Permaculture, Foraging, and Gardening
Lately I’ve been thinking that our family should become more self-sufficient. As a result, I’ve decided to try my hand at permaculture, foraging for wild foods, and traditional gardening.
I’m still very much in the reading and research stage for the first two topics. My favorite books:
* Edible Forest Gardens, by Jacke and Toensmeier. While these two volumes certainly aren’t the first books about permaculture, they seem to be the premier reference. I’m really enjoying them, and learning tons; that said, they contain a lot of information and are not a quick read.
* The Forager’s Harvest, by Thayer. Fun to read, with lots of detail and great photos, from someone who clearly knows his stuff. He only covers a few dozen species of edible wild plants, but he focuses on those that are really worthwhile and that he has access to, and devotes several pages to each one.
Gardening has a rather shorter learning curve than either of those subjects, and I’m ready to jump into it straightaway. Sometime around January I looked around the web a bit, and Square Foot Gardening was pretty well regarded. Since I had an old copy of (the earlier edition of) that book laying around, I decided I’ll try that approach.
Here’s a picture of my modest little plots, all ready to go:
I’ve also got a few plastic planters that I’ll be starting in the house and moving to the deck once it is a bit warmer.
Deer are a real challenge for gardeners in our neighborhood. We back up to some woods, and the deer will eat just about any tasty green bit they come across, including plants on the edge of your deck. We’ve also seen a few rabbits around. So I’m going to see how things go with some low-rent chicken wire cages around the plots.
Alex thinks it is all for naught, and the wildlife will still figure a way to clean me out. We’ll see, I guess.
Chris vs the other hungry animals… let the games begin 
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