Designbright.Permaculture

Chop and drop this time of year allows for new growth, protects the pollinators and retains soil integrity and nutrients.

Developing perennial gardens is a long term solution to soil heath and thriving ecosystem.

A gentle reminder as the spring days are getting warm, and we are feeling restless after a long winter and perhaps more than a bit excited to get started working in our gardens. In short; leaves the leaves in place, don’t cut dead stems back too short, when pruning or cutting stems leave them in the garden for nutrients (called “chop & drop”), and avoid stepping in beds to avoid soil compaction and harming friends living near the soil surface. Here is a link to a great article that expands on what to do (and not to do) to support all those in our ecosystem! https://www.inournature.ca/spring-cleanup-done-right

This Sunday we spent some time building up a new garden bed that has been in the works since fall last year.

The foundation of this bed is a Hügelculture raised garden bed.

We started the first layer taking shape with branches, logs and twigs. Adding layers of mulch and rustic garden waste and grass clippings.

The top layer shown here has a layer of comfrey leaves topped with dirt created from our wood waste pile over the last 5 years.

This process for this new addition to the garden has been intentionally slow.

The shape and form of the bed has been built up to avoid the water and gas service lines that come from the street in front of our home.

The crescent shape of the bed widened an existing area of planted apple trees, saskatoon bushes, comfrey and yarrow. Creating a terrace and widening the depth of the bed to increase the surface area available for growing. In time, the mature plantings will create privacy from the street and a beautiful place to hang out!

This entire bed was created from materials sourced from our property.

Today during Session 2 of a 7 Session series, we explored our food sources and how they can fuel us.

We explored a few pockets of High River with the interactive Edible Plant App, checked on some ripening Saskatoon bushes and identified many local growers, farmers and meat producers.

In our skills lab we had fun working together to make sauerkraut, sampled some sprouted Mung Beans.

There are still spots available for Session 2 in our social permaculture 7 session series. Food Systems & How They Fuel Us is this Saturday starting at 10:00am.

Register online with the link below, or in person at 601 1st Street SW, High River (unit 5)

Session 2: Zone 0 - Food Systems & How They Fuel Us | shop.designbright.marketplace June 24, 202310:00 am to 1:00pmCreating Awareness Around Our Local Food SystemsSkills Lab: Capture and StoreDoes eating well, consuming mostly whole foods and eating closerto nature seem unrealistic, expensive and generally hard? It only seems this way because we have grown so far away from our food...

The dandelion is the only flower that represents the the sun, moon and stars. ☀️ 🌙 ⭐️.

The yellow flower resembles the sun, the puff ball resembles the moon, and the dispersing seeds resemble the stars. The dandelion flower opens to greet the morning and closes in the evening to go to sleep.
Every part of the dandelion is useful: root, leaves, flower. It can be used for food, medicine and dye for coloring.
Up until the 1800s people would pull grass out of their lawns to make room for dandelions and other useful “weeds” like chickweed, malva, and chamomile. The name dandelion is taken from the French word “dent de lion” meaning lion’s tooth and they have one of the longest flowering seasons of any flower. Seeds are often carried as many as 5 miles from their origin. Animals such as birds, insects and butterflies consume nectar or seed of dandelion 🐝
Dandelion flowers do not need to be pollinated to form seed. They were well known to ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and have been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over a thousand years. Dandelion is used in folk medicine to treat infections and liver disorders. Tea made of dandelion act as diuretic.
Dandelions are, quite possibly, the most successful plants that exist, masters of survival worldwide.
Every year countries spend millions on lawn pesticides to have uniform lawns of non-native grasses, and we use 30% of the country’s water supply to keep them green. AND... they cause cancer cells to "commit su***de": https://returntonow.net/2023/03/21/dandelion-weeds-kill-cancer-cells-leave-healthy-cells-intact/