Is there a gardening forum on SoWal.com?

I've been eating sweet red peppers all winter that have been growing in my driveway. The driveway has the best sun in my yard, so I made some raised beds there and covered them with a mini-hoop house to over-winter the peppers, which I started from heirloom seeds last August. You can see the mini-hoop house here: http://www.cfhdesignstudio.com/whatsnew.html Rainbarrels for watering, to the left.

Also, currently growing in the garden from seed:

collards, arugula, cress, chard, snow peas, and tom thumb peas, oregano, sage, yarrow,and anise hyssop

Seeds just started:

tomato, serrano pepper, mint, basil, onion, carrot, radish, marigold

Edible perennials already planted:

fig, banana, limequat, self fertile apple, sumac, wild blueberries, ginger

Cover crops sown:

clover and alfalfa

WOW WOW WOW!! I am impressed! Tell me what kinds of FIGS you have!! I am a fig freak. Do you have a lot of land? Sounds so!

I LOVE a gardening forum!!!!

G

I know you were asking Chandra, but I'm a real busybody and can't help answering. She has an ordinary size lot (less than 1/4 acre I think), but is a very talented Permaculture Designer and knows all kinds of edible landscape design and cultivation methods to create incredbily productive gardens in very small space. Some might call it micro farming or urban farming. What she's doing on her small lot is amazing.

She also created the PC design for our home, and we are in the early phases of bringing that plan into 3D. In just one year since we started, the difference is amazing! One spot that was weeds and sand and ridiculous hot is now a banana-land/citrus oasis with many other food and herb plants underneath and nearby, mostly fed by rainwater from the roof and nitrogen-fixing companion plants, compost, manures, etc.

Another spot that was hot sand and weeds is now a beautifully productive and fragrant herb spiral that gives us joy and tasty treats every day, also providing habitat and food for lots of beneficials. A natural area that was full of vines has been cleaned up and is now home to blueberries, ginger, goumi and silverthorn (nitrogen-fixing fruit shrubs), as well as a small sanctuary garden.

Hats off to Chandra... BTW I have no idea what kind of figs she has!

THANK YOU Susan!!

Of all the things that I want to see first THIS IS IT! This is EXACTLY what we have in mind. Our lot will be much smaller but we envision this same type of design. We want as much edible landscaping as possible and we will also have our koi pond (the herons and birds here in LA never have bothered ours) and create an oasis type atmosphere - also using our Japanese stone lanterns, etc...

I can not wait to see your place either! This is the most exciting aspect of leaving behind my Shangri-la that we have here in LA and venturing forth to start a new one. So wonderful to find such kindred spirits!

Thanks again and if there are pics please direct me!

On my budding profile page I have a link to my youtube site which has videos of where we live now and what we've done, including the hydroponic greenhouse setup which we won't have room for but hope to incorporate into the Seaside CG for the children to learn about it and experiment with. All the possibilities are endless.....

G

Gidget,

It is indeed exciting to find kindred spirits. I LOVE it when that happens! Scroll down a few messages on this thread until you see a cool purple and green graphic -- that's Chandra's logo (cfh design studio). One of her posts has a link to her sowal blog, and included there are some pics of her rain barrel, raised beds, etc.

This link might work too. She designed Seaside Neighborhood School's community garden also. Reminds me, I haven't been by there in a while and need to go see what's new!

http://www.sowal.com/bb/blogs/chandr...den-class.html

I am very interested in aquaculture, would love to learn more about your fishies. We have chickens and two worm bins, with a plan for rabbits soon -- want a hutch to go over the bathtub which is one of the worm bins. We have another bathtub that may be destined to become a small fish pond. Also plans for a bee hive. Can only do so much in our spare time, so it will prolly take a few years to get the whole system in place.

I don't have any good pics but will post some if we get some. There are cool spots in our yard, but lots of really junky and in-process spots too. Sort of embarrassingly trashy in a way -- our neighbors haven't complained, so maybe it's not as bad as I think, but still. Not ready for the magazine photo shoot just yet, LOL!

One of my fave sources for fruit trees and other food/useful plants that do well here is a nursery in Crawfordville (east of Apalach) where they specialize in plants that do very well here in zone 8B (in LA I think you're zone 9, right?). The staff there are great, very knowledgeable and helpful. I try to make a road trip once or twice a year, but they also ship in fall and spring. Even if you don't buy from them, their website is a fantastic resource for best ways to grow and care for zone 8B food plants.

www.justfruitsandexotics.com

There's another great nursery up in Alabama where they really know their stuff, and a good number of their plants will do well here in the Panhandle. www.petalsfromthepast.com. The folks there are very connected with B'ham's slow food/ local food movement, Jones Valley Urban Farm, etc., and the nursery sells fresh seasonal produce to a lot of the area restaurants featurnig local ingredients on their menus.

Please when you move, bring cuttings and divisions of whatever you can that might grow here. I'll gladly swap plants with you, especially if you have any heirlooms that are particularly suited to hot humid conditions!

Thanks for the info! I went to Chandra's blog about the school, etc..SO NICE! .I've been in touch with Christen and Kim about Seaside Community Garden which sounds exciting! Do you know them?

Your place sounds huge and very interesting! Our fish pond is just for koi - we raise them just to look at and visit with. We used to raise rabbits and chickens back when, but we gave all that up and just focus on veggies and fruit.

I went to your website and it is awesome! Got some good links from there as well. We are trying to build a very energy efficient home - plans change daily!

Susan - this is what we are leaving behind that we built from scratch. It was just an old soybean field! Plus, we have 100+ acres surrounding this. It is VERY scary starting over from scratch again

Home ‎(Home + 6 Acres Along Deer Creek NE, LA)‎

Thanks for info and I LOVE the gardening forum. I hope it stays active and has pics, etc...

G

From our garden

Beautiful! Yes I know Christian and Kim, great folks. Your place sounds fabulous. When are you moving here? You will have to come to some SWELL and GAB and Locavore gatherings to connect with folks with similar interests... e-mail Chandra to get on the SWELL/GAB list. (South Walton Low-impact and Environmental Living; Greenflicks at Alys Beach) Not much going on in summer (venues booked, folks too busy to organize/attend -- all volunteer)

Oh thanks for the info! I need to email her then.

We should be arriving by July 15 - but will be renting in Destin probably till house is finished which I anticipate to be around Decemberish....

I am excited!! Thanks again!

G

my container garden

This is the first year for a container garden that seems to be doing pretty well. my first attempt last yr failed b/c I didnt have the right kind of soil. I have never gardened in containers before so I am thrilled its doing pretty well. I have had some great tasting zucchinis and a new kind of squash called "eight ball", cukes, romain lettuce, variety of culinary herbs. The green beans, sweet potatoes, white and purple Jerusalem eggplant and tomatoes and several variety of peppers are doing very well (considering I still have sunlight issues). I added a lot of good compost and dove sheet which seemed to make a huge difference.

LOVELY!!! Thanks so much for sharing. The plants look super and you have a nice green thumb!

G

This is the first year for a container garden that seems to be doing pretty well. my first attempt last yr failed b/c I didnt have the right kind of soil. I have never gardened in containers before so I am thrilled its doing pretty well. I have had some great tasting zucchinis and a new kind of squash called "eight ball", cukes, romain lettuce, variety of culinary herbs. The green beans, sweet potatoes, white and purple Jerusalem eggplant and tomatoes and several variety of peppers are doing very well (considering I still have sunlight issues). I added a lot of good compost and dove sheet which seemed to make a huge difference.

Dove sheet? Please enlighten me. Beautiful container garden!

Dove sheet? Please enlighten me. Beautiful container garden!

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I'm going to go out "on a limb" here and say Dove poop was added. Poultry manure is some of the strongest stuff you can buy so maybe Dove poop is also.

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Dove sheet? Please enlighten me. Beautiful container garden!

here's what I meant by Dove sheet=poop, fertilizer factory

Thanks. I feel sorta thick headed now. I thought maybe dove was another brand of drier sheet that you were using as some kind of insect repellant. tee hee .

Teresa, thanks for sharing photos of your successful container garden. If anyone has a challenging site, it's you. I can't wait to do some trading.

Susan, thanks for the kind words. I still want to document the transformation of your permaculture design for my website. We'll talk.

Gidget, I can't wait to meet you and as mentioned above, if you need help designing a sustainable edible site plan, give me a call.

Worms, all I can say is you're awesome. My worm farm has doubled and is producing a nice batch of worm tea every couple of weeks. The garden is a bit dry and crunchy since I was away, but I'm looking ahead to Fall.

Amazingly enough, the Malabar Spinach I got from Susan at the market has survived.

passionfruit, trash, herb spiral

Hello gardeners! Two questions:

1. Anybody know the best passionflower species to grow here for fruit -- also known as maypops; and are they self-fertile or must you have male and female plants?

2. Anybody got a lot of food scraps, leaves, pine straw, etc. that they want to unload ASAP? We are building our second lasagna-gardening-style herb spiral Sunday morning and will gladly incorporate as much of your compostable trash into our layers as we can get! Shrimp and crab shells, eggshells, stale bread, anything but weed seeds and high-fat items.

Okay, three questions.

3. Have you ever seen or made an herb spiral? Here's the youtube that taught us how:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxGqUnHz-1A&feature=related"]YouTube - Herb Spiral - permaculture[/ame]

We built our first one last summer and have enjoyed it so much, we're making another one!

very cool Susan! I'm going to have to try one of these!

composting with herbs

Sustainable garden spirals to life | Welcome to Walton Outdoors

Here's a story on a double South Walton composting herb spiral. Much thanks to everyone who participated -- especially since we managed to schedule this project for THE hottest June 21 of all time since records have been kept. Lori Ceier did a great job, managing to take pics AND tote bricks, then put it all together in a great story. Looks like Lori's been busy lately -- there are LOTS of interesting new stories up on her site.

Much thanks also to Chandra Hartman and Kat Provencher, who created the permaculture design for our house/yard, who taught the Intro to Permaculture class, and who keep encouraging us to continue our shift from poorly managed ornamentals and weeds to a productive, beautiful, and ultimately low-maintenance edible landscape.

And to Peter, for keeping all those bricks out of the landfill!

Very cool! I heard about it at the beach but couldn't quite picture what it looked like!