The Urban Permaculture Farm Magazine
For
The Garden Girl
This month I have been all over the country from Portland, Oregon to Austin, Texas and one of my favorite cities St. Louis with Growing a Greener World and my co-host Joe Lamp'l. The show premiers this month on a public televisions station near you, so check your local listings. If it is not airing near you, contact your local Public Television station and ask them to add it to their line up. As I have traveled the country one of my goals has been promoting "lawn reform". By simply using fescue grasses Americans could save money and help save the environment. I experimented with Eco Lawn's fescue seed blend last year, and I think it is fantastic, check out the before and after pictures of my newly installed Eco lawn. At home I have been feverish in the garden. I have added many new editions to the edible landscape this year, Bartlet Pear, Paw Paw, Quince, Plum, Cherry and more. I have know idea what Paw Paw tastes like, but it sure has a tasty sounding name.
This month we have some great stuff to share with you. I hope you enjoy the return of one of my hero's Pat Lanza and a story about Lasagna Gardening with five year olds in thirty minute bursts and from my friend William Moss we have more on my favorite things: Heirloom Tomato Gardening. William and I shot some great companion video that I hope you check out as well. Dan Rojas brings Solar Hot Water to us, with ultra affordable plans and two videos with his wife Denise Rojas.
This month I adopted a small flock of Mallard Ducklings for my latest permaculture experiment and Fred Dunn has kindly contributed some advice on how to raise them. The ducks have added something really special to the urban farm, but they have to be the messiest beasts we have ever raised here. Check out the video of their first swim too!
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From the Sustainable Home Front,
Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl
The Lawn of the Future the Eco way
The Lawn of the Future by Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl
America is lawn obsessed and has been since the 1950’s. The environmental impact of having a traditional lawn is staggering. The energy used to maintain a traditional lawn, the chemical pesticides and fertilizers that are used are poisons and the amount of money spent on lawns can run you thousands. The gas powered lawn mowers, blowers, and edge trimmers pollute the air, are too noisy and require yearly maintenance. Using a gas powered lawn mower for one hour is equal to driving a car for 350 miles. Americans spend an average of 30 billion dollars a year to maintain their lawns making turf big business and US lawns use 270 billion gallons of water PER WEEK.
Day Old Ducklings are Different
Whether you are incubating duck eggs and hatching your own ducklings, or buying them in as day olds, they aren’t chickens… maybe that seems silly to say, but you’d be surprised how many new duck owners think care and feeding are the very same.
Here at Fred’s Fine Fowl, we’ve been hatching and rearing ducks for many years and enjoy the added distraction they provide, not to mention wonderful waterborne performances. Though we have a large earth pond for them to swim, sleep and preen on, it isn’t necessary to have a body of water for your ducks. As long as they have water suitable for completely immersing their head, they don’t absolutely “need” water suitable for swimming.
Featured Urban Sustainable Living Video
Gardening with Heirloom Tomatoes
Heirloom vegetables are becoming more and more popular. As people look to save a few bucks by growing edibles, they are rediscovering the joys of these tried-and-true plants. Many of the cultivars are literally heirlooms, prized possessions passed down from generation to generation. Flavor, nutrition content, extensive variety, and adaptability are the traits that give heirlooms value and the reasons more people are choosing heirloom vegetables for their gardens.
To qualify as an heirloom tomato the variety must be traditional (old), open-pollinated, and flavorful. Age is an important factor because by 1951 commercial agriculture began breeding hybrids and the mass production of heirlooms declined.
Lasagna Gardening With Kids
Recently I had a chance to teach school children how make a Lasagna Garden. A chance meeting with a parent, who knew about my no-dig, no-till garden methods, asked if I would teach the children how to make and plant a garden.
During the first meeting with the class Dave and I told them about our project; to make a garden in a place that would let us grow vines up an ugly fence that bordered their playground. The kids taught us something that day; they wanted to plant pumpkins and nothing we said would distract them. We explained that it was fall and we would make the garden but the pumpkin seeds would have to wait until spring. They just wanted to grow pumpkins.
Featured Urban Sustainable Living Video
Heat your water or home for less than $500
Heating water for a shower or water to circulate in a floor radiator or under floor heating system is accomplished with the same method.
This is the concept. Anything black or very dark colored absorbs solar radiation or heat energy. Anything light colored or mirrored/shiny reflects the heat back up into the atmosphere. This process involves placing several feet of black hose in the sun and circulating a liquid inside the tubes to leach the heat out. This heat is then released inside a water tank for heating water or radiator system to warm your home. It is not possible to retain 100% of the solar energy. This is where the word efficiency comes into play. While black objects absorb much of the sunlight’s heat, some is lost due to reflection, atmospheric leaching and wind. Realistically we will be capturing about 60% of the solar heat.
Around The Web
Will Allen
Urban farmer Will Allen was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2008. The Fellowship is a $500,000, no-strings-attached grant for individuals who have shown exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more.
The Produce Garden
This is a page dedicated to smallholding and all its aspects from growing organic fruit/veg, rearing livestock, gardening, self-sufficiency, rural living, my feelings and dramas, cooking and everything in between! www.theproducegarden.com
Path To Freedom
Since the early 80's the Dervaes family has slowly transformed their ordinary city lot into a self sufficient urban homestead. View an eco-pioneers life on an urban homestead as this family shares their homegrown revolution, being the change they wish to see by living the solution.
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An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.
Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.