06-04-2008, 01:48 AM
Mahalo Miss C.
So fifteen years later I wake up and look around. It all started with a phone call from my sister in Hilo.
"Hey ... you remember that home next to my lot in Black Sands? Guess what? It's 'for sale,'
"Really."
"Yep."
So I got on it and I was absolutely sinister with my bid but they took it and I found out later they were really happy to get out from maintaining it from California and best of all it came with a cleared lot next door with my sister's lot on the other side. Humm... potential.
I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it except grow a lot of tropcal fruit but I had a problem. The previous renters didn't know one end of a weed-eater from the other so consequently the waist high grass and weeds not only had overtaken the cleared lot but had encircled the entire home. To work! First I pulled out the weeds, some towering above my head and then, piece by piece, I began weed eating the grass. This of course is problematic since it simply grows back so I began ordering twenty-ton truckloads of black one-quarter inch cinder and slowly wheel-barreled it to the desired areas until the entire garden was covered and the total time invested on this procedure was about two years. Ten inches minimum and while this was going on I was planting starting with Breadfruit on the perimeters. I didn't create the typical permaculure as I had done in Seattle, this time I wanted something different so I intentionally broke many of the laws used to create a standard permaculture. For instance. Instead of planting tall trees on the north property lines they were planted on the south and before I decided where to lay walkways and trails etc., I simply planted plants where I thought they would grow well (in the future), and then I came in later with the walkways weaving them through the plants ad hoc. So here I am fifteen years later and the canopy has been created which requires very little weeding due to the shade offered above and I did leave one large and one small 'sun-slot' for more sun-loving plants. The effect is bizzare I admit and I would have ended up with more food production had I stayed with the traditional lay-out but I had learned in Seattle that I was able to produce more crops than I could ever use and that some latitude should be available in terms of being able to create more artistic almost 'baroque' permaculture.
I like the shade the various canopies provide contrasted by the sheer power of the sun-slot one is compelled to walk into when following the path.
JayJay
So fifteen years later I wake up and look around. It all started with a phone call from my sister in Hilo.
"Hey ... you remember that home next to my lot in Black Sands? Guess what? It's 'for sale,'
"Really."
"Yep."
So I got on it and I was absolutely sinister with my bid but they took it and I found out later they were really happy to get out from maintaining it from California and best of all it came with a cleared lot next door with my sister's lot on the other side. Humm... potential.
I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it except grow a lot of tropcal fruit but I had a problem. The previous renters didn't know one end of a weed-eater from the other so consequently the waist high grass and weeds not only had overtaken the cleared lot but had encircled the entire home. To work! First I pulled out the weeds, some towering above my head and then, piece by piece, I began weed eating the grass. This of course is problematic since it simply grows back so I began ordering twenty-ton truckloads of black one-quarter inch cinder and slowly wheel-barreled it to the desired areas until the entire garden was covered and the total time invested on this procedure was about two years. Ten inches minimum and while this was going on I was planting starting with Breadfruit on the perimeters. I didn't create the typical permaculure as I had done in Seattle, this time I wanted something different so I intentionally broke many of the laws used to create a standard permaculture. For instance. Instead of planting tall trees on the north property lines they were planted on the south and before I decided where to lay walkways and trails etc., I simply planted plants where I thought they would grow well (in the future), and then I came in later with the walkways weaving them through the plants ad hoc. So here I am fifteen years later and the canopy has been created which requires very little weeding due to the shade offered above and I did leave one large and one small 'sun-slot' for more sun-loving plants. The effect is bizzare I admit and I would have ended up with more food production had I stayed with the traditional lay-out but I had learned in Seattle that I was able to produce more crops than I could ever use and that some latitude should be available in terms of being able to create more artistic almost 'baroque' permaculture.
I like the shade the various canopies provide contrasted by the sheer power of the sun-slot one is compelled to walk into when following the path.
JayJay
JayJay