This is a short journey about growing healing and tasty food. It may just be an experiment in patience for me, with a reward of beauty and exercise, but we will see. We moved to Northwest Florida three years ago. I have health issues and have been trying to find avenues to make a positive change. We knew growing some of our food would be a step in the right direction. We had never attempted to grow a traditional garden and looked for an easier way. I found a Permaculture site (on FaceBook under Permaculture Jax) in Jacksonville, Florida which was Equatorially (probably not a word, hope you get it) perfect for our area. Permaculture really suited us since it is more extensive labor now and less intensive as you age.
Within months of living here we first tried to do a Hugel bed. If you are not familiar, if you bury plant energy beneath the surface layer and let it decay it will become perfect energy for other life as it is broken down microbially. It sounds easy enough. We trialed that a few times and came to realize the group in Jacksonville were 100% correct when they say Hugels must be buried in Florida to avoid UV destruction. We can not dig huge trenches and fill them ourselves. Hugels beds and derivatives (for you anarchists, haha) of them, are always a work in progress.
This is a picture of our bed we put in two years ago. I buried a few logs and we mulched, it was three feet in height or so when done. It didn't do well at all. We periodically gave it good soil, but it seemed sterile. Last year we put one Marigold out, and this year we were rewarded and found all these guys volunteering.
Now if you looked at that and thought terrible effort, I am with you. We are both disabled and we found all that too hard. We moved tons of dirt and material and the results were that the plants were annihilated by pests and had we had no bounty.
We sought a change. I read and read, then I started to experimented in different areas of the yard to consider light distribution. I ultimately learned the importance of "pioneer species". They are local variants of plants and trees. This may sound intuitive, for me it wasn't. If you go and order trees for instance, you will be asked about a zone. The zone will have an impact, it is not cemented though. So you may receive a plant that may grow where you are or you can look for plants that are absolutely growing in your area. Plant diversity is amazing. I have found it is far more beneficial to find a local plant shop and start there. Armed with this knowledge, I thought I was ready. I was not!
An example of a local Rosemary purchased in Tallahassee. (note the sand bank that is our soil)
For two planting seasons we tried to incorporate these plants and it was apparent that our soil just did not have the content needed to sustain what we wanted. Reading 'Teaming with Microbes' by Jeff Lowenfels really pushed my understanding, so I tried an easy fix just to get ahead. I realized that the soil I have does not retain water or biology very well. It really lacked organic matter. Even if I put matter down, it had no cover. We decided to invest in 40 cubic yards (yeah) of mushroom compost. It was a full oversize dump truck worth. We thought we could let it leachate over time, scalp the area and plant. We let it sit between a Mulberry tree and a Peach tree. It sat over the winter of 2016. We had our neighbor with a tractor move it around to various parts of our yard early this year. We had tried four times in various locations and various ways to start a Permaculture favorite called Seminole Pumpkins, which is an excellent ground cover plant. We had a double hard freeze here around in March and April, my wife was able to save a few Seminole sprouts that were behind on the porch and we threw them out where the pile was. We knew the soil gained nutrients through the runoff over the winter and thought we may have a chance. Could this ground cover give us a boost? Absolutely. Not only did the Seminole Pumpkin do well, the Moringa trees we threw out went nuts. We had a two and a half year old Peach tree that was 3 feet tall and was sad last winter. Now I have a tree that is 12-15 feet tall and I am sure will put out dozens if not hundreds of peaches next spring.
We were so exited! My wife started making breads and cookies and man was everyone happy. I have no idea the true cost of those treats, but I know the smiles I saw were priceless. I was sad to see this a few weeks ago.
We started prepping our beds and saw that low and behold a few Seminole Pumpkin seedling sprouted where our portable chicken coop was. What an amazing gift. I hope we have as much success with this one.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed the journey. Please follow my wife the real creator @sback.