Subject: Replies:

From: "Emily St.Clair -olive-" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 06:49:02 -0800 (PST)

Thank you everyone for replying, i will surely consider everyone's
advice.

I have gotten alot of good advice, and i think I have more to go on now:

-From John:

>I edit the Pc Directory - Tell me where you live & >I'll
>give you info 
>on what Pc folks live near you... 

I live in southern Ohio, one hour south-east of Cincinnati. 

-From Jeff:

>"double-digging", which is an intensive way of raising >up a bed, and
>makes esp. root crops very happy.

yes, i read about this in the book i have, and have considered this,
although i will have to probably do more research, and see if my
parents have the tools specified.

>mulch/"lasagna" beds, putting newspaper and mulch >where you want your
>beds, planting into small holes and furrows (great for >tomatoes,
>peppers, except you might wait till the soil is pretty >warmed up) and
>building up beds by mulching each year.

this i can probably do, since my parents already use plenty of
newspaper for tomatoes. This past year, my parents got the garden
planted really late because it was very rainy, will this have any
effect on the yeild of the crops?

>The permaculture part comes in the design, knowing >where the sun, the
>wind, your water supply, where you'll be the most, >etc, and using
those
>and inter-relationships among the plants to design >your garden.

I will have to learn more about this too.

-From Victoria:

>Where do you live?  What kind of soil will you be >working with?

Southern Ohio, the soil is good, so my dad says, they have been using
this garden for about 18 years, and the soil in the beginning was
clayey, but it is now good.

>I have had excellent success creating raised beds >using Mollison's
>sheet 
>mulching technique.

i will have to see if i can find some information about this.

-From Loren:

>Would you object to using things like animal manures >in your compost? 
>I compost with fair quantities of horse manure, which >the local
>stables are happy to let me haul away at no charge.  >There are
>alternatives, mostly involving things like grass >clippings and clover
>and alfalfa meal to get your nitrogen for the compost, >if you don't
>want to use animal manures.

I could nmaybe have access to horse manure, but i am not sure. Someone
also said that i could just buy compost from gardening stores, if i do
not have enough for this season.

>Applying Permaculture principles to a small garden is >challenging. 
>You can do things like companion plant, succession >plant (grow clover
>in your garden beds now, then turn it under in the >spring for nitrogen
>before you plant the next thing), and create or take >advantage of
>microclimates of sun and shadow to grow things that >need either heat
>or coolth.

Yes, and i should find more info on that, but maybe the clover thing
could be done...

-From Mark:

>I gather you won't have
>much time to
>invest in this space this year.  For this reason most >typical veggies
>will fail to
>thrive due to weeds. 

My parents have been growing plenty of vegetables for 18 years, so
there is no problem with growing anything, i just want to use
permaculture techniques with my space from now on. I want to try, that
is the least i can do.

Well, i will be posting more, and still give suggestions, PLEASE!

Thank You everyone!!!

...olive :) (Emily)

http://members.tripod.com/environmentwl

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