70 feet long reaching to the back of my home which is where the garage is! So really my yard is much much smaller than that. I have a million neighbors and the ones that show on the left are on a hill that is 10 feet higher than my backyard. I have no privacy, and my backyard often floods (neighbors over-watering) or is as dry as the Sahara (because the slope of my backyard doesn't hold any precipitation).

Key to my map

1. Damp full shade (Olive Green)
2. Very hot, dry, afternoon sun (Orange)
3. Wet, marshland (Green)
4. Rich well drained full sun (Light Green)
5. Very hot, full sun (Orange)
6. Rich, part sun, full shade [closer to fence] (Light Green)
7. Child swingset, kids area (Pink)
8. Prepped Food forest site with swales and berms (Yellow)
9. Fence (Red/Blue dashed line)
10. Property line (Blue line)
11. The lime green background is currently my lawn....

Last fall I tore into a 20 by 30 foot area of my back yard, used a garden fork loosen the grass. I dug a 3 foot deep swale and built a berm. This is to help catch snow melt, rain and my neighbors over watering. I put a layer of cardboard, manure, garden scraps, soil, then a thick layer of straw over the entire area. This is just the first stage of the main backyard mini food forest. I will convert my sprinklers into drip irrigation. Spring. 

It's too much. Really. I can't do it alone. But  have an idea. I'll host a garden party, feeding my peeps that want to help. Sending my helpers home with their very own perennial (vegetable) with plant care literature as a thanks for helping. Hopefully I can get neighbors, family, anyone interested in helping to do so.

I have 14 yards of  fine screened pesticide and chemical free manure/soil blend coming March. That is really my only cost (well plants, trees and seeds have a price tag too) as the cardboard, kitchen and other green waste (grass clippings, straw, news paper, rotten vegetables, worm compost) I've been collecting are all free. 

About the garden party, or series of them if that is what it takes. Here is the labor that needs done; 

1. Loosen the soil with a garden fork
2. Lengthen the swale and add more berms 
3. Spread in layers and wet with hose in between;
1. cardboard
2. soil/manure
3. grass clippings, wood chips, compost
4. hay
4. Plant the plants, seeds and trees. 

So I'll add on my spreadsheets of plants, trees and bush guilds later. They have so much information on them, and are still incomplete. Feel free when I put them online to add comments in for any information that is missing. I will also add on my general layout of the food forest area, and more detailed plantings as I get them finished.

I will be starting seed this next month for my food forest, and garden party. I'll include some photo's, dates of the party and more info as I progress through the months.