Tinyplots.com is a local Calgary gardening website which is offering an instructional set of videos and exercises on gardening in the zone 3 climate. The thing to understand about this is for many, Calgary is a difficult place to grow in. We have short summers, and frosty springs and falls. If you can grow successfully in Calgary, you can grow pretty much anywhere else considering most of the world has longer summers and warmer weather.
I’ve just started my membership with them and after watching a couple videos, I can tell already it’s going to be great.
The instructor, Jordan Brown, is a graduate of Verge Permaculture’s PDC, and I’m always stoked to see someone who’s applying their knowledge of permaculture, especially when it comes to informing the masses.
Check out the demo videos, I think you’ll really like this course. Not to mention it’s cheap! $50 gets you a course that’s spread over 4 months. These are simple lessons all in one place, so when I’m weighing doing all the research by myself, or paying the $50, it’s a no brainer.
I’m not being paid for this post in any way, but if you would like to help me out, mention that I sent you, and we’ll both be sent a pack of Alberta seeds such as French Sorrel, Green Kale, Peppery Cress … compliments of Blue Mountain Bio-Dynamic Farms!
How frustrating is it when you put so much work and effort into a garden, and then like out of nowhere, your plants are nearly ruined from insects munching on them? I’m going to explain how you can control the insects that feed on your precious crops.
blossom!
The key to controlling insects is not pesticide. Pesticide will kill all the beneficial insects and microbes as well. The key is flowers. The effect of the flowers is at least three fold. They confuses insects that will attack your plants, they attract predatory insects, which are also pollinators.
diversify!
The important thing is variety. Scatter your flowers throughout your garden. When I say that, obviously you want to plan so they will be good companions to your other plants, but you want flowers growing along with your vegitables.
Here’s some flowers and plants I would recommend planting:
A few marigolds (which are good with tomatoes)
Borage is amazing for attracting bees (give it some space it will spread)
Sunflowers and bird houses and feeders will attract birds (a bad thing if you have seeds starting, but a great thing if your plants are semi-established (birds will eat the bugs too)
Herbs like basil, bee balm, catnip, dill, Echinacea, evening primrose, fennel, lavender, parsley, poppy, thyme and sage will all attract pollinators too.
Check out this site too. It has some great information for specific insects.
The cool thing too is that everything I’ve suggested is edible! However, be warned that not every part of the plants I’ve suggested are edible. Do your research. There’s tons of info out there.
bee houses!
Some other things you could try is making a bee block. This will help support the bee population and give them a home right beside your garden!
They’re as easy as drilling some holes in a block of wood.
If you don’t read this whole post, please scroll to the bottom and check out the questions. I’d love to have peoples opinions and input.
I have been trying to figure out the best way to start a garden in Calgary Alberta. We have rich soil here and I’ve been hearing that if your soil is “too rich”, your vegitables such as carrots won’t grow as well.
sheet mulching
In my constant search of all things permaculture, I stumbled upon a series of videos a while ago put on youtube by the University of Massachusetts where they transformed a lawn into a very large permaculture garden. They did this without digging, and they didn’t even tear out the grass. Instead the sheet mulched the place.
Sheet mulching is where you put a layer of compost down on your lawn, and then put cardboard or newspaper on top of the compost. After that, you put a thick layer of mulch down such as wood chips or straw or whatever. The cardboard breaks down and the lawn dies underneath and becomes biomass. This makes a very rich soil to grow in and thickens the topsoil layer.
Check out the video.
the conundrum
While I was visiting Plantation Garden Center (again, very nice people), I was speaking with one of the people who helps out there and she was saying that this can be referred to as lasagna gardening and that it can have bad effects on our gardens. I am not about to say that she’s wrong in any way, however I was very surprised to hear this. I thought the richer your soil the better. It seems silly in my head to purposely have a lower quality soil so that certain things will grow better.
Maybe I’m looking at this wrong too. Maybe a healthy soil isn’t one that is jam packed full of nutrients. There is a balance to everything and perhaps this is just one example.
Another line of thought is, if certain things won’t grow in this climate in a nutrient rich soil, maybe we shouldn’t be growing them. I want to build the soil and make it deeper and richer. I want the soil to be healthier and deeper next year and the year after that. If carrots get stringy, then maybe we should grow tomatoes and other nutrient loving things instead.
I’m not trying to put that lady down in any way. I asked for her opinion and I accept it, and I’m not going to sheet mulch the gardens I’m working, so I’m taking her advice. It’s just something that struck me as odd from a permaculture standpoint anyway.
input
What are your thoughts? Have you tried sheet mulching? Have you had issues where your soil was “too rich”? Am I thinking totally wrong here?
I’ve always been very interested in ways of taking care of our needs which are beneficial for the planet. My personality wants to solve problems and I think that’s why I ended up in IT. So whenever I see something that solves a problem in a way that is good for the planet, I’m blown away and I research it like crazy.
the first bit of inspiration
I was in college when I was watching National Geographic and it was on deserts, but they had a segment where they showed a lady who lives in the desert and planted trees there. She planted palms I believe and used mulch to capture rainwater. I don’t remember well enough to say if she was using permaculture or not, but it blew my mind that you could reverse desertification by planting trees. That was when I realized how important trees really are.
Since I was in college though, I didn’t have any time to research agriculture, so I left it for a while.
I wish I could remember what the video was. I tried searching for it, but I wasn’t able to. If anyone knows the video I’m talking about, please let me know!
the next kick of inspiration
I got into a phase of watching TED talks. I found them right up my alley. People presenting their ideas and solutions to issues we face. If you haven’t ever watched a TED talk, I would recommend you look into it. They’ve had speakers like Bill Gates, JJ Abrams, etc.
While searching for TED talks, I stumbled upon a talk by Vandana Shiva (who is one of the most brilliant people alive today IMHO), and she was talking about sustainable and organic agriculture. There is so many layers to her lectures, so I’m just going to post a video rather than write 10000 words on her.
my introduction to permaculture
Up to this point, I had never heard of the word permaculture. Then while looking for that video I first told you about, I found this one by Geoff Lawton which is better. This video amazed me because they took a desert plot in Jordan which is one of the driest countries in the world and made a forest in it. Not only did they make a forest, they made one that requires no watering, reverses the horrid effects of chemical fertilization and over grazing and feeds people.
Everyone in the world should watch this. It is incredible.
Since watching that video, I’ve watched hundreds of other videos on permaculture. I’m reading Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway and often I wish I could learn everything by osmosis so it would go faster.
in conclusion
I could write pages and pages and pages on this, but I feel like I’m pushing it when it comes to keeping people’s attention, so I’m going to leave this post where it is and write more later.
Let me know how you like the videos, and if you agree or disagree with anything. I’m happy to hear everyone’s thoughts.
I’ve spoken a few times about newspaper pots, and I thought I’d share a video on how to make them.
It’s a great thing because reusing something is better than recycling it, and definitely better than throwing it away. Not only that, but newspaper decomposes and worms eat it!
I’d love to know if anyone uses this technique and one question I have is, can you plant the plants into your garden in the newspaper pot? Will it decompose fast enough to allow the roots to grow?
I was playing around on twitter and noticed an account I’ve never seen before belonging to the urban farming guys. I checked them out and looked at their blog and it’s really cool. I’m very impressed with their success with talapia farming using aquaponics. They seem like good hearted people. Check them out.
