Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm

Friday June 26th, AERO Conference Workshop:
More From the Living Green Cheap Series

http://www.aeroconference.com/workshops.htm

Live Green Cheap Through Permaculture Micro-Farming
Presenter: Julie Ann Harrell
Format: Presentation and Discussion
Type: Practical Skills
Conference Track: Future
Additional Focuses: Present
Target Audience: Everyone

Description:
Growing your own food is simple if you have the right tools to create soil, then add a structure for the plants to grow. You can use any non-toxic materials you have on hand to create your own, home-based, permaculture garden and/or microfarm.

This workshop focuses on building small amounts of soil, along with the design architecture to allow for the most growth in the smallest space. Including are color photos of our raised bed garden, complete with cattle panel hooped trellises with 13 foot long tomato plants. Also, for those who are interested in early spring planting, plans are included for a good-sized, inexpensive, homemade and totally windproof greenhouse. Step by step, I will guide you through the process of working within your personal space requirements, using visual aids and an open discussion. By the end of this workshop you will have the tools to go home and do it yourself, with the help of your children. Included in the discussion is information about how we take care of our family pets and barnyard animals (four dogs, two cats, four llamas and a goat) using an easy access living space, and natural mineral supplementation products.

We have built our microfarm using cattle panel scraps, throw away lumber, windows salvaged by the side of the road, and dumpster-dived odds and ends to create a living, breathing wonderland of bee and hummingbird-friendly annual and perennial plants. Using fresh llama droppings, combined with old washed out soil, we built this garden step by step and now provide insect sanctuary along with food for our human and animal family for much of the year. We freeze, can, ferment and compost our produce, with nothing going to waste.

If you are on a budget and willing to spend some time and elbow grease to create your garden, this workshop is for you. Children learn by doing, and working in the garden to bring growth out of old scraps and health to the family garden/farm and pets is a learning experience that will remain in their hearts and minds for the rest of their lives.

Handouts include a list and directions to build your cattle panel hoop greenhouse. For more information, please visit: www.photonicgirl.blogspot.com and www.cherryplainfarm.blogspot.com

Bio:
Jules Harrell is a mother, wife, farmer, educator, and writer. She's the proud mom of Reesa Harrell, former Free School student (for eight years) who is now making straight A's in the eighth grade at Woodland Hill Montessori. Jules has a Masters degree in Technical Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and is PMP certified from the Project Management Institute. She's a published writer in both the science and technical fields, and believes strongly in human soul regeneration through nature. Jules is on the Jiminy Peak Ski Patrol, is involved in animal rescue, and spends a lot of her time helping those who are less fortunate than others. She takes children into the wilderness to teach them practical skills and help them believe in themselves.

2008....It's officially Fall.

I'm always amazed at how plants grow. Seeing the 13 foot tall tomato plants growing over the cattle panel hoops, with little tendrils containing new bright orange, grape-like, cherry tomatoes...mmm, scrumptious! Even with all the cold damp and rain, we got more tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, basil, squash (acorn, zuke, yellow), cauliflower, peas, beans, garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano, potatoes, kale (too many varieties to count), greens (many varieties), spinach, lettuce (at least five kinds) chard, flowers (woo hoo!) and strawberries than we could possibly eat can and freeze...I'm fermenting too! Just finished my third bowl of fresh saurkraut/kimchee made from garden beets, garden carrots, including purple and white heirlooms, garden garlic, garden cabbage, and some Honest Weight bought organic onions and ginger. MMMMM!~ Wow!

I took a couple more pics you may enjoy, after which I am heading out today after a light freeze to see what the camera can see. After snapping a few shots, I'll pick more kale for freezing, cabbage carrots and beets for saurkraut, and finish building the third new bed. Then it's time to go get hay for the llamas, and chop veggies for the next batch of kraut. Most of these photos are of tomatoes...they are a favorite subject and also well, we love to eat them. Beyond food, the hoophouse is my latest cattle panel creation, made of three cattle panels, eight T posts, and two tarps. Everything is tied together with recycled hay bale twine. It's quite solid and very nice for an outdoor hangout. Total cost is around $100, which is less than the canopies you can purchase and WAY more solid during a storm. If the tarps die from UV exposure, they are really cheap to replace. The frame will probably last for at least 20 years.
Cattle panels are tough as you know.

Spice up your cattle panel hoophouse hangout with a few Tibetan prayer flags, put some comfy chairs in there and presto, you've got an outdoor place for all your happy times during the spring/fall and summer. In the winter, you can always stick your grill under there and continue cooking ...

Back in June/July

My wonderful friend, Dennis Phayre, former owner of the best vegetarian restaurant in the Capital Region, Shades of Green, recently emailed me in response to my site and said,

So you like torturing hungry little bugs?

I wanted to share my feelings about garden eating bugs with all of you spiritual seekers out there who believe that bugs should live long fat happy lives. I too am a vegetarian and I too love the Earth and all its wonders. Here's the saga of me and the slugs, which started out oh so Perelandra:

I don't like torturing them. I kindly asked them to leave on multiple occasions. Then I picked them off carefully one by one into the hundreds. I have photos of kitty litter boxes full of slugs to prove it. Then finally one day I decided that it would be best for their spiritual evolution for them to fast, so I applied Slugaway, which is completely non toxic to humans and pets. The slugs fasted, they evolved, and they have reincarnated as butterflies, last I heard.

Om Shanti,
Jules
Those freakin Japanese beetles...for those of you who have asked how I deal with them...I put out traps fairly far from the garden, and I walk around with Dawn dishwashing detergent diluted in a spray bottle, and spray them while they eat. Between the traps and Dawn, I will hopefully salvage 98% of the garden. Also, plant mullein plants near your garden if you don't have them already. The beetles love mullein and it will willingly sacrifice itself to save your corn, tomatoes, etc. While they swarm the mullein, spray them with Dawn.

July 13th RED ALERT!!! Either Dawn is totally poisonous or I just made the mixture too strong, because it totally hurt my plants. Yikes! Don't use Dawn. It's BAD for Plants. Sorry plants!

So, onto better things. Yech. Those bugs are annoying. Anyway, it's time I shared a few pics of our Farm this year. These pics are from June, I'm about to go shoot some more for July. At the moment, the tomato plants are about five feet tall, squash leaves are two feet across, we are picking zukes, peas, greens of course and literally gallons of strawberries from a small patch. I guess mixing three different types of strawberries together, adding perennial herbs and garlic, then lots of llama poop did the trick. The garden is just styling!

June 4, A Slug's Story Continued:For those of you who remember my slug issues last season, well, I have good news. The slugs are gone. After using white vinegar and water to squirt the little buggers as they ate, rather than picking them up (eugh!), sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the plants on top of the soil as to not disturb the earthworms below, a healthy application of Escar Go, from Gardens Alive dot com, and finally, a complete demulching of the whole garden (since it's so wet here we don't really need it), I checked on the lovely gardens today because it's rained for the past 12 hours.

No slugs, not even one.

All I can say is YAHHOOO!

I'm going back out there just to sit and stare in awe at the beauty of no more slugs in my gardens.

Jules

May 19th.

I've been so busy with the garden and llamas that I haven't had time to blog! But it's time now to show you what we've been doing to prepare for this wondrous summer. Soon you'll find early May photos of the greenhouse and surrounding new garden beds. All raised beds, mixed with rich humus, composted cattle poop, mixed with llama and goat poop. It's pure poopy! And the plants just love to eat.

See if you can guess what the mystery plant is...right now I have to go outside and tend to everything, but photos are forthcoming so check back with us soon.

Jules

Sometime in late March:

This past week has been busy. Jerome and I built three more raised beds, then Davie and Amelia came over to participate in the gargantuan task of seed inventory and planting. We got about 100 little babies into their nests, and I'm finishing off our initial task today. At one point, we ran out of soil but rather than go with available commercial mix, we chose to wait and get more organic soil and kelp at Honest Weight Food Coop.

Thanks to Amelia's tremendous organizational skills, we were able to transform my pile of stuff in the basement to a beautiful seed apartment complex. Daniel Dog Botkin of Laughing Dog Farm called to tell me that we can plant our little Brassicae and Lettuce babies in the greenhouse now, and let them germinate in cooler temperatures.

More to follow!

Together we bring peace

I've received a little flack for this prayer, but after spending mucho time in tipi ceremonies with Native American medicine people from the Four Corners area of America, I can tell you this: We all pray the same way. It's not about being a Christian, which you surely could not call me, nor is it about being any one religion. It's about praying for peace, plain and simple, whether we be witches, pagans, rainbow, or any other color. Peace is peace, and this prayer works.

Pray this for a new Heaven and Earth here now.

In Jesus Name, I cover everyone on the Earth and in the surrounding Universe in the Blood of the Lamb.

All conflicting and otherwise lower dimensional entities within the Earth and surrounding Universe are Bound in Jesus Christ's Holy Name. These grey entities now float upward to the Light where God and His Angels take them forever for reprogramming.

Amen.