Friday, April 30, 2010

Howdy!

I'm a native crazy Californian, and can prove the 'crazy' part by wanting to garden in a place that has absolutely no rain for 8 months of the year. I'm also a fan of the scientific method.

The recent interest in food and growing it is very cheering, but every method claims to be 'the best'. So which is? Let's find out. I want to test some of the 'new' inventions, methods and processes that have cropped up over the last few years. My family and I will be moving onto a piece of land in the East Bay and I get to dirty up my fingernails -- yeay!

Here is a list of some of the things I'll be testing:

  • Bed construction: flat, bermed, raised
  • Planting methods: french intensive, biointensive, square foot
  • Winter: cover cropping, heavy mulch, winter crops
  • Mulch: deep, light, plastic
  • Bed building: lasagna, hugelkulture, delivered compost, sheet composting
  • Integration: chickens on beds, beds away from chickens, beds downstream of chickens
  • Permaculture methods
  • Mushroom integration
  • Effectiveness of amendments such as Terra Preta

Feel free to let me know along the way if there's another method you'd like to see trialed. In the meantime, please cross your fingers because the bank has not yet accepted our offer and we've been on pins and needles for weeks.

Fun Fact for this post: Almost every bee you will ever see are female. There are very few male bees, and they only come out for mating flights and then die. Workers, soldiers and of course the Queens are all ladies. No wonder they know how to dance!