Permaculture at StonePath

Permaculture has always been an important goal in our garden planning. The ability to depend on a variety of small fruits and berries both for fresh eating and canning appeals to us.

I thought I'd showcase our efforts to this point, we are far from finished but definitely on the "path".

We have a lovely blueberry patch in the main garden. This is the second year for these bushes. They were purchased from Raintree Nursery in Morton, Wa. The young bushes transplanted well, and survived the winter in fine shape.

We have a total of eight plants that should provide a good harvest in the next few years.

For Mother's Day this year, my wife received a Sour Cherry from our children. This was a locally purchased tree in wonderful shape.

It was bought both as a celebration of Mother's Day and a memorial to her Dad who passed away last summer.

I am planning to add a second cherry near this one next month.

Last year we added an elderberry bush that was also purchased locally. Elderberry's have a long mythical history with Celtic peoples, and since my grandparents were Irish I thought it would be a fitting tribute to my ancestors to have an elderberry at StonePath.

Elderberry's were sacred in Saxony and much of the rest of the Celtic world. Their fruit have many uses beyond wine and jam, to include medicinal uses.

Grapes have long been the staple, permaculture kings at StonePath. Our vines are all Concord grapes, which are native to Ohio and thus very hearty.

Last year we made wine for the first time. It was a fun experiment but we're going to stick with jelly.

Frost hit the vines hard this year and I worried we would lose them, however, they came back with gusto.

This is the current state of affairs, however, we have plans that might include a dwarf apple orchard, more small fruits (perhaps raspberries), and an asparagus bed.

New cedar planting beds

 Another project we tackled this past weekend was the addition of three raised planting beds outside the main garden.

The area selected had been the site of a large Maple that we removed two years ago and had the stump taken out last summer.

The ground was pretty poor due to the amount of sawdust and debris from the stump removal. I decided that rather then spend time and money amending the soil for grass, I would build planting beds instead.

The bed frames are built from Michigan cedar that my wife's father had harvested and milled from the cedar swamps in Northern Michigan. Since he passed away, we have been thinking of how best to use some of the wonderful wood that we got from him.

Part of the materials we did receive consisted of 1" x 4" x 50" planks. They are a touch to small for the shed we intend to build, but perfect for this application.

The beds were simple to assemble and place. I added some good amended topsoil with additional compost from our bin and now we have added an additional 48 sq.ft. of planting area at StonePath.

The cedar should resist rot for many years to come, and are a wonderful reminder of Shelley's dad every time we work in them.

Planting StonePath

This is traditionally our official planting weekend at StonePath. It has revolved around a vegetable flat sale that our local garden center has every year at this time. 

They have a 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. sale with steep discounts on the flats. Since we have increased our seed starting every year, our flat purchases have declined, however, we still needed a few items for this year.

We purchased all our peppers - a flat of King Arthur (a sweet green pepper), a flat of sweet banana peppers, and our hot pepper of the season a hybrid Hungarian wax pepper.

We also picked up some herbs; more basil (we did start quite a bit ourselves), two thyme varieties, rosemary, and oregano.

The driveway side of the house has been a very fruitful tomato bed. This year we have two varieties planted here, both of them heirlooms; Thessaloniki, and Tiffin Mennonite.

This is the completed hot pepper bed and herb garden. Last year our hot peppers made all of our peppers a bit to warm. This year we have separated them as far apart as possible.

Next year, this will probably be just our herb garden.

Since we utilize individual raised beds, we can pack a greater amount of vegetables per planting area. One of our beds will more then accommodate a full flat of peppers or tomatoes.

We finished planting with a tally of 92 tomatoes of three varieties; Thessoloniki, Tiffin Mennonite, and a hybrid Celebrity. 73 peppers, three beds of zucchini, a bed of acorn squash, three beds of pickling cucumbers, a bed of 36 broccoli, plus our lettuce bed and herb garden.