Permaculture Information and Inspiration

"When you're inspired by passion, nothing is too hard." - Valerie Herman, permaculturist

I am not knowledgeable about permaculture, but I do find it fascinating. While do some reading about it online today I discovered this video of Eli and Val's Garden near Jacksonville, FL.



Most of us can't embrace all of the practices Val and Eli have employed at their home, but as explained in the video they started with three small kale plants and kept adding on. What you see in the video is the culmination of 3 years work.

Caution: Before you decide to go whole hog with permaculture, please consider how your neighbors and township might react. In some areas of the country this type of urban agriculture is more accepted that in other areas.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that Val and Eli have included their neighbors in their plans by being open about their vision for permaculture. Involving the local community and educating them about your plans can save you headaches and possible legal problems later on.

Spring Gardening Peparations

It's Easter weekend and temperatures are in the mid-50's. Here in Michigan we're not out of the woods yet for an occasional morning frost, so we will have to hold off on planting anything significant that is frost sensitive. But I couldn't resist doing some garden prepping today anyway.

We added an additional above ground bed today.

These modular kits were purchased at Home Depot. They are economical and readily available, but the best part is that as your gardening efforts expand your gardening can easily expand also.

We also prepared our Earthbox gardening area with some additional leveling pedestals. These were actually recycled from our backyard. The previous owners used the pavers in the backyard, so re-purposing them was pretty easy.

In the next couple of weeks we will finish leveling the pavers and prepare our Earthboxes. The backyard deck works well because our vegetables have a practical place to "climb".

Backyard Farming (Gardening)

Whether you call it farming or gardening makes no difference to me. I rather like the sound of farming, but based on overall scale it's really probably closer to gardening than farming. Nonetheless I am growing food in my small urban backyard.

I have neighbors on all four sides and some of them are a little on the "particular" side (some might call it "picky" even). A few of them mow their yards twice per week and I have no doubt if it rained a little bit more one of them would probably go to mowing three times a week.

With that as a backdrop, I wanted to share some pictures of our small backyard food production strategy which includes 10 Earthboxes, a 4' x 4' above ground bed, a 4' x 20' in ground bed, 4 miscellaneous containers, and a canvas bag hanging from a metal pole made for holding bird feeders.

Strawberrie in a repurposed flower pot

A hanging bag laying horizontal

A "hanging" bag

An Earthbox growing peas



Above ground bed with onions, radishes, carrots, and two blackberry bushes.

 Folks in states located south of Michigan are probably harvesting produce in large quantities at this point of May, but we had two nights of hard frost no less than 2 weeks ago. I grow impatient at this point of the northern growing season, but you know what they say, "good things come to those who wait".

Urban Farming - Rabbits

I've been brainstorming for ideas to allow me to grow a protein source sustainably in an urban setting. I found a few videos on You Tube today that explain all the in's and out's for raising rabbits. Rabbits provide a source of protein and rabbit manure provides a source of natural fertilizer for vegetable gardening. The manure can be easily composted with red wiggler worms to produce a valuable soil amendment.

The gentleman in the videos provides an excellent source of information about raising rabbits for food and with the videos it should be possible for almost anyone to emulate his efforts and raise Florida Whites, a small rabbit that provides a dense source of meat, that can be raised in a small area.

His videos have inspired me to seriously consider raising rabbits in my garage. If you live in a typical urban subdivision that prevents you from raising chickens, goats, or other small livestock, rabbits may provide you a viable alternative.

I'd also like to provide a little head's up about Video #4...it demonstrates a humane way to butcher rabbits for meat. If you are uncomfortable watching livestock being prepared as a food source, then please think twice about watching the video. I personally think the methods used in the video are as humane as I could ever imagine them being. As a young person, I helped my grandmother butcher chickens many, many times. Compared to methods she used, the method demonstrated in the video is very humane.

If butchering your own meat makes you personally uncomfortable, then perhaps you have a friend or relative who can do it for you.

As another alternative, you can raise rabbits for wool instead of for meat. An angora rabbit produces about 15 ounces of wool annually. The wool can be spun into yarn and knitted into clothing, or the wool can be sold.









For additional information about urban rabbit farming, here are a few websites:

The New Urban Chickens

Urban Self Sufficientist

Farm Tina Butchering Rabbits

Farm Tina Raising Rabbits

Bob McCarty Writes

Taja Sevelle - Urban Farming in Detroit