Permaculture Is What Happens When You're Busy Making Other Plans

Spring is a yearly invitation t0 new beginnings, and an annual reminder of age-old renewal. It is the time of year that I am certain Khalil Gibran wrote the words "And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet, and the winds long to play with your hair."

But sometimes, life gets in the way.

Although life has gotten in the way for much of the past 3 years, permaculture additions over that time allow me to participate in this year's rebirth.

Last fall, thornless blackberries and raspberries were added, along with the fabled pawpaw tree and dwarf peaches. The pawpaws are just beginning to green out, but the peaches are blooming the prettiest pink blossoms.

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Permaculture Summer

To create your own permaculture summer:

  1. Start with a good variety of fruits, berries and herbs that pretty much take care of themselves year after year.

  2. Add to that background of growth, some tender green leaves (lettuce and spinach will do nicely) and one hungry rabbit.

  3. Voila!  You are back to your permaculture staple of fruits, berries and herbs with no pesky greens to worry about.

This, in a nutshell, is my summer.The herbs bolted and are setting seed now.  The strawberries are producing well but I haven't covered the bed so the birds are beating me to many of the berries.The tower of asparagus is holding up very nicely under the accumulating mass of growth and the asparagus themselves are inexplicably sending up sporadic spears (3 in the pic below).The figs are plentiful and beginning to ripen.  The birds also beat me to the first fig of the year but they don't seem to have seen the one on the other side yet.The blackberries are ripening by the handful daily and the blueberries are plentiful, but stubbornly green.The rabbit problem appears to be solved so now I am just patiently waiting for August when I can plant more greens for fall.

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