catching up

Into my third weekend of permaculture course....this weekend was all about water....we had two guest teachers, gurus of water,Rick Valley and Jordan Fink. It was a little overwhelming but really made me clear on my choice to specialize quickly. So much to learn, it is as if I need to slow down and concentrate on one thing.We talked about Keyline design, swales,ponds, wetlands,water catchment,urban waste systems,and much more.

The garden at the hangar is really thriving. Our apples are forming, we have lots of peas, , greens, cilantro...yummy..we planted green beans, pattypan squash,corn, peppers and much more. One of my apple trees looks as if it might be having trouble..branches coming along with baby apples..any ideas out there?

peace and love

Went to Seattle Tilth's Edible plant sale yesterday! It is such a great sale...still looking for different squash starts...pattypan,sunburst,etc.We bought lovage,comfrey,basil,dill,peppers,bell peppers,lemon balm,etc...we are going to hang out in there learning garden today ...Today is seed start day and finish planting day....woo hoo! Looking for advice on our culinary garden and how to enhance its usability for the restaurant...improve our succesion etc.

We've had lots of luck with slug management since we employed beer traps made from glass not paper cups. Also, we are using oyster shell and some night hunting.

Here's to a beautiful day

Kids and the garden

Today, Liz, Taylor, Sofia and I started seedlings in Lizzie's back yard. Taylor and Sofia are both three year olds and Lizzie and I are thirty somethings (just to give some context to the story). We planted heirloom cucumbers (Armenian and Baby persian), Wild Arugula (Rocket), two different kinds of Nasturtiums (Amazon & Moonlight), two kinds of squash, and salad greens. The kids naturally love the soil and the water. Running around in the sun, planting, digging, laughing, we all felt our connection to the Earth, to everything. This is so much of what permaculture is about, regaining our heritage, our birthright as part of the ecology of this planet (not separate, but one).

Spring is here, luvvies!

We have plants in the ground and our apple trees are blossoming: perfect delicate buds fleshy pink and snow-white mixed with a perfect shade of spring green... an ode to  the apple blossom! Who knew? 

Our kale starts and our tomato starts have been the most successful so far. We might have a few swiss chard starts make it as well.

 

The slugs are under control and we've actually harvested greens for soup-- woo hoo!

We are currently sheet mulching the other half of the yard. This is a permaculture method of sustainable (but slow...) composting on the ground. 

To everyone in the community, we are looking for pots and containers as well as  mulch and plants! We want to grow more from seeds, and we need pots... We also are open to any volunteer labor or fresh ideas.

I'm taking a permaculture design course at Armstrong Park in Redmond (Tom Armstrong and Susan Parks' place out Union Hill Road), home of RawVegan Source-- the largest raw vegan store in the USA. The class is being taught by Jenny Pell, Marisa, and Kelda. Kelda is the founder of the Seattle Permaculture Guild. There are a bunch of really cool, really nice people in the class who I've started to see around town. I am super-excited about learning all I can about permaculture and getting to network with more progressive-minded earthers.

We have sprouts!!!

Hey! We have sprouts!!! Our seeds are now actually tiny little green mini-versions of what we hope they shall be one day!

Also, be sure to check out our Flickr page for ALL our photos.

Sprouting

<-Black heirloom 

                                                                              Manitoba->

                                                                                

  Hello everbody out there. Getting geared up for spring planting as well as a concurrent permaculture workshop I'll be taking at Tom Armstrong's farm in Redmond. He is coordinating with Seattle Tilth . I'll be learning soo much to bring back to this garden..Yeah!

Ben and I  put  our tomatoes down for sprouting under our big grow light. All the Tomatoes are heirloom varieties..Mantina,Manitoba,Purple Calabash,Koralik and Black Heirloom.Ben and I spent yesterday fixing the space and we are trying multiple ways of sprouting.We will update you on our results soon.

Dreams of Barack Danced in our heads

Dreams of Barack danced in my head.We did it! We have sworn in our first African American President which the garden was really waiting for. That sounds like a joke but I really mean it. Getting rid of grass for the sake of grass. Putting our land to use for sustenance and sustainabilty is the wave of the future. It's part of this general change Obama's talking about. Helping ourselves..helping others..picking up the pieces of our lives we've let go..taking care of our needs..connecting with our community..working together! We at the Hangar share this vision.

look to the next few posts for reasons why we mulch and why we're using organic hay at the hangar garden..

Much love from all of us at the Hangar