I’m revamping Appalachian Feet right now so if it looks odd, that’s why. New look & content, coming soon!

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This summer our daughter Rain decided to raise the tamest Easter Egger hens and sell them once they were close to laying age. She is selling them for the excellent price of $20.00 each. They are now large and feathered enough to be housed in outdoor coops but young enough they haven’t started laying yet. They will start laying sometime between fall and spring (most likely in the spring when the days start to lengthen… most chickens don’t lay well in the winter, anyway). They are nearly full grown but will get a little larger (so you will know for sure you aren’t buying 8 year old adults that are past their laying age).

Scroll down for more info about Rain’s lovely chickens, or just click on these thumbnails to be taken to Square Market for purchasing:

Brown and Orange Easter Egger Chickens, $20.00, CLICK ON PHOTO TO PURCHASE

White Easter Egger Chickens, $20.00, CLICK ON PHOTO TO PURCHASE

Mostly Orange Easter Egger Chickens $20.00, CLICK ON PHOTO TO PURCHASE

Rain acquired these chicks at the day-old stage (sexed as all females, though we did wait until they were old enough to identify any accidental roosters and discovered one male that we already found a home for). Once they outgrew the chicks-in-a-baby-pool stage we moved them to a coop & outdoor pen on a friend’s farm in Pelzer, SC. They have never been overcrowded and are incredibly cheerful, healthy birds. They are friendly enough to jump into laps if they think they’ll get a treat. Some of them will perch on your arm or shoulder and all of them will eat out of your hand. Even if you aren’t interested in pet hens, it is very useful to have tame chickens when you have need to catch them for wing clipping, relocating, medication, etc. Tame chickens also have fewer and less violent arguments when establishing their “pecking order.”

Photo Caption: Rain holding one of the Easter Eggers we kept. The rest were transferred to our friend’s private farm so they wouldn’t be crowded.

They are clever foragers for free range birds, though you may need to clip their wings if you want them to stay in a low-fenced pen.

If you are new to chicken keeping it is very easy to get started and they take about as much time and effort as a pet cat. Here’s a great link on getting started with chickens. This website has the best forums on the subject, too:

Backyard Chickens.com “How to Get Started Keeping Chickens”

The most important thing is to build or buy a predator-proof coop and to make sure you have enough room per bird — chicken health is almost entirely related to them not being crowded or subject to predation. The only reason we ever hear of for people failing at keeping chickens is they don’t make sure their coops are raccoon & dog proof. This is an excellent link detailing how to keep your chickens safe from predators; I particularly second the advice on using 1/4th inch hardware cloth and burying it alongside the run. Our coop has a temporary run so if the chickens get up in the morning earlier than us, they can forage a bit before we let them out to free range. I am excited to learn about this electronic poultry door, too – it would be very convenient. Another great chicken product is the Avian Aqua Miser waterer… our chickens use them with ease and we never deal with poopy water or spillage. However, for the most part you need a good coop, chicken food, and a source of water.

Photo Caption: Nathaniel hanging out with the chicks when they were about 4 weeks old. They are tame enough to act like a pet parrot.

Again, Rain is selling them for $20.00 each and they come in a wide range of colors even though they are the same breed. We have the most of brown & orange colored birds but there are some other options. Each hen has its own, unique pattern. CLICK HERE to purchase your birds. Once you have paid we will use the contact info you provide to set up a meeting place. You can come to the farm to pick them out yourself or have us pick them and deliver them to you — if you live far away you will need to do the bulk of the driving.

CLICK HERE to be taken to our Square Market store to purchase chickens from Rain. Scroll down until you see the 3 types of chickens available. They are first come, first served. Payment is required to reserve your birds.

The post How to Buy Tame, Hand-Fed Easter Egger Hens from Our Daughter appeared first on Appalachian Feet.

This Saturday Eliza is going to be showing a small group of people how to install a permaculture garden by actually doing it — the best way to learn! If you prefer to learn hands-on, this class is going to cover a myriad of permaculture techniques and design elements. Even better is that in the process, we’ll be putting in a community garden that will benefit Greenville’s West End Village surrounding its location at The Wheel on Pendleton Street. Space is limited and tickets have been selling rapidly this week. The class is split into 2 parts but is best taken together as a full day class.

Come break ground on a fantastic new public garden and learn how to design your own in the process!

• Building a Permaculture Garden Part 1 Saturday March 14, 2015 9:00am – 1:00pm, Location: The Wheel in the West End Arts Village, 1288 Pendleton Street in downtown Greenville, PRICE: $35.00, click for details
• Building a Permaculture Garden Part 2 Saturday March 14, 2015 2:00pm – 6:00pm, Location: The Wheel, PRICE: $35.00, click for details

Photo Caption: An A-frame is a helpful tool for finding contour in permaculture designs.

Other classes this month:

• Designing a Sustainable Garden Tuesday March 10, 2015 6:15pm – 8:00pm, Location: The Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery (this is one of the last 2014 lecture series sold through the Swamp Rabbit Cafe), PRICE: $15.00, click for details
• Perennial Fruits and Vegetables for the Southeast Thursday March 12, 2015 6:15pm – 8:00pm, Location: The Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery (this is the last of the 2014 lecture series sold through the Swamp Rabbit Cafe), PRICE: $15.00, click for details
• Creating Garden Structures from Bamboo Sunday March 22, 2015 1:30pm – 5:30pm, Location: The Wheel, PRICE: $55.00, click for details
• Permaculture Water Catchment for Backyards Sunday March 29, 2015 1:30pm – 5:30pm, Location: The Wheel, PRICE: $35.00, click for details (this class was originally scheduled for February but changed due to inclement weather)

FYI, we haven’t forgotten the handouts from the SC Organic Growing Conference — shockingly enough, things get hectic for gardeners when spring hits. It’s coming soon and we’ll let you know when it goes up!

The post How to Build a Permaculture Garden Class, Part 1 & 2 appeared first on Appalachian Feet.

I taught two classes at last Saturday’s SC Organic Growing Conference — one on farmscaping and the other on southern passalong plants for permaculturists. I promised everyone to put the handouts online, which is still on my todo list. Being me, I got sidetracked reading some new studies and expanding my farmscaping spreadsheet so the official blog post with the handout will likely go up next week. In the meantime, here’s some links to relevant blog posts I’ve written with similar information:

• http://www.appalachianfeet.com/2013/03/03/how-to-identify-pests-and-control-them-naturally-with-beneficial-bugs-trap-crops-and-more/
• http://www.appalachianfeet.com/2012/02/11/how-to-find-unusual-vegetables-fruits-for-zone-7b/

I promise the other info, including handouts for Nathaniel’s 2 classes, will be up soon and I’ll send an email newsletter to let everyone know.

Here’s a pic of the Appalachian Feet Mountain Arts booth from the conference. We were handing out flyers for our classes.

Photo Caption: We’re especially pleased with the new poster and Rayna’s chalk marker board (she’s planning to use it for selling mushrooms).

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It’s here. The garden classes are in gardens, the cooking classes are in kitchens, the nature study is in forests, the raspberries taste like raspberries, and the snozzberries taste like snozzberries!

Photo Caption: My daughter and I inside the Hagood Mill cabin where I’ll be teaching sometimes.

I worked for weeks on the lesson plans for these hands-on classes, workshops, and tours and am so excited to finally roll them out. Click here for my entire 2015 schedule.

One of my favorite things about this year’s new classes is that some of them are going to be held inside of this adorable, late 1800s cabin at the Hagood Mill. The cabin will likely be too hot during the summer months, but when it is cool we’ll be traveling back in time as we do crafts on the porch or make food by the fire. When it is hot we’ll be indoors in the more modern facilities or outside in a shady spot by the creek.

Photo Caption: After your class, be sure to check out the old mill, ancient Native American petroglyphs, and other attractions. You can even pick up some on-site stone ground grits from the museum shop!

Don’t miss my first class this season, Permaculture Water Catchment for Backyards, on February 22nd. It’s a timely way to start the gardening season since we’ll actually be putting in a garden from scratch. Students will learn permaculture techniques for catching rainwater without purchasing any materials such as hugelkultur, swales, and vernal ponds. If you want to have a great spring garden this year then this class will set you up with the confidence to design and implement it. Plus, you’ll save a chunk of change and time on irrigation!

Photo Caption: This is the start to some hugelkultur (hill culture) beds that we did in our yard. Although piling soil on top of wood is simple in concept, it ends up having some nuances required for success that will be passed along in the permaculture water catchment class.

Most of the gardening classes for 2015 will be held at the creative rental space The Wheel in downtown’s Village of West Greenville. All the hands-on work done in these classes will result in a full-scale permaculture community garden for the village neighborhood and businesses.

Photo Caption: The cheapest way to store rainwater is in the ground, and that includes ponds and rain gardens.

Some of the garden classes this year have more focused topics than others, but all of them will deal with how to grow edible and ornamental plants successfully in the southeast. Additionally, all classes taught through Appalachian Feet Mountain Arts will follow permaculture principles and ethics. Beginners to permaculture may be interested in the thorough Building a Permaculture Garden Part 1 and Part 2 courses on March 14th.

Photo Caption: Harvests like this become the norm in a well-designed permaculture garden.

If what you need are classes on the details of a garden, there are plenty of topics to choose from. Support your plants and build shaded seating areas with Creating Garden Structures from Bamboo in March. Once you’ve built all your attractive bamboo arbors and trellises, April’s Growing a Small Space Intensive Food Garden will help you cover them.

Intensive space gardening is just the thing if you want to create authentic Old-Timey Kitchen Gardens like the one students will get to install at the Hagood Mill. We’ll be using permaculture techniques here, too — only we’ll learn how to hide these elements for the sake of aesthetics (and historical accuracy).

Photo Caption: With permaculture garden classes you’ll learn how to layer different sized species into the same area for maximum production and how to improve your soil so plants can be spaced closer together.

Once we’ve gardened all that yummy food into existence, we’ll need to know what to do with it. Instead of doing lectures at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery (though there are still two available in March from last season’s schedule), we’ll be stepping into the upstairs kitchen and conjuring up yummy treats! Everything from experimenting with rare ingredients (think chanterelles and pawpaws) to beer brewing will be taught to curious cooks.

How about Wild Fermentation 101 where you’ll get to make probiotic foods like sauerkraut and crock pickles? There’s also not only one Cooking with Local Morels class (yes, with upstate SC morel mushrooms), but two Cooking with Local Morels classes! Different dishes will be cooked in each class.

Photo Caption: Instead of being lectured about various foods, we’re going to get right into the kitchen to make and taste them!

If you want to learn to fish instead of having it handed to you, how about the Learn to Forage for Wild Food class hike in Clemson? There’s no better way to learn what is safe to eat than to go with a pro and see what is in season.

Photo Caption: Where’s the best place to learn foraging? Outside in nature, of course!

Speaking of guided walks, we have a handful of guided tours scheduled at our urban farm this year. The first one is in April and the rest are scattered throughout the growing season. You’ll get to look at and taste test different things in the spring, summer, and fall.

These are the classes coming up soon, but we’ve barely scratched the surface. Make sure to check out the full schedule so you don’t miss anything.

As an FYI, we decided to remove the former cancellation policy for classes since it doesn’t appear that people abuse it often. If you need to cancel you’ll get a full refund, but please be considerate and let us know as soon as you find out you aren’t available so we can try to resell the spot.

Who else can’t wait for spring? Happy gardening, all!

The post How to Attend Hands-On Classes in Gardens, Kitchens, Forests, and Even a Late 1800’s Cabin appeared first on Appalachian Feet.

When I founded the SC Upstate Permaculture Society I had no idea we’d be this popular, but we’re up to 644 members with multiple people joining each week. If you live in upstate South Carolina (or nearby) we welcome you to join us. Last October we broke ground on a huge new garden that is already stacking functions by being outreach to the community, an educational opportunity for school children, a seed & plant bank for SCUPS members, a wildlife corridor (especially for the endangered Monarch butterfly), a form of erosion control, a place for SCUPS members to practice permaculture, and a source of fresh food.

We’re calling it “Your Garden.”

Photo Caption: “What are you doing? Permaculture?” This is the eastern phoebe that follows me around in my home garden – which happens to be next door to the public demo garden. It didn’t take him (or her?) long to find me working in a new location. I really am as close to him as the photo appears.

It’s also going to be a bird sanctuary as we add native berry shrubs, insect habitat, bird houses, and bird feeders. I’ve recently written about some of our birding plans in this SCUPS blog post.

So far we’ve only had four member work days and there’s already a significant, “wow!” factor to the before and after photos, which you get to see after the jump:

Photo Caption: The photo on the left shows one section of the garden back in October when it was full of scrubby weeds and debris (plus a sterile strip of bare soil where herbicides were repeatedly sprayed). On the right you can see the beginnings of a food forest fedge (food hedge) with perennial fruit, nut, and flowering plants and mulched soil remediation. The green landscaping tape barely visible in the photo marks all the new plantings.

Before we started removing unwanted plants, I crawled through the dense jungle of brush and tied landscaping tape to particularly valuable species like mulberries, hickories, trifoliate oranges, black cherry, redbuds, 3 tea olives, and mature black locusts (which fix nitrogen and will act as scaffolding for heavy edible vines like muscadines and hardy kiwi). We then removed the tangle of less productive plants and replaced them with three mini swales and a cornucopia of delicious and useful plants. You can read even more about that at Sara Harding’s SCUPS blog post on the subject.

Truly, I cannot wait for spring to allow all the great plants we’ve put in to show their faces. Even better will be the results in three or more years of growth. Right now it’s harder to visualize the abundance and beauty that is to come.

Photo Caption: All the plants at the demo garden so far were found or donated from members. Back when the initial design was being made, we didn’t know which plants to design in so I drew a quick guess at what the fedge might look like over time. Fedges are deliberately crowded — even though no one specimen will reach its peak performance, there is a greater overall harvest and more robust health.

We’ve tried to keep everything low-maintenance and fitted to the existing landscape. We knew a fedge would grow well where we designed it since it was already full of plants with similar growing patterns and needs. All we had to do was replace the less useful species with mostly edible ones!

Photo Caption: English ivy is one of the less useful species already present in our garden space. We’re removing it except in one section where it acts as an evergreen screen for the neighbors. As if to validate this decision, our eastern phoebe friend plucked a berry and ate it in front of me.

Though English ivy is a popular ornamental, it doesn’t play well with others. One of our current projects is removing it from the fedge and meadow areas of the design.

Photo Caption: We pulled the English ivy from the ground and pruned it halfway up the neighboring fence to make it more manageable. Since this spot is located on top of a tall retaining wall, we chose it as the location to allow the ivy to die from exposure before we compost it into lovely soil. We piled weed tree branches we’d pruned into a bier (shown above) and then laid the ivy to rest on top of it. The branches will prevent the dying ivy from touching the ground and re-rooting itself. Once dead, we’ll hide it under the mulch as biomass.

Pruning the ivy partway up the fence makes it easier to control on top of the retaining wall. Since it is a dry, south-facing terrace that drains well, our goal is to plant it with xeriscape species like agave, yucca, and prickly pear cactus. We definitely want to make sure the ivy is dead first since it is challenging to weed around spiny succulents.

Photo Caption: This ground-level view of the ivy bier on top of the retaining wall shows how it is less visible from the parking area. Even though permaculture is more focused on ecosystems than aesthetics, we are trying to conform to social landscape norms wherever possible to keep the neighborhood happy.

We also may plant some trailing sedums and hens & chicks at the front of the wall so they drape down and soften the edges.

Photo Caption: We discovered 3 silverthorn shrubs with nearly ripe, edible fruit under the English ivy on top of the retaining wall.

Every time we work on this garden we discover even more useful plants that are already present on the site. This time it was three Elaeagnus pungens, or silverthorn shrubs. These nitrogen fixers are closely related to goumis and perfect for improving the soil in a difficult area of the design. Between a nearby thirsty oak tree and the high position & drainage, the soil on top of the retaining wall needs a lot of work. Best of all, these plants are already loaded with ripening berries that are tart and delicious.

Another great use for these berries is distracting birds from the plants we most want to eat. I wonder if our eastern phoebe friend likes silverthorn berries in between his larger diet of insects. Here he is visiting me in the garden, the video is split in 2 parts:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo Caption: Mr. Phoebe could be a Ms. – it’s very hard to tell the sexes apart with eastern phoebes. Here he is again sitting on the fence at the top of the retaining wall. I think he was hoping I’d dig and uncover some juicy grubs instead of pull vines.

The eastern phoebe wasn’t the only visitor. While I was pulling ivy off of the silverthorn shrubs, this mockingbird showed up to check out my progress:

Photo Caption: Mockingbirds are almost as friendly as eastern phoebes in the garden.

We hope to include interpretive signage about the area bird species for the schoolchildren and neighbors to learn from.

Photo Caption: Another find were 2 eastern red cedars.

In addition to the silverthorns, we also uncovered some eastern red cedars. Since there are already plenty of cedars in the neighborhood we plan to leave them as erosion control, evergreen interest, wildlife habitat, rot-resistant wood, and a source of edible juniper berries at the top of the slope. Eastern red cedar trees are a host for cedar apple rust, but since this airborne disease travels for miles, there is no real point in removing this lovely native.

Photo Caption: A boon that most people overlook under old oaks are the rotting branches that fall. These are perfect for hugelkultur!

We also found lots of rotting logs on top of the retaining wall that we arranged to help improve the soil in that area. The giant oak tree towering to the north of the slope doesn’t shade the garden much, but it does rain down some quality biomass that we can use to improve the soil with organic matter.

Speaking of biomass, just as we were finishing the day’s work we were visited by the school principal. She’s delighted with our progress and asked about the wildflowers and strawberries portion of the design — she’d like for us to plant wildflowers in even more places around the school! There are a few good open areas near the front of the school that would be delightful planted in masses of beneficial insect attracting wildflowers. Here’s a slideshow of the areas with the most potential:

Finally, this post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the most unusual visitor for this week’s Tuesday work day. Like Mary, Sara brought her week-old lamb to school so he could follow her everywhere she went (in a diaper… DAWWWW). He’s too young to be left alone and requires frequent feedings, so the only way she can get out at the moment is with an extra “child” in tow (too bad he isn’t a goat or we could call him an additional kid… har har). Behold the cuteness:

Photo Caption: Ivan is a week-old ram abandoned by his mama sheep. He’s getting exemplary care in his new home.

If you’re interested in becoming part of SCUPS so that this garden can be YOUR garden, it’s free and open to beginners. Click here to join. We have members from all over South Carolina and even a handful in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. Most of our events occur in upstate SC.

The post Update: Public Permaculture Demo Garden Progress appeared first on Appalachian Feet.

Eliza was on TV Wednesday doing a foraging recipe demonstration (involving a failed attempt to use a hammer) and talking about a couple things happening this weekend with Grow Journey and the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery’s Holiday Flea Market on Saturday from 11am – 3pm.  If you’d like to see Eliza’s segment during Wednesday’s Studio 62 on the CW channel, here’s the video (may not load immediately):

The holiday flea is free to attend and there will be local vendors from all over the upstate. Eliza and Nathaniel will be at the Grow Journey booth selling variety seed packets and gift subscriptions from their fantastic organic & heirloom seed-of-the-month club, complete with expert assistance to make sure your thumb turns green.

Photo Caption: ‘Spirit of Freedom’ is a David Austin rose that does well grown organically. It has great form, scent, and disease resistance.

As we say goodbye to 2014, we decided to compile a collection of our favorite “How To” articles to date. These include fantastic plants, innovative growing techniques, and efficient gardening hacks that make a garden shine. We hope they inspire your winter garden daydreams:

Gardening:

• How to Manage a Winter Garden
• How to Build an Inexpensive Coldframe in Under 30 Minutes with No Tools
• How to Keep Squirrels Off Your New Seedlings
• How to Admit When Your Garden Looks Ugly (and Feel Proud)
• How to Save Tomato Seeds (and Oddball Varieties)
• How to Use Snow to Locate Microclimates
• How to Choose from Garden Catalogs

Plants:

• How to Get Excited About Poke Sallet (Native Options for Permaculture Nutrient Accumulators)
• How to Grow Tasty Citrus Outside in Zone 7+ (Tangerines, Grapefruit, Oranges, and More)
• How to Grow and Use Amaranth Greens (with Recipes & Sources)
• How to Grow and Use Achocha/Caigua (a Problem-Free Cucumber Substitute) with Recipes
• How to Grow and Use Tea Hibiscus/Florida Cranberry
• How to Choose Disease Resistant Rose Varieties to Grow Organically (with Sources)
• How to Grow and Use Papalo (with Recipes & Sources)
• How to Grow Sweet Salad Turnips (with Recipes)
• How to Grow Peas as Quick Harvest Greens (and Use Up Old Seed Packets)
• How to Grow and Harvest Feijoa
• How to Get Peppers Off to a Good Start with More Fruit that Ripens Faster
• How to Enjoy Your (Nontoxic) Poinsettia Beyond its Beauty
• How to Grow and Use Lemongrass as a Kitchen Ornamental
• How to Select Hot Pepper Varieties (and Use the Ones You Grow)
• How to Grow Globe Artichokes in the Southeast
• How to Grow Yard Long Beans
• How to Easily Grow Celery at Home (with Recipes)
• How to Grow Passionfruit in the Backyard
• How to Grow Eggplants Faster than the Flea Beetles Can Kill Them

Insects & Diseases:

• How to Identify Pests and Control Them Naturally with Beneficial Bugs, Trap Crops, and More
• How to Spray Milk to Prevent Powdery Mildew Disease
• How to Control Kudzu Bugs (Megacopta cribraria)
• How to Deal with Pillbugs When They Become a Problem
• How to Prevent Fusarium Wilt on Tomatoes
• How to Use Fennel (or Dill) to Keep Caterpillars Off Your Vegetable Plants
• How to Identify Eastern and Forest Tent Caterpillars
• How to Tell a Carolina Mantis Eggcase from a Chinese Mantis Eggcase (What’s an Ootheca?)
• How to Prevent Squash Vine Borer and Powdery Mildew on Squash, Organically

Nature & Foraging:

• How to Train Your Eyes to Spot Morels (Photo Essay)
• How to Find Hedgehog Mushrooms (and Eat Them) with Recipes
• How to Find and Enjoy Black Walnuts
• How to Use Mushrooms to Get Rid of Atrazine (and Spare Male Frogs from Castration)
• How to Start a Nature Journal
• How to Find a Loggerhead Shrike (aka American Butcher Bird)
• How to Help Bats Succumbing to White Nose Syndrome
• How to Identify a Brown Snake (Storeria Dekayi)
• How to Identify a Juvenile Rat Snake
• How to Identify a Northern Water Snake

Cooking:

• How to Cook Over a Hearth
• How to Make Venison Sausage and Kale Quiche with a Side of Lemon-Ginger Beet Salad
• How to Make a Homegrown Sundried Tomato, Feta, and Caramelized Onion Tart with Arugula
• How to Stop Worrying About Food in Spite of All the Hype

We will also be selling Eliza’s urban homesteading classes. We have exciting news regarding these classes that you can expect to see more details about in January — make sure you’re on our newsletter so you don’t miss out:

The post News: Eliza on TV, Upcoming Events, and Our Favorite “How To” Articles appeared first on Appalachian Feet.

Okay, maybe not NO disease, but insignificant diseases and pests sounds good, right? Plus, perennial fruits and veggies mean less work for more harvest. Eliza loves teaching the two class topics available this week at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery. Click here to sign up for class or click here to see the full 2014-2015 class schedule.

Photo Caption: Passionfruit (Passiflora incarnata) are one of the perennial food plants that can be grown in this area — and they also happen to be native! Come Tuesday to learn more than 30 types of garden foods that only need to be planted once. We didn’t see this one growing on the ground and accidentally POPPED it — so we gave it some rue seed pods for eyes and prepped it for a closeup.

THIS WEEK:

• November 4^th, 2014 Tuesday

  • Perennial Fruits & Vegetables for the Southeast 6:15pm – Ever wish your garden would just come up on its own in the spring? Don’t worry, asparagus isn’t the only delicious perennial vegetable out there. This class will cover dozens of plant-only-once greens, roots, shoots, and fruiting vegetables that require little to no maintenance in our climate. Learn how to plant the closest thing to a zero work food garden!

• – November 6^th, 2014 Thursday

  • Understanding Plant Diseases & Preventing them in Next Year’s Garden 6:15pm – Controlling the plant diseases for next year’s garden often hinges on what you do in the fall and winter. Come learn the most common plant diseases in the southeast, how to identify them, and how to prevent them. We’ll mostly cover organic preventative measures that keep you from dealing with diseases in the first place!

Click here to sign up for class or click here to see the full 2014-2015 class schedule.

The post How to Have Perennial Food Plants & No Disease for Your 2015 Garden appeared first on Appalachian Feet.

Our garden open house (rain or shine) is THIS coming Saturday!

APPALACHIAN FEET GARDEN OPEN HOUSE DETAILS:
Drop-in June 14th, 9:00am – 5:00pm
Recommended donation of $2-$5
440 Summit Drive, Greenville, SC

You may also want to catch Eliza’s TEDx presentation at Zen on Tuesday, June 17th at 5:30pm. Additionally, Eliza wrote the feature article (on pawpaws) in the latest Edible Upcountry magazine, available for free at area locations like the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery, The Carolina Honeybee Company, or The Community Tap.

Our plans for the garden open house are not as far along as we expected at this point — partly due to Eliza’s busy speaking and landscape consulting schedule this past spring, but mainly due to another pregnancy and recurrent miscarriage. Last Monday we went to a first trimester appointment and Eliza began miscarrying during the ultrasound. We decided to mention it because miscarriages are so common and so rarely talked about (1 in 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage). It would be nice if society was a little better informed. We’re doing better this time around but appreciate all the optimistic sympathy we’ve received.

Here’s what we know for sure will be available to view at the garden open house (June 14th, 9:00am-5:00pm):

• A Q&A tent where Eliza & Nathaniel will answer your questions (& likely refreshment stand)
• Lawn-free edible landscaping, especially in the front yard, featuring guilds, microclimates, and hundreds of plant species
• Unusual perennial food crops for the southeast
• Lots of hugelkultur examples
• Keyhole bed design
• Sheet mulching/deep mulching & soil ecology
• Water catchment swales in pathways
• Edible mushroom farming
• Pallet gardens
• Farmscaping (Thorough organic pest control through attracting a complete ecosystem)
• Chickens, chicken coop, & run (which contains a hawk deterring “fedge” — aka food hedge)
• Black soldier fly waste composting and chicken feed
• Worm bin composting
• Cold composting
• Live fermentation and canning displays
• Seed saving display
• Mildly grouchy honeybees that occasionally send a lone guard to chase us around — we’ll let you view the apiary from a distance (or you can just stay in the front yard if you feel concerned). We’ll be requeening our hives with more peaceful stock soon.
• The beginnings of our first pond (under construction)
• The beginnings of our duck run (under construction, no ducks yet)
• Part of an herb spiral (we may finish it before this weekend)
• Our personal micro-nursery
• A 5th generation (for our family) passalong pomegranate tree in full bloom
• Detailed plans about our eventual goals for the property and the chance to see it in progress

We may add a little bit more to the list before Saturday if health and time permit. Here’s a sneak peak at the front yard garden, which is the only thing that is nearly finished:

Photo Caption: Eliza planned to have a neighbor-friendly sitting area near the sidewalk for years… it’s nearly finished! The benches are a popular sitting area for parents picking up kids from next door Summit Elementary.

We are so happy with our front hugelkultur beds! Eliza has had to water a lot due to adding many new seeds and plants (you have to keep them watered until their roots reach deep down into the composting wood reservoir). However, the plants we established last year are utterly drought-proof. They’re also expressing their approval of hugeling by growing absurdly large — one bed has a Phlox paniculata ‘David’ that is already 6′ tall and does not appear to be stopping any time soon.

Photo Caption: It is difficult to photograph the shapes of the beds, but it is a permaculture keyhole pattern that has been completely hugelkultured underneath.

You may remember the above garden view from this process photo post when we were adding the hugels last year. Here is what it looks like a year later — still not completely mature but everything is filling in nicely.

Photo Caption: The flowers of these tuberous begonias and small violas are edible… and so is the fern! Eliza has been trying to grow ostrich ferns for their fiddleheads ever since she bought the house. Hugelkultur saves the day, again — they’re taking over!

We knew hugelkultur was reputed to be nature’s irrigation system, but we couldn’t believe how much easier it made growing finicky plants like ostrich ferns, rhubarb, and gooseberries.

Photo Caption: Pink flowered strawberries have edible petals and delicious juicy red fruit.

We like to choose edible species that are also ornamental.

Photo Caption: Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’ has all the edibility and bumblebee attractiveness of a spiderwort with head-turning chartreuse foliage and cobalt flowers.

Ever consider eating our native spiderworts? Here’s how.

Photo Caption: Passerby asked if this tall red plant was poke sallet, but it is a bolting ruby-stemmed Swiss chard. In the foreground is the ‘Delfino’ cilantro we save seeds from every year.

The overwhelming majority of neighbors who stop to chat about our garden are very complimentary. A few days after these photos were taken we did have one woman inform us that we have a lot of weeds… guess the cottage garden look isn’t for everyone! Perhaps it was a misunderstanding since we grow so many species she may not recognize. Eliza wanted to ask which plants she thought were weeds but the lady crossed to the other side of the street on her way back past our house.

Usually we get questions about specific plants and people wanting to know how to do similar gardens in their own yard. Eliza was gratified a few days ago when she overheard a Spanish-speaking man point to the edible opuntia cactus near the road and excitedly say, “Nopales!” to his friend.

Photo Caption: Eliza is trying to finally get around to adding some aesthetic accents to the garden… it’s so easy to get distracted by practicalities!

We consider beauty to have its own uses in the garden and not everything we grow is there for us to harvest. We’ve enjoyed the recent addition of some benches, a tea cart, potted plants and other small hardscaping elements.

Photo Caption: Sky blue accents set off the cool-colored front yard beds. In the background is ‘Redventure’ celery, a red-stemmed celery that grows great in the winter. Since it is bolting, we’re saving seeds.

The garden is constantly changing, partly because we are often letting food plants go to seed. The honeybees worked our flowering brassicas like kale, turnips, collards, arugula, and radishes hard during the spring. Eventually we replaced them with summer plantings (usually when they start smothering their neighbors or finishing their life cycles).

Photo Caption: Blue and golden podded sugary peas have provided a nice cool season snack next to the garden benches. In the summer we’re replacing them with ‘White Currant’ tomatoes.

Sometimes we use our perennials as makeshift trellies — snow and sugar snap peas obliged us by climbing our native oakleaf hydrangea and redbud tree.

Photo Caption: Keep an eye out for these little dutchman’s pipes blooming right now in our front yard. In the mid-summer we find them covered in adorable gummy-bear like caterpillars that turn into stunning pipevine swallowtail butterflies.

Other plants are there for the bugs. When we want specific insects to help balance out the garden we use farmscaping techniques by finding out what they prefer to eat and planting it. Insect pest control has never been less work!

Photo Caption: Our black and red raspberries have been delicious for weeks!

We’re still thankful to Anna and Mark at The Walden Effect for giving us our now fully established black raspberries, red raspberries, and thornless blackberries. So far not a single berry has made it into the house.

Photo Caption: We also can’t wait to start harvesting our large, thornless blackberries.

Our brambles (raspberries and blackberries) line the driveway between a cinderblock wall and a barricade of straw bales. We like how the berries fill in between these 2 barriers and blocks all the light (and thus weeds) that grow underneath them.

Photo Caption: We’re already harvesting ‘Sweet Banana’ peppers and small eggplants, but we were late getting the tomatoes in and have a ways to wait still on those.

During Eliza’s pregnancy she wasn’t allowed to dig new beds. As a result, she started triaging all the vegetable starts by sticking them anywhere there was enough light and space in a pre-prepared bed.

Photo Caption: Flowers are interspersed among the edible plants for beauty, beneficial insect nectaries, and occasionally even have yummy blooms.

Tall flowering plants like snapdragons, veronicas, foxgloves, agastaches, salvias, and penstemons add structure to the garden and food for beneficial insects.

Photo Caption: Gaura is a lovely plant but difficult to photograph with our camera.

Eliza has been trying to relocate any orange and red flowering plants to the backyard in order to maintain a cool color scheme. There’s some stragglers but she’s getting close to reaching that goal.

Photo Caption: Our log retaining wall has started sprouting mushrooms. In the background is kohlrabi and a head-turning plant called a ‘Green Goddess’ calla.

In order to keep soil off the sidewalk, we used the most inexpensive material we could think of for a retaining wall — our neighbor’s discarded logs and woody debris. Some of it is quite sculptural and a few even have edible oyster mushrooms that fruit from them. The mushrooms pictured above are not a culinary variety.

Photo Caption: The garden is only 2 years old but is already starting to look somewhat mature due to the speed plants grow in hugel beds.

The plants will continue to fill in and help define the keyhole pattern of our beds vs. our mulched pathways.

Photo Caption: Some people love our white clover edging that provides a unifying deep green border, honeybee blooms, and soil fertility building nitrogen-fixing. Others don’t know that clover is a popular lawn alternative and ask if we planted it on purpose.

Since we don’t have a lawn it was never convenient to haul out a lawnmower for the grassy verge between the sidewalk and the road. Last fall we replaced it with white clover so that we only have to weed. We bookended either end with comfrey — a great weed barrier so our neighbor won’t have to keep clover out of his grass and vice versa.

Photo Caption: Both this native sedum and the viola in the background are edible.

We love to use native plants whenever possible. The dozens of species in our front yard includes mountain mint, sedum, hearts-a-bustin’, oakleaf hydrangea, clethra, piedmont azalea, northern river oats, woodland phlox, jack-in-the-pulpit, coreopsis, and pawpaw trees — our largest native fruit.

Photo Caption: If our landscaping plants aren’t edible they have other uses that support the overall garden ecology.

We also use a variety of exotic species that do not show aggressive tendencies.

Photo Caption: Cuphea are popular with beneficial insects and hummingbirds — they also look like adorable little fairy pets!

Eliza likes to find at least one new-to-her plant each season. She’d never seen pink cuphea before.

Photo Caption: This predatory soldier beetle is hanging out on some bolting lettuce. We love having it and similar species around because it means we rarely have to do anything about pest control.

We decided not to let our lettuce go to seed in the front yard because it looks like a weed to many people. We’re letting it and other unruly looking plants bloom and produce seed in the backyard instead.

Photo Caption: Though bumblebees are dying out in many parts of the country, they are thriving in our heavily blooming garden.

Many people never stop and really see a garden. We hope ours will turn some heads.

Photo Caption: Comfrey is an incredible nutrient accumulating plant that also has edible flowers, excellent honeybee nectar, and medicinal uses.

Sterile comfrey is well used in our landscape with some borders and individual plantings. It’s amazing how fast it grows and how great it is as a chop and drop fertilizer plant.

Photo Caption: You just have to see our pomegranate right now, it’s enormous and the blooms will make your mouth hang open.

If any of this has piqued your interest we’d love to see you at the garden open house this coming Saturday, bring a friend!

APPALACHIAN FEET GARDEN OPEN HOUSE DETAILS:
Drop-in June 14th, 9:00am – 5:00pm
Recommended donation of $2-$5
440 Summit Drive, Greenville, SC

The post How to Attend Our Upcoming Garden Open House (& a Virtual Tour) appeared first on Appalachian Feet.

The SC Organic Grower’s Conference just announced their locally sourced menu and it’s worth the price of the ticket just to eat lunch.

Photo Caption: The SC Growers School is locally sourcing as many ingredients from their lunch menu as possible, including greens like this chard.

CONFERENCE MENU:

“The Culinary Institute of the Carolinas does a magnificent job preparing local food. (The chefs also will ensure that we have plenty of choices for those of you who need a vegetarian lunch.)

Winter Kale Salad
with Rebecca’s Ginger Dressing

Sea Island Pea Hoppin’ John

Carolina Gold Rice Vegetable Jambalaya

Pulled Pork Shoulder
with Greens and Caramelized Onions

Culinary Institute of the Carolinas Meat Loaf
with Sorghum Glaze and Pan Gravy”

As if we needed additional temptation to attend on top of the 32 amazing class topics to choose from! It’s on March 1st at the Culinary Institute of the Carolinas, from 8am–4pm. Click here to get your tickets before they sell out! (Note that this is different from the Organic Growers School held the following weekend in Asheville).

If you aren’t planning to go, may I eat your lunch portion?

The post How to Eat Well While Learning on March 1st appeared first on Appalachian Feet.