Building a Permaculture Community Garden

Where did all the fireflies glow?

We get asked the question all the time - hey, why don't I see that many lightning bugs anymore? The simple answer is, maybe your community is no longer a good habitat for them. Before we get to the longer answer of why you're not seeing them anymore, you need to know how this beetle starts out life.

Fireflies lay their eggs in the ground where they then mature into glow worms. It's during this larval stage where they spend all their time eating other, tinier insects. Born and raised in the duff, they need the leaves that naturally litter the ground.

That’s why it's important to leave your backyards and street sides as untouched as possible every autumn to preserve the larvae and small insects living in the leaf litter. This helps to ensure a healthy, new year of fireflies.

Ok, leave the leaves, but what are some other ways to help?

💡Turn off outdoor lights in the evening. If you have inside lights on, close the blinds
💡Plant native plants
💡Mow grass less frequently and raise the length of the cut to 4 inches
💡When leaves drop in the fall, rake them if you want, but keep them in your yard
💡Use non-pesticide solutions for insect control

Check out the comments for more ways you can help re-glow and re-grow the firefly population.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Lucia (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

While they may not look great during the off-season, native plants and gardens still provide valuable ecological and environmental services including habitat and food for wildlife. Native bees nest in hollow stems, native birds feed on seeds to get through the winter, and butterflies and moths overwinter in leaf litter. Turf grass lawns mostly fail to provide these benefits, and also don’t look very good during the winter either. #gardens #gardening #garden #plants #nativeplants #gardeningtips #plantsofinstagram #wildlife #bees #birds #flowers #ecotips #lawn #turf

WOOD ASH

If you’re heating with wood, there’s always plenty of wood ash to go around. Did you know there are many uses for wood ash?

Wood ash is little more than the remaining minerals after burning wood, and fireplace ashes contain calcium and all manner of other things that can be handy around the house, if used properly.

NATURAL ICE MELT

Probably one of the most practical uses for wood ash is to use it slowly over the course of the winter as ice melt. The natural minerals in wood ash work the same way as salt does to melt ice on driveways and walkways. Be careful using it near your front door though; tracking wood ash into the house makes a big mess.

NATURAL TOILET CLEANER

Wood ash is especially valuable as a toilet cleaner, not only because it polishes the bowl, but also because it won’t harm septic systems.

CLEANING CLOUDY HEADLIGHTS

One of my readers told me they “make a rubbing paste from wood ashes and remove clouded headlights on a vehicle.” It makes sense because road grit and the accumulated exhaust fumes from the car in front of you aren’t that much different than dirty stove glass.

SILVER POLISH

In the same way that wood ash works to clean glass, it can also polish silver. Just dampen a towel and add a bit of wood ash before working some tarnished silver.

Wood ash is also commonly used to scour dishes in rural communities and while camping.

SKUNK ODOR REMOVER

Wood ashes naturally help neutralize skunk odor on pets. If an animal gets sprayed, dust them thoroughly with wood ash and leave them outside for a few hours before giving them a thorough bath.

While this method is likely effective to an extent and may have been important historically, these days there are many better options. If you have a skunk-sprayed animal, use wood ash if you have nothing else on hand, but I’d highly recommend keeping skunk-off spray and skunk-off pet shampoo.

HIDING STAINS ON PAVING

Wood ash is naturally grey, and it can help cover up stains on sidewalks and paving. Simply dust a bit on and scuff it in with your boot.

CLEANING OIL SPILLS

In the same way that wood ash can be used to hide stains on concrete, it can absorb oil spills to help prevent them in the first place.

COCKROACH REPELLANT

Spreading a bit of ash in dark corners of the house or under appliances will keep roaches out. Their hard outer shell doesn’t stand up well to wood ash, and it’ll keep them from setting up shop in your house.

SMELL ABSORBER

Similar to baking soda, wood ash can help absorb odors around the house. Try adding a small jar to the fridge to absorb odors. It works even better if there are small pieces of charcoal still left in the ashes to help out.

DESICCANT

Wood ash can be used to absorb humidity and help prevent moist areas from developing mold. Place a cup of wood ashes in a damp cupboard or basement room. Again, small chunks of charcoal left in the ashes help for this purpose.

GARDEN FERTILIZER

Wood ash contains all the trace minerals from inside a trees wood, which are the building blocks needed for plant health. While it doesn’t contain carbon or nitrogen, those are in ready supply from compost.

The University of Vermont recommends about 5 gallons of wood ash per 1,000 square feet of garden. Since wood ash will raise the pH of soils, it’s not good for acid-loving crops like blueberries or potatoes.

BOOST COMPOST

A small amount of wood ash can help give compost piles a boost. While birds may be beautiful around a backyard compost pile, in rural areas open compost can attract bears. We’ve found that dusting a bit of wood ash on top of the pile helps keep bears and other large omnivores from digging in the scraps as well.

After we started adding wood ash to our compost, we noticed that it was markedly more healthy. Stick a hand into the middle of the pile, and you’ll come out with a palm-full of hard-working worms actively converting everything into nutrient-rich compost.

CONTROL POND ALGAE

Since wood ash contains micronutrients that plants need to thrive, it can also help strengthen aquatic plants. The potassium in wood ash can boost rooted aquatic plants in a pond, making them better able to compete with algae. That in turn, slows the growth of algae in a pond. Be careful not to add too much.

PREVENTING PLANT FROST DAMAGE TO PLANTS

Dusting plants with wood ash before an early light frost can help prevent frost damage. It makes sense, as the mineral salts in wood ash would lower the freezing point of water without harming the plant tissues as other types of salt might.

PREVENT CALCIUM DEFICIENCY IN TOMATOES

Those ugly black spots on tomatoes are often the result of calcium deficiency. Eggshells and bone meal are often added to tomato planting holes to provide them with calcium, but wood ash can do the same job. Add about 1/4 cup of wood ash to each tomato planting hole and scratch it into the soil before setting out transplants.

SLUG AND SNAIL REPELLANT

Creating a circle of wood ash around crops prevents slugs and snails from crossing into plant beds. We use this around our homegrown shiitake mushrooms, which are particularly susceptible to snails and slugs. It’s also a good solution for leafy crops like lettuce. The wood ash barrier is only effective until it rains or the ash gets wet, which is unfortunate because you’ll need to reapply regularly. The benefit, on the other hand, is that it’ll wash off easily at harvest time.

NON-TOXIC ANT REPELLANT AROUND KIDS & PETS

Placing a pile of wood ash on top of an anthill gives them notice that they need to move their nest.

It won’t kill the nest, but they will have to pack up and relocate, which works great for relocating ants’ nests away from kids’ play areas.

CHICKEN FEED SUPPLEMENT

Since wood ash is high in minerals, it can be good as a food supplement for chickens in small amounts. Community Chickens notes that “Wood ash offers calcium and potassium. Adding wood ash to your chicken feed (less than 1% ratio) may help to extend a hen’s laying period and can help reduce the smell of chicken droppings.” Be sure to use only ashes from clean burned wood and nothing treated if using for a food aupokement.

Cultivate Kids has weekly sessions during Cave Junction farmer's market. Ten kids each built their own garden using permaculture methods. It's so fun watching them grow!

Bulb onion harvesting
Join the edible gardening community
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ediblegardeningenthusiasts

Join the ornamental gardening community
https://www.facebook.com/groups/indoorhouseplants

Join the livestock farming community
https://www.facebook.com/groups/livestockenthusiasts

40 Plants To Propagate From Hardwood Cuttings & How To Do It Hardwood cuttings are taken from woody shrubs and perennial plants in the fall or over the winter months. Like cuttings taken at other times, they are a great way to increase the stock of plants

https://www.ruralsprout.com/wood-ash-uses/?fbclid=IwAR2aY7ujhxXhL1ONSykqwm5kbPtI_hxr0_czZrZY02acoO5AeuddYV8_iMI

45 Practical Uses For Wood Ash Around The Home & Garden When your primary heating source is wood, you find yourself cleaning out the wood stove quite a bit during those colder months of the year. Before long you’re dumping out your ash bucket once or

The Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees. In the 14th century, the extraordinary daisugi technique was born in Japan. Indeed, the daisugi provide that these trees will be planted for future generations and not be cut down but pruned as if they were giant bonsai trees; by applying this technique to cedars, the wood that can be obtained is uniform, straight and without knots, practically perfect for construction. A pruning as a rule of art that allows the tree to grow and germinate while using its wood, without ever cutting it down.
Extraordinary technique. ''.

Sir David Attenborough.

Looks like Bayer-Monsanto is looking to hijack organic vegetable farming and gardening. Bayer announced that they're launching 3 organic vegetable seed offerings for the greenhouse market in early 2022: tomato, sweet pepper, and cucumber. These will be followed by tomato rootstock varieties in 2023. The “Vegetables by Bayer” varieties will be sold under both the Seminis and De Ruiter vegetable seed brands. Bayer’s expanded portfolio is in direct response to increased customer need for high-quality organic seed. Global consumer demand for certified-organic products continues to grow and is predicted to drive market expansion. The global organic food seeds market is valued at $355 million in 2020 and is expected to grow to $480 million by 2025.

This unethical corporation needs to keep it's dirty hands out of our clean food industry. We WANT an organic future. We DON'T WANT Bayer-Monsanto in it. Boycott Bayer-Monsanto. Boycott Seminis. Boycott De Ruiter.

READ: https://www.greenhousegrower.com/crops/bayer-launches-organic-greenhouse-vegetable-seed-pipeline/

Want Butterflies Next Spring? Don't Rake Your Leaves This Fall:

https://returntonow.net/2017/11/04/want-butterflies-do-not-rake-fall-leaves/

Animals are an important element in any integrated farming system, they close many loops, helping to fertilize the soil, consume waste products and produce resources for our consumption.🐔🥚🍳

In our Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) we will talk about different animals and their role in the ecosystem, how you can utilize them, where and when it makes sense to and what scale is appropriate.

Permaculture is full of great ideas and it can often be overwhelming either knowing where to start or taking too much on or just needing some inspiration. We have over 20 years of experience, come accelerate your learning or to get inspired and learn from people with experience.

To learn more join us for our upcoming PDC in November. Link below

https://ranchomastatal.com/permaculture-design-course-fall

Y’all. I thought this was crazy when I heard it. 😂 But it totally works! 🙌🏻 Put a banana peel in a mason jar of water for a day or two then pour only the water at the base of each tomato plant. Each time we have done this, SO many new tomatoes blossoms have popped up and the plants are getting taller! Apparently potassium is BIG for tomato plants! 🍅

Huge thanks to my friend Ansley for letting me re-post this tip! 🤗

Get all 33 Gardening Hacks here: https://healthychristianhome.com/genius-gardening-hacks/

Why are so many species on the brink of extinction? Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...