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Category: Design

Permaculture garden design principles and ideas

Chickweed

I have chickweed (Stellaria media) going beserk in my garden right now. It is edible – lots of vitamins and minerals and not too bad an addition to a salad. But that uses at most a cupful, and I have a wheelbarrowful. But for those of you with chickens, look out for this herb. It’s a low growing tangle of stems with bright green soft-crisp leaves and tiny white flowers,…

Hubble Bubble

If I can get the micronutrient level nice and high and balanced early enough, I will give the garden plants enough immunity and the predators enough of a head start to avoid most of the spring and summer bugs.

Making Compost with Azolla

The dam is full of azolla – a little water weed that I encourage because it is symbiotic with a nitrogen fixing bacteria. Like legumes, it can grab nitrogen out of the air and stabilize it in a form that feeds soil and plants that are not so handily endowed with an in-built fertilizer factory.