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.