Turn your Raised Beds Upside Down

Turn your Raised Beds Upside Down.  When I give public talks in the Verde Valley and Sedona, I often employ a watering can, a muffin tin, and a measuring cup, among other demonstration tools.  What happens when you "plant" on the mounds of an inverted muffin tin?  Water runs off instantly, taking fertility and organic matter right along with it.  

Raised beds are a technology created in and for wetter, cooler climates, in order to drain water and to warm the soil.  Add this technology to a hot, dry climate, and what do you get?  Lots of maintenance or the alternative, stressed out plants and would-be gardeners who give up.  Sidebar: Raised beds can be an "appropriate technology" here in certain circumstances, in cases of accessibility for physical limitations and in super rocky terrain, but raised beds are not an "appropriate technology" across the board for our region.  If you already have or build your own raised beds, be sure to extend the border several inches higher than the growing surface, so that you at least catch the rain that lands on the beds themselves.  

Imagine an alternative!  We can learn a ton about gardening from the practices of Native Americans who successfully grew food throughout our region for millenia, often with techniques that required very little maintenance and work.  Dryland growers trained their crops to be drought tolerant by planting in receptive planting beds that collected rain from nearby areas.  These receptive planting beds also naturally collected the nutrients and the organic matter that make plants thrive.  

We can replicate the same patterns in our own gardens and farms with creativity, time, shovels, earth-moving equipment, work parties, and patience.  I have employed this style of gardening at the Food Forest at Crescent Moon Ranch and result is plants that rarely need irrigation.  Turn that muffin tin rightside up and create naturally abundant gardens that need less water and maintenance!

From Land to Mouth: Connecting People to Place, Taste & Story, an evening with Gary Paul Nabhan and Toby Hemenway

Where: St. John Vianney Church, Sedona, AZ
When: Sunday, March 13th, 7:00 – 9:30 pm

Gardens for Humanity proudly presents two of the world's leading visionaries of the slow-food and permaculture movements, Gary Paul Nabhan, Ph.D, author of Chasing Chiles - Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail and Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture as keynote speakers launching the 2011 Spring Planting Festival.  Proceeds from this event support Gardens for Humanity's school gardens projects.

 

Admission is $20 in advance, $15 seniors/students, $25 at the door.  A Meet and Greet before the event, from 5:30 - 6:30pm will provide attendees with the opportunity to personally connect with Dr. Nabhan and Mr. Hemenway in an intimate setting at St. John Vianney for $50 per person.  Wine and local food will be served and includes admission to the evening's lecture.  For $100, Meet and Greet participants will also receive copies of Dr. Nahban's new book, Chasing Chiles - Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail and Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permacultureby Mr. Hemenway.  For more information and to register, please click here.

The 2011 Spring Planting Festival will take place during the week of Saturday, March 12th to Sunday, March 20th. Visit www.gardensforhumanity.org for updates on Spring Planting Festival Events, including a Food Security Expo on Thursday, March 17th.

Interested in Hosting a Future Workshop?

Build community, learn, and save money while getting one step closer to creating your own Eden on Earth.  Potential workshops include Introduction to Permaculture, Rainwater Harvesting, Greywater, and Edible Landscaping.  Email chris@edenonearthlandscaping.com for more information.

Fruit Tree Planting Workshops

Saturday, Feb. 12^th and Saturday, March 5^th, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM (same workshop offered twice)

Cornville

Nothing beats fruit fresh off the tree.  But how do you get started? Could you really get better yields by planting an apple tree in one part of your property vs. another?  Yes!  And which trees are best suited for your yard and your neighborhood?  Join Eden on Earth’s Chris Anderson for a full-day workshop in Cornville featuring hands-on planting and your site design.

These workshops are part How-To and part The Ecological Literacy of Fruit Trees.  Develop your natural observation skills, boost your creativity, and learn key skills to connect the various elements on your acreage or yard.  You will laugh, learn, and leave inspired to plant the planet.  : )  Convinced that you have to have a boring landscape because you live in a dry climate?  Then learn to create happy trees and abundant yields with passive rainwater harvesting.

Find out where each kind of fruit tree prefers to live.  Learn about companion plants and animals, pruning, mulching, what to put and what not to put in your planting holes, and how to best irrigate your trees.  Janice Montgomery, Master Gardener and President of The Verde Thumbs, will present a lively program on Natural Pest Control.  Nut trees, grapes, fruiting shrubs, and other perennial edible plants will also be addressed.

Register in advance by mailing in a check for $75 with full contact information to Chris Anderson, PO Box 615, Sedona, AZ 86339. Register with your spouse/partner/family member or a neighbor for a two-person rate of $100. Fruit trees and companion plants will be available for sale. Contact Chris at 202-6649 or chris@edenonearthlandscaping.com with any questions and to begin registration. Please help spread the word!

Bring your own lunch and your favorite pizza topping or dish for an optional after-workshop homemade pizza party featuring our outdoor clay oven. Bring sun protection, gloves, a water bottle, layered clothing, pen, paper, and clothes you can get dirty.

Are you Watering your Landscape Too Much or Too Little?

When I visit potential clients’ homes, I often notice that they are over-watering their plants.  When a plant looks stressed, many people will simply water it more.  Plants getting too much water and plants getting too little will generally demonstrate similar symptoms, including slow growth and yellowing or dropping of leaves.  Saturated soils prevent plants’ roots from getting the oxygen they need, causing as much stress and under-watering does.

My favorite tools for determining whether a plant is being watered adequately are the index and middle fingers on my right hand.  I brush aside the surface mulch and dip my fingers into the soil 2-3” deep.  If the soil is hard and dry, then the area is unsuitable for all but the most xeric plants, and maybe not even these.  Even xeric plants need occasional watering until they’re established.  For most plants, the soil should be moist to the touch, not wet. 

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