Western Canada Permaculture Convergence

Western Canada Permaculture Convergence, 2012 is billed as “A three day (August 24,25,26) coming together of permaculture enthusiasts, to share information, inspiration and learn a few new skills.”

In May, they're also hosting a week of workshops, May 16-20, at the Woodland West retreat centre in Millarville, Alberta.

Permablitzes

“Permablitzes change urban landscape, one garden at a time” is a report from Adrienne Beattie about permablitzes — “a day in which a group of people converge on an urban space to install a permaculture design.”

Building a Keyhole Garden Bed

Hubby says that each year I start my spring preparations earlier than the last. True to form, I have started amending beds with compost, leaves, egg shells (an excellent form of calcium for young tomatoes), and low impact fertilizer in February! Despite warmer weather, garden chores after work are still not feasible due to lack of light and cool evenings. So, Saturday or Sunday mornings are my garden time.

I pulled back my weed blocking plastic on my first two vegetable beds and found fewer weeds than I was anticipating. Turns out the cheap black plastic worked better that the more expensive and sturdier fibrous, gauzy, white weed blocker. Go figure. I added mulch from my composter, mixed in dead leaves from my tangerine tree, and added in the fertilizer and mixed, moving about two inches of topsoil with my shovel. I do not plan to double-dig this bed; I will let the good stuff finish composting in place. Using reclaimed bricks, I rebuilt the old pathway. With Hubby’s help pounding the bricks into the earth, I have the beginnings of my first keyhole garden. This first keyhole will be for another round of cool season vegetables. My other bed of cool season veggies is beginning to go to seed and a replant is in order. As we progress later into spring, the bed will then transition to warm season crops: TOMATOES!!

While Hubby and I toiled in the dirt, the neighborhood cat, nick-named Early Bird, lounges in the shade of our pergola. Our garden is a pretty great place to be - even in winter!

Going Green(er) in the Victory Garden

Up to this point, my garden has been a monoculture. A monoculture focuses on one crop or one type of crop; in my case vegetables. (Think ‘Banana Republic’ – and I don’t mean the store!) Consequently, the garden is difficult to care for; it takes hours of toil per week, sometimes upwards of six hours a week when (at times) I’d rather be spending six hours a month. It is a lot to keep up with especially with other goals, responsibilities, and vacations. A monoculture is also notoriously susceptible to plant diseases and blights as well as parasitic bugs and mildews. I have been researching the idea of permaculture, setting up a more sustainable ecosystem in one’s own backyard. With that in mind, I will be working toward augmenting my garden with beneficial perennials that will feed birds and bugs, provide shade where needed, increase the health of the soil, and most importantly help build my garden into a more complete ecosystem that can hopefully survive a couple days longer than normal without my care. I will rely heavily on the beautiful book, Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway. It provides a wealth of advice to help me make my journey from monoculture to permaculture a reality.

Yard waste has also become a problem. Hubby and I are very good at working in the yard for hours at a time, but we must stop when we run out of room to throw out yard waste. A viable composting system will alleviate this and will help return fertility back to the soil. I have begun tossing green kitchen waste in my composter (aka the green machine) and with the help of a leaf shredder/ mulcher I would like to continue the process. Mulching vegetable beds and the fruit tree mini-orchard will also keep a damper on those pernicious weeds. That will surely cut down monotonous work in the garden and save time for the more important work of planting, watering, and tending.

So, to sum up, here is my two-fold goal for going green(er) in the garden:

1. Plant four beds with the idea of permaculture in mind, expanding on multiple purposes of plants while encouraging a healthy mini ecosystem.
2. Reduce yard wasted to almost nil – all plants should be composted minus diseased specimens, over-large branches, or palm fronds.