PERMACULTURE AND ME

As an organic gardener, I'm always trying to grow something and I fail miserably in the California climate. I have yet to get purple hull peas or lima beans to grown and produce without aphids destroying them. The soil out back heats up so much that everything dies in July/August. 

It is 2020 and I decided I wanted to transform a weed riddled backyard into an Eden Gardening using wood chips. So we have started our journey to a permaculture Eden garden. I was able to call a tree guy that cuts down trees for me and he gave me 3 truckloads of free wood chips.

This type of gardening requires a lot of startup work but once it's in place the maintenance is easier and less time consuming. If you want the bug for gardening, look for the Back to Eden film and you'll be hooked too. 

 Ready for more wood chips

Finished middle of yard beds

DIATOMACEOUS EARTH AND FLEAS

I've been an organic gardener since I was a kid. My dad owned a farm, but he wasn't organic. I was upset about planes flying over the house spraying who knows what on the crops and the chemicals coming into our yard when we were playing outside. I used allowance money to subscribe to Organic Gardening magazine and I was hooked. I quit subscribing to that when they started to get political a few years back. I want to hear about gardening not about how President Trump is ruining America which I disagree with. 

Anyway, back in 2009 my son Duncan went up to the mountains for Boy Scouts and came home with fleas. Within a weak the whole house was covered in fleas. I had learned to use food grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) in the garden for pests and then discovered it kills fleas. I powdered our whole house with the stuff including the closets. I left the powder on the carpets for 2 weeks and after that we had zero fleas. 

To this day I still use DE in my yard and on my dogs. I've seen 1 flea in 5 years and powdered the dog and haven't seen another one since. I put this on the cat too. It also kills good bugs so I use sparingly in the garden when ladybugs and mantis are active. It's a good winter control to help stop harboring thrips and aphids. This powder is good under appliances and controls roaches as well. It's ugly powder so I sweep it in crevices, I dust it into the attic, and put it anywhere white powder visually isn't a problem. I've read that you can paint it on wet to walls and stuff but this powder works better dry not wet. 

 And as always, wear a mask when using. This stuff can irritate lungs even though it is edible.