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Tag Archives: permaculture

living on a permaculture farm in Hawai’i

26 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in education, travel, Uncategorized

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aquaponics, education, Good Earth Master Gardeners, Hawaii, Oahu, permaculture, photos, PowerPoint, presentation, travel, UH Kapiolani, vermiculture

14053765_1198496703614241_1551307298703060448_o

It’s been quite a while since I have posted here!  But, I had a very eventful year for 2016.  I moved to O’ahu, Hawai’i, and lived on a permaculture farm in Waimanalo.  I also attended culinary courses in Honolulu at UH Kapi’olani by Diamond Head.  The campus is famous for it’s permaculture practices including vermiculture and aquaponics.

skyaboveLast November I made a presentation to the Good Earth Master Gardeners of Washington County, Indiana, about permaculture and my experiences.  The link includes a PowerPoint Presentation and a Photo Slideshow with over 60 photos!

Enjoy!

Dusty

 

 

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and miles to go before I sleep

27 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in travel, Uncategorized

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2015, gardening, permaculture, road, route, sustainabiliity, travel, traveling tUUsome

With change comes the freedom of travel!  I’ll post updates as we go on the permaculture, gardening, and sustainability aspects of our trip.  For our tourism and community visits, you can follow us at traveling tUUsome.

Fall 2015 Route www.travelingtUUsome.com

Fall 2015 Route http://www.travelingtUUsome.com

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transitions coming my way

10 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in blog, Uncategorized

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2015, August, country, expanding, forest garden, gardening, gypsy, knowledge, learning, permaculture, pets, travel

As life changes so often for all, so goes it for me.  Now is a time that I find myself moving on from my little budding forest garden and back into my gypsy life on the road and traveling around our beautiful country.

A determined gardener, I have always, and will yet again, travel with a mini-garden, pets, and an eye for learning and expanding my knowledge of gardening and permaculture.

Launch date is August 19th!  Hope you’ll come along for the ride!

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natives save the garden tour

15 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in blog, in the gardens

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Buddha, edibles, fairy, garden tour, gardening, master gardener, medicinals, perennials, permaculture, permie love, Zen

DSC02852This past week I quickly became known at the ‘native plants/perennials’ girl.  Although my property had 10 daylily, 4 daffodil, and 2 iris beds before I arrived, I’m keeping not only the perennial tradition, but adding edibles and identifying the existing edibles and medicinals among the many native species on the acreage.

But, with spring ending and summer not here yet, most of my bulbs were not blooming for our annual garden tour.  My specialty?  The beautiful woods around me!

That said, there are a few pretties planted, veggies, fruit bearers, and natives.  Enjoy my bounty!

Buddha on limestone outcrop with daylilies
DSC04250 (2)
Devil's Walking Stick behind grapes, ornamental grass, White Fir
DSC04195 (2)
Pawpaw tree
Front garden
Field path
Cactus, succulants fairy garden
Wild violets and Lirope
Pasture
Spiderwort
Field path
Native fern
Zen garden
Mayapples
Wild black raspberries
Butterfly Weed
Burdock
wpid-20150607_213422-1.jpg

 

 

 

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love tip #12: spring wild edibles and medicinals

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in love tips

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Bloodwort, Columbine, Eastern Redbud, edible, forest, gardening, herbal, love tip, medicinal, permaculture, spring, sustainability, Trillium, woods

It is so important to know what is already growing nearby!

I’ve been busy combing my woods lately and I’ve found many new edibles and herbals/medicinals.  These are all early spring/spring bloomers.

Bloodwort/Bloodroot

Bloodwort/Bloodroot

Bloodroot/Bloodwort — (Caution: Bloodroot must be used with extreme caution and under professional care!)  Medicinal uses: mainly for bronchial problems and severe throat infections, pharma uses mixed with other compounds to treat heart problems, treating migraines, and in dental uses.  The paste is used externally for skin diseases/cancer, warts, tumors and ringworms.  The root has many uses as a dye and anesthetic/expectorant.

Trillium

Trillium

Trillium — The young unfolding leaves are edible raw or cooked as a pot herb.  The root has many medicinal uses as an antiseptic, diuretic, and ophthalmic and can be boiled, grated, and/or made into a poultice for external use on the eyes to reduce swelling or to reduce joint aches and inflammation.

 

 

Dragonfly Columbine

Dragonfly Columbine

Columbine — A flower that is both beautiful and edible.  The flowers are high in nectar and therefore can have a hint of sweetness.  The roots are used to stop diarrhea and the flowers and seeds are used for the liver, jaundice, and kidney stones.  Leaves are used for aches and mouth/throat sores as lotions.

 

 

cropped-dsc02317-2.jpg

Eastern Redbud

Eastern Redbud Tree — Another pretty flower that is also edible raw or pickled while also rich in vitamin C; buds can be used as a caper.  The inner bark can be made into a tea creating strong astringent.  Redbuds are also used to treat fevers, diarrhea, dysentery, whooping cough and congestion.

 

Please remember to use home remedies with caution, and to always ensue proper identification.  The information here in no way substitutes professional advice for ailments and/or use of the plants listed!


 

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got my Foundations of Permaculture course!

15 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in education

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course, definition, earth user's guide to permaculture, ecosystem, education, foundations, Midwest Permaculture, Oxford, permaculture, Permaculture Design Certificate, Rob Allsop, Rosemary Morrow, sustainable, training

Earth_Users_Guide1Although I’ve been a permaculture student through reading and application, taking the Foundations of Permaculture course through Midwest Permaculture begins my formal education in the practice–and it just arrived in the mail today!

Midwest PermacultureThis is the first step in getting my Permaculture Design Certificate.  So excited to begin!

 

  • permaculture

    [ ˈpərməˌkəlCHər ]

    NOUN
    the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient.
    Powered by OxfordDictionaries · © Oxford University Press

 

 

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teaching in the spring!

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in Uncategorized

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flowers, forest garden, gardening, Good Earth Master Gardeners, Indiana, Miss Dusty's Impartation, permaculture, Purdue Master Gardener, Salem Homeschool Academy, spring, summer, teaching, vegetables, Washington County

I’ll be teaching a 9-week gardening course in the Spring!  Info for the course is from my teaching blog, Miss Dusty’s Impartation …

Gardening Course (ALL proceeds to charity!)

NEW!!!  With permission from the Purdue Extension Office, I will be teaching this course with all proceeds going to charity!  Fees for the course will be split 50/50 between Salem Homeschool Academy and Good Earth Master Gardeners (a Purdue University Master Gardener Program) of Washington County, Indiana.  So come out and support great local charities while improving on your own green thumb!

Offering Spring 2015!  Explore the basics of gardening and horticulture with a focus on Indiana climates.  Learn plant basics, soils, plant identification, fertilization and composting, propagation, diseases, pests, and how to create gardens, and even forest gardens, while promoting sustainability and permanence.  Students will be able to participate in hands-on learning labs culminating with an end-of-course field trip.

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love tip #6: get your knowledge on

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in love tips

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Alaska, books, forest garden, hugelkultur, insomniac, knowledge, lifestyle, Mother Earth, Nook, permaculture, Peter Bane, Ross Mars, sustainability, The Basics of Permaculture Design, The Permaculture Handbook

As a relative newcomer to permaculture, gaining knowledge for me is a must.  I’ve always been frugal and concerned for Mother Earth, but this is the first time since leaving high school that I actually have the opportunity and intention to put at least five years of work into a set amount of acreage.  And although I plan to spend a year of the next five in Alaska, by setting fruit trees and hugelkultur (mound) gardening up, I can leave my property in the hands of someone else with just the care for perennials and animals once I have my bases established.

The Permaculture Handbook, Peter BaneForever the insomniac, my Nook is always at my bedside and ready for searches for new books and magazines to bring into my library.  One of my favorites is The Permaculture Handbook by Peter Bane.  Published in 2012, it has the knowledge of a permaculture pioneer with modern reflections on legal and other variables affecting modern organic farming and sustainability and forest farming.

My biggest take in the first year of farming my land?  Knowing how to begin and not getting too dedicated to a specific process.  While I of course have big dreams, Bane stresses keeping things close to the property’s existing buildings in the first years so as to keep the work close at hand.  And he says, if things do get left undone, don’t worry.  The seasons and other factors will start and stop projects as you develop, learn, change and grow with the process.

The Basics of Permaculture Design, Ross MarsSo, when you check it out, don’t get sticker shock!  The book is about $35 but it is also over 600 pages of in-depth knowledge from a renowned permaculturist and educator.

A second book in my favorites is The Basics of Permaculture Design by Ross Mars.  Although published earlier (1996), Mars focuses more on basics of sustainability within 160+ page length.

So get to it!  It’s never a better time than today to learn, practice and live the permaculture lifestyle.

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delving into hugelkultur

10 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in Uncategorized

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compost, easy steps, garbage, gardening, hugelkultur, kitchen compost, manure, Mother Nature, permaculture, plantable, recycle, shredded newspaper, soil, spring, zero waste

***Update July 2014!  The ugly box to this beautiful hugelkultur planter!  The soil has sunken about 18″.  I plan to add my summer compost, a layer of soil and then top with straw for the winter.  I also have to reinforce the sides.  I get about five huge cucumbers a week from these 3 plants and there really are strawberry plants in there also (peeking out the slats.)  I trim the leaves about once a week but the growth is insane.  ALL ORGANIC, NO PESTICIDES OF ANY KIND, not even ‘organically approved’ pest repellants.  There are red ants that I have to fight with on one corner and a few chewed leaves, but nothing that has affected production.

one of the many cucumbers
one of the many cucumbers
Cucumbers with strawberries
Cucumbers with strawberries

Original post:

The minute I read about hugelkultur gardening, I knew that I had the perfect location ready and waiting to be developed.

When we moved to our home last year we decided to get as close to zero waste as possible.  The first step was finding out the recycling rules for our county and not setting up regular garbage pickup, thus forcing us to get back into the strong habit of analyzing every bit of product packaging coming into our home.

'recycled' garbage bin with the first hugelkultur layers

‘recycled’ garbage can bin with the first hugelkultur layers

For us, this meant that the ready-built garbage can bin no longer had a job.  We took the plastic trash cans and placed them in our sunroom with liners to collect plastic and cardboard recycling, leaving the outside bin empty and a bit of an eyesore.

But, being ever the gardener, I hoped to find a way grow vines around it without it collapsing in, and although most often in an open mound, the hugelkultur became the perfect solution.  And with spring looming, I had to get on the job so that the mound will have the requisite two months to settle before planting.

6 easy steps

step 1, a layer of logs and branches topped with leaf layer

step 1, a layer of logs and fallen branches topped with leaves

step 2, shredded newspaper added to rough compost

step 2, shredded newspaper added to rough compost (an easy way to double compost)

step 3, bin to barrow

step 3, bin to barrow

step 4, adding the compost layer with an extra layer of flat newspaper to disparage the racoons

step 4, compost layer with an extra layer of flat newspaper to disparage the raccoons

step 5, final leaf layer

step 5, final leaf layer

step 6, adding a soil layer

step 6, adding a soil layer (straw can be added to help hold the soil on open mounds)

While the steps can vary, I chose to use my winter kitchen scraps as compost and leaves from last fall that had already begun breaking down.  Another option is manure with–or instead of–compost or soil, whatever is readily available to you.

The key is to place larger items like logs on the bottom with smaller, plantable soil on top and after relatively little work, you are composting without the need to flip and turn and worry about temperatures.  Mother Nature will do all the work for you, and you get to grow crops during the process!

Promises to update with pictures at planting time!  Maybe clematis and strawberries?

Now, where am I going to put the asparagus …

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permaculture vs. master gardener

15 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Dusty Lynn Baker in Environmental relations, Uncategorized

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barriers, beneficial weeds, chemical, deer, exclusion, GMOs, insecticides, master gardener, nuisance, permaculture, permaculture vs. master gardener, rabbits, trapping, wildlife

Just … why?  I still don’t get the permaculture world vs. the master gardener world hate-thing going on around me.  I understand that master gardeners are trained in the use of chemical insecticides, but I also know from attending trainings that for both insect and wildlife nuisance, exclusion is always the number one choice.  Plus, no one is standing over me in my classes saying, “Hey you, you must use these chemicals!”  It’s insane.

So what does exclusion mean?  It means that if you don’t want deer eating your tulips, don’t plant tulips!  And if you don’t want rabbits in your veggies, plant hot pepper plants as barriers.  No, they don’t always work, but then nothing does.  Even trapping and killing only lasts until the next creature comes along.

Tulip Tree

Maybe it’s because I’m in a very rural county and our little class of nine students understands the value of saving nature and saving money all as one?  I’m not sure.  What I do know is that this fight is only hurting those unwilling to learn.  I know for certain that I’m not the only one in my course that sees “weeds” as beneficial foods and medicines.  It’s been open discussion in our classes!

I mean really, do you support every single thing you’ve ever been taught?  One of our instructors supported GMOs, that doesn’t mean that I have to.  And even though I don’t agree with some of her beliefs, I still gained some great in-depth knowledge on plant science from her.

Time to share some love people!

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