No More Toxic Lawns!

Before you do anything to your lawn this year, please read the great Paul Wheaton's article on Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy. 

http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp

Replacing grass with a perennial such as chamomile, thyme, moss, or clover is another way to keep a lovely, organic lawn. Replacing grass with a perennial and annual food growing system would be even more incredible. Whatever you do, please DO NOT use synthetic fertilizers, or especially herbicides and pesticides on your lawn. These nasty chemicals are deadly to the already threatened bees and beneficial insects, and they leach into our waterways.

From Paul's article: 

Lawn care in a nutshell:

Must do:
• Set your mower as high as it will go (3 to 4 inches).
• Water only when your grass shows signs of drought stress and then water deeply (put a cup in your sprinkler zone and make sure it gets at least an inch of water).
Optional:
• Fertilize with an organic fertilizer in the fall and spring. I recommend the Ringer brand.
• Have the pH of your soil professionally tested. Add lime if it is below 6.0 and gardener's sulfur if it is above 7.0.
• How much top soil do you have? See how deep a shovel will go into the soil. How deep can you dig a hole in one minute? Four inches of topsoil will make for an okay lawn. Eight or more inches of topsoil will make for a great lawn.

Nameko Mushroom Companion Plant Discovery

On Radical Mycology, there is an interesting post regarding a discovery Pat Rasmussen with Edible Forest Gardens in Olympia, WA made using Nameko mushrooms. The Viking Aronias that were next to Nameko mushrooms grew over twice as much with just a 2 week head start. She found similar results with grapes. Aronia Berry is similar to Blueberry so I assume they would love Namekos as well. (And my fungi wish list grows yet again.) Granted this is not a controlled study, I think it's definitely worth investigating further. There is interesting information in the article about Oyster mushrooms and Brassicas too. The short video features Pat comparing the results in two properties she converted from energy and labor intensive lawns to beautiful edible landscapes. 

What other combinations of fungi and plants help each other grow best?

2014 Planting List

2014 is the year of the food forest at Green Goddess Farm! 

Below is a list of the plants we are putting in at the farm this season (so far!):

Trees 

Black Oxford Apple on Antonovka standard stock

Canadian Strawberry Apple on Antonovka standard stock

2 Coxs Orange Pippin Apple on Antonovka standard stock

Yellow Delicious Apple on semi-dwarfing stock (for espalier)

Red Delicious Apple on semi-dwarfing stock (for espalier)

Early Golden Apricot

Methley Plum

Comptesse Clara Frijs Pear   

Oriental Pear on dwarf stock (for espalier)

Kaspars Winter Pear

Bartlett Pear on dwarf stock(for espalier)

BlackGold Sweet Cherry

WhiteGold Sweet Cherry

Black Tartarian Cherry on dwarf stock (for espalier)

Nanking Cherry

Red Maple 

10 Flowering Trees (Dogwoods, Crabapple, Hawthorn)

Shrubs

Siberian Pea Tree (Caragana arborescens)

Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) for living fences

Bluecrop Highbush Blueberry

Reka Highbush Blueberry

Heritage Everbearing Raspberry

2 Blackhaw Viburnum

2 Forsythia 

Vines

Catawba Grape Vine 

Concord Grape Vine 

Morning Glories 

Vegetables

Carrot Danvers 126

Carrot Nantes

Carrot Imperator

Carrot Red Cored Chantenay

Cabbage All Seasons

Cauliflower Snowball Y

Broccoli Waltham 29

Broccoli Green Sprouting Calabrese

Broccoli De Cicco 

Brussels Sprouts Churchill

Brussels Sprouts Long Island

Celery Utah Tall

Corn Fishers Earliest (Zea mays) 

Corn Sweet Luscious Hybrid

Corn Early Choice

Cucumber Boston Pickling

Cucumber Wisconsin Pickling

Cucumber Tendergreen

Beans Taylor Dwarf

Beans Windsor Fava

Beans Provider Bush

Beans Burpee's Stringless Green Pod

Peas Sugar Ann Snap

Peas Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow

Peas Progress

Onion Walla Walla Sweet (Allium cepa)

Onion Parade Bunching

Onion Red Burgundy

Garlic

Summer Squash (Early Summer Crookneck)

Tomato Roma

Tomato Beefsteak

Tomato Sweet Large Red Cherry

Pepper Carnival Mix (Orange Sun, California Wonder, Golden California Wonder, Purple Beauty & Diamond)

Pepper Big Dipper

Pepper Sweet Banana

Pepper Cayenne

Barley

Watermelon Sugar Baby

Greens

Lettuce Romaine

Lettuce Forellenschluss

Lettuce Rouge d'Hiver

Lettuce Matchless

Lettuce Nevada

Kale Dinosaur Lacinato

Kale White Russian

Kale Red Russian

Kale True Siberian

Spinach Bloomsdale Long Standing

Spinach Baby's Leaf

Spinach ?? 

Mustard Tendergreens

Mustard Red Giant

Mesclun Mix (Arugula, Cress, Endive, Radicchio, Lettuce Salad Bowl, Lettuce Oakleaf & Lettuce Red Salad Bowl)

Herbs/Flowers (perennial & annual)

Comfrey Russian

Comfrey True (Symphytum officinale var patens)

Clover Crimson (Trifolium incarnatum)

Dill Mammoth

Skullcap Official (Scutellaria lateriflora)

Astragalus

Holy Basil (Kapoor Tulsi)

Basil Greek Yevani

Basil Sweet 

Borage

Gobo Burdock

Mixed Calendula

Catnip Wild

German Chamomile

Chives Common

Echinacea purpurea

Elecampane

Evening Primrose

Brown Flax

Hollyhock The Watchman

Lavender Munstead

Lemon Balm

Lupine Tutti Frutti Mix

Marshmallow

Nasturtiums 

Oregano Common

Official Motherwort

Poppy Hungarian Blue

Stinging Nettles

Salvia

Garden Sage

Sunflower Evening Sun

Sunflower Mammoth Russian Greystripe

Sunflower Lemon Queen 

Official Valerian

Wood Betony

Yarrow

We already have a couple sour cherry trees, 6 different blueberry bushes, lots of oaks, maples (including 2 Japanese), crabapple, lilacs, a tiny forsythia, blackberries, and many herbs and perennials (lavender, thyme, oregano, mullien, wormwood, lupines, columbines, queen anne's lace, blackeyed susans, echinacea, tansy, hostas, beebalm, day lilies, etc) planted from the 9 years we have lived here. 

Next year we will be adding Pawpaw, Sea Buckthorn, Hardy Kiwi, Saskatoon Serviceberry, American and European Elderberry, Peaches, and Beach Plums, amongst others. 

So, anyone want to come lend a hand getting hugelkultur and contour beds built to plant all this?!?