Simple Living Institute

The other night The Mess and I went to an Intro to Permaculture at Leu Gardens hosted by the Simple Living Institute. It gave me some insight on this way of thinking, and to be honest, it's how I've been thinking about us, as humans, living on this earth. The premise is that humans need to learn to live with nature, not against or opposed to it. This earth has been around for millions of years and will probably out live us, and will outdo us, because we, as humans, can't control nature. Humans are the ones trying to control our living environments, which only makes us frustrated when it doesn't work out the way we want it to. Animals, on the other hand, have learned to live with nature; learning to adapt to climates, weather changes, changes in geography, etc. And can you see how less stressed they are? 

Permaculture comes from a combination of "permanent" and "culture", or "permanent" and "agriculture", first coined by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist who believed in living with nature.  Our talk last night was directed towards ones own living environment, like our house. We take a look at our house, its geographic location, how the sun and winds face the house, the plants that are already there, and work with that environment to build a setting that is conducive to our living situation. For example, if there is a lot of rain that comes down off one corner of the house during the summer, which ends up dislocating all the dirt on the ground due to heavy rains, I want to install a rain barrel there. This way I'll gather all the rain water, and save my dirt from being eroded from around the house. 

The Mess was intrigued, as was I, and we have decided to take a look at our front yard to make some changes to the landscaping so that we can add some fruit plants and some lemongrass, in order to make the most use of the sun that shines in the front yard, and to give us some food too. 

The Simple Living Institute is hosting a permaculture design course this spring. It sounds fascinating and this is a certificate course, meaning you'll be a degreed permaculturalist afterwards and can go anywhere in the world to do your permaculture thing. We can't afford it right now, but we'll take whatever info we can get and use it to our benefit. We can all use some help and having food plants in our own yard is a pretty cool thing. 

The hostess, Tia Meer, says that her Econ farm in far out east orlando is a host farm for WWOOF. I told The Mess that I'm interested in visiting and helping. It's not that far from us, we can learn a lot, and maybe she'll let us bring Scotty with us. Cool!

spool down end of year time

This is Rogue. She lives with us, well, actually, she lets us live here, we just share the house with her. She and her sister, Wolfie, let us live here. Rogue is the prissy girl, but a tough ass prissy girl as she is the one that does most of the killing of rats around here. She is very soft, has beautiful color, and walks like a princess. She does, really. She likes to be looked at and adored, not so much touched and petted. Only petted when she says so, as most cats go. 

Wolfie on the other hand, is queenie of the house. She doesn't do much killing, although she has, I just don't think she likes to get her paws dirty too much. She, unlike her sister, LOVES to be petted. You start petting her and she goes into auto purr. No kidding. And it gets so loud too! Then if you dare take your hand away, she reaches for it. Yeah, she doesn't want you to stop petting her. She does run outside from time to time, and I have seen her climb a tree or two, so she is not totally devoid of animal instincts, she just thinks she's queen of the house. She really doesn't like her brother bothering her.

This is Moses. He's our foster turned adopted cat. You can tell from this picture that he only has 3 legs. He's missing his back right leg. He gets along just fine without it. He is one fast cat! He's a little over a year now and LOVES to be outside. He is always looking for lizards and squirrels and birds and rats. He's caught a rat too. I am very proud of him. He has come a long way since he has been with us. He is my baby boy. 

We are spooling down to the end of year here. This time of year I start to wind down, relax, and look forward to having some time off. I clean out the closets, the attic, start raking the leaves (since mowing season is over until June next year), brushing the kittens and dog, and clean out the psyche too. Getting rid of things that don't serve me, whether that's physical or mental. It's all good and I feel refreshed and ready for whatever the new year brings. 

cauliflower

the leaves look great, but where is all the cauliflower? 

much cooler weather...

Rogue

It's been so much nicer and cooler the past few days that it is pure joy to work in the garden. The kittens are running around with so much more energy, as am I, it is so refreshing! The lettuce is still doing very well; I have a salad almost every night. The tomatoes are done for the season, and the catnip has come back! I haven't dried it, but I pick off some leaves and leave it in the living room for the cats. They get a little possessive of their leaves. Moses loves to rub all over it, Wolfie doesn't so much with it, and Rogue will eat it all if I give it to her. Here she is coming out of a bag of yard waste that tipped over. Kittens are so funny!

It's supposed to be 44 here tonight. I am not complaining, really, I'm just saying. We need a break. I hope you're getting a break where ever you are...

kids visit

Nate's niece and nephew are staying with us for the week. They helped us when we originally started the garden. They were good at planting. Tonight before dinner we'll go out and pick some lettuce and see if the red peppers are ready to be picked. 

lots of lettuce

Nate tells me the lettuce is really coming along and I need to eat some. True, I need to eat lettuce and I don't want it to go bad. After yoga tonight I'll have a good salad. It looks so good and healthy! I am so happy with our progress so far. 

and here's what's in the garden tents...

here we have some tall, hot peppers, and views of cabbage...

2 different kinds of cabbage, and some lettuce. all is well, so far, thanks to the fabric covering our food. Let's hope it stays that way. 

new garden tents

well, I call them garden tents because that's what they look like. They are protecting our fall vegetables. 

hurray! cooler weather!

It is amazing! The weather has actually been tolerable these past 2 days! We've had the windows open today in the house for the first time in months! This is so refreshing! I know I could go on and on and on about this, and I just might, because this is what we have been waiting for since May. Now, it's tolerable for us, which means in the low 80's, but I know for many it would be way too hot. I am so glad that fall is finally here. I doubt that we'll get any hurricanes now, and we have planted for the fall harvest, and what we have already done has come along so well. I am just so thrilled that the plants that are covered are doing so well. 

I planted some cat grass the other day and that has already sprouted. I don't know that the cats have seen it, as they usually go for what they are not supposed to get into. Nevertheless, it looks good too. I'm waiting for it to get a little taller before I move it to pots. Then I'll put it in the screen porch for the cats to gnaw on at their leisure. 

Rogue got in the yard waste bag. She was trying to hide. I caught her as she was coming out. 

enjoy the weather wherever you are!

fall planting

the tomatoes we planted for summer have lived their lives, and now we are working on broccoli, lettuce, beans, and I think Nate planted cabbage. I'm not sure. It's my birthday tomorrow, and I have no great plans to do anything but what I want to do, but what I really want to do is get our fall planting finished. We have the fabric covers on 2 of our boxes, and the plants in there are doing quite well! We don't have to worry about them getting burnt or full of bugs. It's a great idea! At first, I thought Nate was being paranoid - as he can be sometimes - and since I am the frugal queen, and I don't want to spend anymore time outside in the florida summer than I need to, I thought he was crazy. Crazy like a fox they say! We need to get more compost from the landfill, before it's all gone and before they stop giving it out. (budget cuts, you know.) 

The harvest moon was last night and was it beautiful! It lit up the yard so brightly I could see the kittens running back and forth. They like to chase each other when the sun goes down. They also antagonize each other. Sister's do that. 

The herbs are still doing well. Lots of basil and rosemary and parsley. It's great to have in food. I'm very impressed and happy they are doing well. 

covering the garden boxes

The bugs have been so bad here that Nate bought this very thin fabric to cover the boxes. He's ingenious at putting things together, and he came up with an idea of using pvc pipe as an arch over the boxes, and using this fabric to protect the plants. So far, it has worked well on the one box that we have covered right now. It is just so damn hot and humid that it's not fun putting this together. Either at 6am or after 6pm is when it's best to be outside. I can't wait for November. 

what're you lookin' at?

We have some plants for the fall: broccoli, cabbage, and we're going to try some lettuce again, in these covered boxes. I am hoping for the best. The herbs have done very well uncovered in this weather, so we may leave those smaller boxes as is for now. 

sweat rag and water bottle are de riguer around here.

Happy Labor Day

Take a break everyone! enjoy the day off! here is to all who labor, sweat, toil, and stress for a living. Congratulations on an extra day off. Do whatever you like today, enjoy the day. Because tomorrow will be here too soon. 

My beloved was working in the garden putting this cover over the plants. The bugs have been brutal this year, and the one container that already has this on it has been very successful. I told him to stop for today and take a break. It's too damn hot too. It's supposed to feel like 100 today. A great day to stay inside. (pay no attention to the butt crack.)

summer harvest is over

yep, all the tomatoes we had are done growing, the watermelons have died off, the corn was eaten by something but us, and our basil is on its way back. (I ate a lot of that. good stuff!) so now we are going to till up the beds we have left and get ready for planting our fall harvest. We'll keep one box for herbs, Nate has his beans growing, and we are going to make some covers for the boxes as the kittens have been having fun wreaking havoc in the garden beds, so we are trying to come up with a way to keep them out of there, as opposed to keeping them in the house all day.

this is a mouse from months ago. the rat she caught was twice the size of this rodent. 

speaking of being in the house, we came home today to a dead rat in the living room. yeah. kinda yucky since it was missing half of its head. that we found down the hall. At least they are helping keep the yard rodent free. fierce kittens we have.

Wolfie

she looks so serious here

rosemary

we have lots of rosemary growing. I say lots, but it's not like it's taking over our whole yard or anything, but I think for us, it's a lot. I'm not exactly sure what to use it for. It's very aromatic, it looks like a small pine tree to me. I understand it goes in many Mediterranean dishes. I'm not one for lamb or pork, so that doesn't suit me. I thought maybe I could use it as an air freshener of some kind, but in reading over what I've found, I think not. Rosemary has a history of being used in wedding ceremonies and in love potions. It's a strong herb, so it may have been used in wedding ceremonies hundreds of years ago as something more pleasingly aromatic than the people getting married. And I mean that in a good way. Nevertheless, I shall find something good to come out of this, if only to use it as an herb in Nate's bathroom after he's been 'reading' in there for awhile. 

we have another watermelon!

I just noticed this little guy the other day. yay! I am happily surprised that they are doing so well. The other one that resembles the shape of a squash, is still there and growing too. I'm keeping an eye on them both.

Finally RAIN!

Yay! we finally had some big rain today! When I first moved here to Florida, I had never seen such big rain! It seems to take up the whole sky when it rains here! and it's not like a little drizzle for days either. It rains A LOT in a relatively short amount of time, and then it's gone. The thunder and lightning sure make for a big show and can be very scary sometimes. The yard and the plants are very grateful for the rain. As am I. It helps to cool us all down, which we desperately need. It was in the 90's again today. The white tent looking thing in the garden has sweet potatoes growing in it. Nate decided he had had enough with all the damn bugs and made a cover for one of our planters, and they look pretty good in there. They are coming along nicely and don't look burnt or have leaves full of holes. that's one thing about Florida, too many weird funky damn bugs and not enough cold to kill them off. 

rain, rain, where is the rain?

This is usually our rainy season, through most of the summer, notwithstanding hurricane season. We have not had much rain at all this month, maybe 2 days worth which is very unusual. This can create many problems.

1. We need rain for our garden. (duh)
2. The rain helps to cool the outside temperature. It has been in the 90's, with the heat index of 100's lately. we need the rain for cooling purposes. 
3. The rain helps to stave off brush fires. If we don't get some rain soon, there is a threat of fires. We had a big run in with this about 10 years ago. We didn't get any rain through all of July, and not until August sometime. It caused quite a bit of problems. 

Now needless to say, we don't want so much rain that it floods, or that we get rain from hurricanes, but some rain would be nice. I am hoping the rain gods are listening. 

Full Moon planting

I've known for some time that the moon affects the earth as well as our bodies. Since we've just had a full moon, I thought I'd check out what this is all about. I found 2 books that have all sorts of information on the moon phases and what they mean as far as when to plant. 

I've never heard of this one, but it includes all kinds of information on gardening, the weather, and moon phases. The almanac for all seasons, they say. The website is very simple, and there's no way to order online. We have to go old school and send a check! I wonder if I still have some....

The Farmers Almanac I remember from back in the day. My dad had a copy of this every year. There's information on astronomy, astrology, gardening, husbandry (no, not that kind), even sports. To think, they were talking about astronomy and astrology back in 1792! I think that's kind of cool. We're all connected you know, and the more we know, the better off we will all be. I think I'll get one of each almanac for Nate. Well, for both of us really. I always liked reading the farmers almanac. Such interesting stuff!

sorry looking corn

I don't know what happened to the corn, but it looks pretty sorry. I'm not sure if it's the heat, the soil, or bugs, or a combination of all 3, but they didn't even come close. Nate is sorely disappointed. He was looking forward to corn, as he likes it so much. I take consolation in the fact that we got so many tomatoes.

I keep telling him it's our first garden, and we really did plant too late in the season, so we should be happy with what we got. I'm excited about the fall vegetables! I'm not used to having a garden in the fall. In Ohio, by now, the plants have gone through their life cycle and we are preparing to till up the garden to put it to bed for the winter.