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Permalink Reply by Sheena Marie Heinitz 1 hour ago
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The Beginnings of the Garden
Day one on the ancients land: We have decided to be experimental with
the garden beds doing a mixture of turning the soil in order to bring
up minerals from aged soil, a biodynamic concept, and using the
permaculture idea of building soil by sheet mulching. So on our first
day together in the garden we expanded one of the outer beds paths by
digging out the sod and laying down some cardboard. We used soil form
the sod by shaking out the soil onto the bed and using the rest if the
green mulch for future use by starting a compost pile with the sod and
scraps of vegetation from last years crop. The native garden of the
three sisters was prepared also by clearing away last seasons remnants
and racking out the mole holes.
Day Two: Continued work on outer bed. Adding cardboard, searching for
cardboard and adding wood chips to path. Also starting sheet mulch by
laying down manure followed by cardboard then hay. We wet down the
cardboard to make it more manageable. On the outside of the bed we’re
going to planting comfrey as a dynamic accumulator, blocking out grass
growth into bed and building nutrients in the soil. We discussed
discovering other bio-accumulators to add more variety to the garden.
Day Three: Weeding and digging another path along the other outer most
bed. Discussing: bedstraw as a friend or foe in the garden, decidin
Sheena Marie Heinitz Permalink Reply by Sheena Marie Heinitz 1 hour ago
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Garden Mapping: Wilton drew a garden map and we all brought a list of
seeds we have ordered then the planning began. From last years
experience Wilton and Joan discovered the beets and onions grew well
together so we have decided to plant them together once again.
Alexander found a list of companion plants to find some suggestions.
Some discoveries we decided to experiment with: eggplant and peppers,
potatoes and watermelons, carrots and onions, tomatoes and basil (for
more suggestions check www.romanyrest.net).
In the native garden we went with a Ho-go-wah Seneca Flint Corn, Lenape
Hannah Cut Short Bean (similar to pinto), Long Island Cheese Pumpkin,
and Aunt Molly Tomatillos. We’re going to plant more beans (black
beans, scarlet runners) around the fence also sunflowers and peas.
We’ve planned to have a brassica bed with brussel sprouts, cabbage,
broccoli. We are keeping our awareness of last years planting and
making sure to rotate crops in order to not stress beds for nutrients.
Also trying to keep awareness with cross pollination in hope to save
seed.
Week Two: Continued sheet mulching (cardboard, manure, hay) paths and
heavily weeded beds, weeded and mulched (manure and hay) other beds
with sparse weeds keeping the vetch, clover, dandelion. Working on
irrigation sourced from the pond. Transplanted stinging nettles
creating a nettle patch on the fence line within the garden.
Transplanted bee balm on outer bed border to companion comfrey.
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Week Three: We have moved onto the other side of the garden extending three garden beds. We discussed weeding out the grass and other noxious weeds but fond the grass roots to be running through out the beds. The better solution has been to do patch work sheet mulching over the grass invested areas of the beds. The green house has almost been completed and many plants have been ordered from Linda Brook for the garden, which we will be listing soon on the blog. Lastly the three sisters garden has begun to be sheet mulched. On a side note in the near future we will be posting a work day in the garden hope to many of you there!
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Week Four: Continued work on Three Sisters garden, sheet mulching paths and beds. Created a bed on the boarder of the fence by broad-forking the earth to aerate, laying manure then covering with cardboard and then laying out a thick layer of manure mixed with soil on top then out lining the soil with hay to keep in the moisture. In the bed we planted sprouted snow peas which we used an inoculant to insure the sprouting. We also have been working on transplanting some hardy kiwi vines, elderberry bushes, and grade vines. We took clippings from healthy plants of each variety and now have the kiwis and grapes in pots and the elderberry clippings in the ground and water them about twice daily to insure they set roots. Lastly we planted our first crop in the garden this week which was onion and leek seedlings.
Week Five: We are still continuing work on the Three Sisters garden which is now almost ready to be planted in having only about 1/3 of the outer bed to be finished. More seedlings arrived and are now happily growing in the garden. Those plants include: beets, kale, cabbage, broccoli, mustard greens, spinach, lettuce, chard, and strawberries. Also we started many seeds in the green house: watermelons, tomatoes, soybeans, peppers, collards, cabbage, and ground cherries. -
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Week Six: The Native garden/three sisters bed is complete and has been planted with the Seneca flint corn, Ho-go-wah. The corn was planted with intention with a blessing from Calvin and all of us who participated in the corn planting. We gave our thanks and planted four kernels each rotating between all of us until we reached the end of the circle. We soaked the corn before planting for two days to begin germination. Other projects from this week include: sheet mulching two apple trees as well as our newly planted peace tree and put fencing up around them, sheet mulched two garlic beds and planted some salad greens in the empty space in one of those beds, we also planted some herbs and medicinal plants in the garden, chervil, a root parsley, Echinacea and spilanthese and lastly we turned some compost and created a new compost pile. On a side note we have a new member on the farm a goat named Bianca that is pregnant and expecting in late June or early July. She is very friendly and a great addition to the land.
Week Seven: To begin the week we relocated our chickens to a happier place on the land for them to forage, play in some fresh soil and fertilize our unused garden beds. The rest of our week went toward maintaining the seedlings in the green house, the new planted seedlings in the garden, and the seeds waiting to sprout. We began aerating the old chicken pen with a broad fork in preparation for some planting of possibly some grains and other plants such as pumpkins and greens for the chickens to forage in the future. Our corn began to sprout as well as our herbs and a few seedlings were added to the garden: brussel sprouts, collards, and lettuce. At the end of this week we discovered a problem with seedlings planted in the compost pockets. The plants were sitting on top of the soil and the roots were drying out and some plants began to bolt. Our solution was to scoop up the plants out of the pockets and dig down deeper and place them back in soil in a position were the roots could reach the cooler earth below the pockets of the sheet mulch and finished by securing them with more soil packed in around them. The plants have already undergone some frost damage on top of that so they are a little stressed as of now, but we have hope they will return after a few days of good watering. -
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Week Eight: To start the week we extended a garden bed and sheet mulched and started sprouting and soaking seeds, melons, ground cherries, fennel, and parsley, for planting. We did plenty of direct seeding. Our planting included carrots, collards, radishes, bush beans, oregano, parsley, scarlet runners and soy beans. We continued creating more beds: sunflower bed along the fence which was planted with sunflowers, sun chokes, and scarlet runners, and a peanut circular bed and we transplanted some peanut seedlings. Also we extended our main garlic bed and planted some scarlet runners and black beans in that space. Some artichokes we planted early in March were transplanted in various spaces in the garden and also we put some of our tomato seedlings in the ground in faith that the cold weather has passed. This week we did some tours of the annual garden and the forest gardens. A group gathered to the camp for a yearly meeting and those interested came along with us and we shared our knowledge and creations in the gardens. It’s always nice to share your creations with others and we all did indeed enjoy sharing the gardens with those folks.
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Week Nine: Plenty of planting can describe this week. Many seedlings were planted and seeds directly seeded. Seedlings: beets, nasturtiums, celery, eggplant, peppers, basil, summer squash, ground cherries, cucumbers, calendula. Direct Seed: marigolds, black-eyed susans, cucumbers, black beans, teff, wheat, sesame seeds. We also planted butternuts, persimmons, wild plums, and hazelnuts that we cold stratified this winter which began sprouting this week. Then we also inoculated some logs with mushroom spores. We had shitake and lion’s mane dowel spawn. Besides planting we did some more prep in the old chicken yard for planting by racking. To end the week we had more visitors to the land. This time around the group stayed for three days. The group was teenagers and a few adults. This group came to volunteer on the land. They were a great help and brought a lot of enthusiasm for helping out in the garden and discovering nature’s beauty surrounding us here at Epworth. In the garden we all worked on some potato and watermelon beds which were completed and one was planted. Then we had a walk about through the forest gardens, shared our knowledge of wild edibles, and completed with sit spots followed by a bow drill demo and a song. Everyone parted feeling thankful that we shared such a fulfilling experience together on the land.
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Week Ten: Maintenance was the focus this week: Transplanting/thinning sunflowers, weeding, scything forest gardens, organizing green house, widening the native garden for planting squash and beans and then fertilizing with chicken manure, attempting to rid eggplants of flea beetles with ashes and garlic spray, mulched sunflower bed and a scarlet runner bean patch, soaking mushroom logs, cut comfrey leaves and utilized them as mulch around forest garden and started some compost teas (a comfrey tea and a chicken manure tea). Followed by some more planting: potatoes, watermelons, Nanking cherry seedlings in forest garden, Butternut Tree sprouts*, soybeans (some interesting varieties from the seed saver yearbook, a black variety which creates lavender tofu and a green and black variety), planted more seedlings (tomatoes, peppers, ground cherries), and some direct seeding of the native Lenape cut short beans, field peas and cilantro. For fun we made some fruit leather with the abundance of gomi berries and wild strawberries (we discovered a patch hiding under some flowering white bed straw while scything) and we fermented some garlic scapes since they are also in abundance and the garlic bulbs benefit from the harvesting of the scapes, regenerating the energy back to the bulb rather than the flower head. *To add a little more about the planting of the butternut trees: Butternut trees were in abundance and utilized as a staple food for many natives in North America, yet more recently they are under attack for a number of reasons. On a positive note we discovered a highly informational website on some advice on growing them and keeping them healthy. Also some really interesting information on the history of the butternut trees is included, the website is http://www.cog.ca/chapters/ottawa/ottara-articles/the-butternut-tree/.
 Fresh from the hoop house our ancient seedlings
Week Thirteen: Up keep in the garden: weeding, mulching and scything. Other projects included finishing up gilds in forest garden, work on straw bale house, and building a mulch box/bed for our fruit and nut tree nursery. The box creation was a lot like sheet mulching minus the compost and/or manure. By laying out a bottom layer of cardboard and framing with slab wood followed by filling with wood chips and lastly nestling our seedling pots in the chips. One may wonder what the benefit of such a “box” would be. Well, the answer would be to keep the soil from drying out rapidly from being exposed to direct sun or even partial sun. Other news: Bianca, our new farm goat, had two kids on the solstice, a male and female. Also, next week the YMCA children’s camp and the chickadee camp at Epworth starts. From June 28th until August 28th for an hour each week day we’ll have a group of children working with us in the garden and focusing on nature awareness skills. We have been planning, discussing, and preparing projects for the children a lot this week, but it has been something we have all been preparing for and focusing on for last three months.
Reply by Sheena Marie Heinitz on July 14, 2010 at 8:38pm Send Message Delete Week Fourteen: First week of camp. We started the week with the children by introducing ourselves, the garden and the farm animals. The animals captured the children’s attention right from the start. They enjoyed observing the animals habits and adored to watch the baby goats most of all. The garden started to spark their attention later on in the week when we started harvesting and planting. The first activity in the garden was harvesting garlic. They had fun comparing the sizes of the bulbs, learning how to tug from the base of the plant, talking about the beauty of garlic and choosing a bulb to bring home. After harvesting we switched our focus to planting sprouted seeds. Their enthusiasm for sharing their past planting experiences and observing the growth of the sprouted seeds brought a new connection to the group with the garden and with each other. To end the week we hung the garlic in bunches in the rafters of the camp pavilion, which they all took satisfaction in sharing with the other campers as they questioned what it was we were doing and why. Afterwards we had a short lesson on fire making and water finding. By the end of the four days we all noticed a shift among the group of children. | Wilton and Ryan preparing the bed  The first one is in
 
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Reply by Sheena Marie Heinitz on Week Fifteen: For the second week with the campers we did planting and harvesting to begin the week. We dug for potatoes then planted peppers, tomatoes and ground cherries. For the remainder of the week we stayed in the shade, for the gardens direct sunlight in the late morning hours was “wilting” our group. Switching our focus to the forest that surrounds the land we observed self mushrooms, edible/medicinal plants and keyed out trees. To end the week the children wanted nothing more than to spend time with the chickens, especially the new chick. For work on the land we continued maintaining the garden with weeding, mulching and plenty of watering in the dry spell.
Watering and making the first hole | Mama Joan giving some direction |
Thank you for visiting the World Wide Outreach Program of The Rouge Foundation
A First Nations Legend
How Indian Corn
Came Into The World
Long, long ago, in a beautiful part of this country, there lived an Indian with his wife and children .He was poor and found it hard to provide food enough for his family. But though needy he was kind and contented, and always gave thanks to the Great Spirit for everything that he received. His eldest son, Wunzh, was likewise kind and gentle and thankful of heart, and he longed greatly to do something for his people.
The time came that Wunzh reached the age when every Indian boy fasts so that he may see in a vision the Spirit that is to be his guide through life. Wunph's father built him a little lodge apart, so that the boy might rest there undisturbed during his days of fasting. Then Wunzh withdrew to begin the solemn rite.
On the first day he walked alone in the woods looking at the flowers and plants, and filling his mind with the beautiful images of growing things so that he might see them in his night-dreams. He saw how the flowers and herbs and berries grew, and he knew that some were good for food, and that others healed wounds and cured sickness. And his heart was filled with even a greater longing to do something for his family and his tribe.
Truly, thought he, the Great Spirit made all things. To Him we owe our lives. But could He not make it easier for us to get our food than hunting and catching fish? I must try to find this out in my vision.
So Wunzh returned to his lodge and fasted and slept. On the third day he became weak and faint. Soon he saw in a vision a young brave coming down from the sky and approaching the lodge. He was clad in rich garments of green and yellow colors. On his head was a tuft of nodding green plumes, and all his motions were graceful and swaying.
I am sent to you, O Wunzh, said the sky- stranger, that Great Spirit who made all things in sky and earth. He has seen your fasting, and knows how you wish to do good to your people, and that you do not seek for strength in war nor for the praise of warriors. I am sent to tell you how you may do good to your kindred. Arise and wrestle with me, for only overcoming me may you learn the secret.
Wunzh, though he was weak from fasting, felt courage grow in his heart, and he arose and wrestled with the stranger. But soon he became weaker and exhausted, and the stranger, seeing this, smiled gently on him and said: My friend, this is enough for once, I will come again to-morrow. And he vanished as suddenly as he had appeared.
The next day the stranger came, and Wunzh felt himself weaker than before; nevertheless he rose and wrestled bravely. Then the stranger spoke a second time. My friend, he said, have courage! To-morrow will be your last trial. And he disappeared from Wunzh's sight.
On the third day the stranger came as before, and the struggle was renewed. And Wunzh, though fainter in body, grew strong in mind and will, and he determined to win or perish in the attempt. He exerted all his powers, and, lo! in a while, he prevailed and overcame the stranger.
O Wunzh, my friend, said the conquered one, you have wrestled manfully. You have met your trial well. To-morrow I shall come again and you must wrestle with me for the last time. You will prevail. Do you then strip off my garments, to throw them away?
In the morning Wunzh's father came to him with food. My son, he said, you have fasted long. It is seven days since you have tasted food, and you must not sacrifice your life. The Master of Life does not require that.
My father, replied the boy, wait until the sun goes down to-morrow. For a certain reason I wish to fast until that hour.
Very well, said the old man, I shall wait until the time arrives when you feel inclined to eat. And he went away.
The next day, at the usual hour, the sky stranger came again. And, though Wunzh had fasted seven days, he felt a new power arise within him. He grasped the stranger with superhuman strength, and threw him down. He took from him his beautiful garments,and, finding him dead, buried him in the softened earth, and did all else as he had been directed.
He then returned to his father's lodge, and partook sparingly of food. There he abode for some time. But he never forgot.
Weeks passed , the summer was drawing to a close. One day Wunzh asked his father to follow him. He led him to a distant meadow. There, in the place where the stranger had been buried, stood a tall and graceful plant, with bright- colored, silken hair, and crowned nodding green plumes. Its stalk was covered with waving leaves, and there grew from its sides clusters of milk-filled ears of corn, golden and sweet, each ear closely wrapped in its green husks.
It is my friend! shouted the boy joyously; it is Mondawmin, the Indian Corn! We need no longer depend on hunting, so long as this gift is planted and cared for. The Great Spirit has heard my voice and has sent us this food.
Then the whole family feasted on the ears of corn and thanked the Great Spirit who gave it. So Indian Corn came into the world.
Sheena hard at work    | The three sisters 
Sumac, Sumac, Sun tea It's good for you and it's good for me |
