Growing a forest garden

Growing a forest garden
I’ve always been interested in sustainable ways of growing food. Ever since I read Forest Gardening by Robert Hart I’ve had idle thoughts about planting a small orchard in my back garden. I’ve dabbled here and there but when I moved into my new house in 2008 I decided to start planning. [...]

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Talks Michael Pollan gives a plant’s-eye view

What if human consciousness isn’t the end-all and be-all of Darwinism? What if we are all just pawns in corn’s clever strategy game to rule the Earth? Author Michael Pollan asks us to see the world from a plant’s-eye view.
[TED]

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Hey, What About Those Hay Bales?

 
Growing annual vegetables on hay bales is a way to rapidly add lots of compostable organic matter to the soil’s surface in a short period of time. Here’s the recipe (See illustration from Designing & Maintaining Your Edible Landscape – Naturally) based on my trial garden in 1977!
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[Robert Kourik's Garden Roots]

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Permaculture Zones – What to plant etc.

Factor or Strategy
ZONE I
ZONE II
ZONE III
ZONE IV

Main design for:
House climate, domestic sufficiency.
Small domestic stock & orchard.
Main crop forage, stored.
Gathering, forage, forestry, pasture.

Establishment of plants
Complete sheet mulch.
Spot mulch and tree guards.
Soil conditioning and green mulch.
Soil conditioning only.

Pruning and trees
Intensive cup or espalier trees.
Pyramid and built trellis.
Unpruned and natural trellis.
Seedlings, thinned to selected varieties.

Selection of trees
Selected dwarf [...]

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Nitrogen Fixing Tree Start-up Guide

Nitrogen fixing trees (NFTs) have the ability to take nitrogen from the air and pass it on to other plants through the cycling of organic matter. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth , and NFTs are a major source of nitrogen fertility in tropical ecosystems.
Nitrogen Fixing Tree Start-up Guide.pdf

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World’s first self-watering desert plant discovered

For years scientists have wondered how the desert rhubarb manages to grow leaves that reach a diameter of up to one meter while other desert plant species typically have small and spiky leaves.
Now, researchers from the University of Haifa-Oranim, have managed to decipher the unique self-watering mechanism of this plant in the Negev desert, which covers [...]

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Natural Resources Conservation Advance Plant Search

The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, crop information, automated tools, onward Web links, and references. This information primarily promotes land conservation in the United States and its territories, [...]

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How to make seed balls

Seed balls are a no-till method for vegetating an area, especially well suited for disturbed areas, compacted, or barren soils. Seed balls create a protected venue to keep seeds safe from blowing away, drying out, or being eaten by animals while they germinate and get established. The clay provides protection and the compost provides beneficial [...]

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Henriette’s Herbal Homepage

The culinary herb FAQ and the medicinal herb FAQ
Herbal articles, including Henriettes örtsidor: my Swedish pages, and Henrietten yrttisivuja: my Finnish pages
Classic herbal works, including major works like King’s American Dispensatory, Felter’s Eclectic Materia Medica,Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, as well as minor ones, and links to classic herbal works elsewhere - added more to Pereira’s Materia Medica – 20Mar2009.
Herbal forum archives, including the Best [...]

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Save the world grow your own Bamboo

TO HEINRICHER, bamboo is the perfect plant.
Thomas Edison used carbonized bamboo filament in his first light bulb; Alexander Graham Bell created his first phonograph needle from a bamboo sliver. With tensile strength up to 52,000 pounds per square inch, bamboo is stronger than most steel, yet its fibers can be spun into a silky cloth [...]

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