Catch and Store Energy. I started writing this post in February but then I got busy and used my personal energy up. I ended up not catching it soon enough and getting sick. Sounds like one of the problems the earth is having. Speaking of which, strange days of warmth in February kept reminding me that the earth is sick and running a fever. Winter is a time for nature to store it's energy for spring and it's not getting much of a chance to rest this year. How many of us actually do that for ourselves, never mind the earth? Change starts in the personal sphere or in permaculture speak, zone 0. If we can't rest and recuperate then it's no surprise that we aren't able to give the earth a chance to rest. In some ways I enjoy the warmth, winter is hard and February is notorious for being a torturous month, but it just doesn't feel right. In any case, catching and storing energy is an important principle on many levels. Give yourself a break, take a breather and catch up on some sleep. As for winter, maybe it's decided to take a little break. I'm not betting on it being gone yet but spring is defintitely coming. The warm sunny weather has raised the temperature in the greenhouse and we have begun to plant some seedlings. At the end of December my dad finished the greenhouse on the south side of the garage. We are catching and using the energy of the sun and water so we can extend our growing season. We placed 4 IBC tanks against the side of the garage in the fall and my dad built the greenhouse around it. Our intention is for the water to keep the greenhouse temperature warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Water has great insulating properties and holds heat and cold a lot longer than the air. Unfortunately when he was finishing up the greenhouse the temperatures were well below zero and a couple of the tanks froze a bit. Dad got a pump going and started getting the water moving around and with a couple of sunny days the water melted. It hasn’t frozen since and now that we’ve had a few more sunny days the temperature of the water and the greenhouse has crept up. On a sunny day the temperature in the greenhouse has reached almost 30 degrees C. This also means that now the temperature in the greenhouse doesn’t go below zero. I’m sure it would if we had a sustained cold period but it doesn’t look like there’s much chance of that anymore this year. Our theory is that next winter the water will retain the summer heat and keep the greenhouse warmish for most of the winter. We planted some seeds in the last couple of weeks. We've got some perennials like sorrel, bee balm and catnip coming up and also a few vegetables like kale, cabbage and brussel sprouts. This week I started tomatoes, peppers and onions. Another way we are catching and storing energy is by building soil. It seems that up until recently there wasn’t much thought about how precious good soil is, that you could add a few fertilizers and you would be good. I believe it's starting to change but change is often slow when it's voluntary. In the previous post I talked a little about our hugelkultur beds. These beds catch the energy of the wood, compost and water that go into them. My husband keeps talking about how he wants to have a big bonfire and burn all the brush from the trees we cut down and all I can think is how much soil I’ll lose if we do that. I'm also using these beds as a water catchment. Our property is very wet and I want to take advantage of it. I want to catch the water in place so that I don't have to irrigate our garden so much. We are also catching the energy of our food waste by composting and my dad has built a rolling compost bin to help that process. It’s a prototype but the idea is that we can roll it around to mix the compost and encourage it to breakdown. In addition to creating soil it will help us store the energy needed to move compost from one place to another. No more wheelbarrows, just roll the thing out to the garden with the finished compost. Patent pending. We've used recycled pallets and a few large spool ends that I found on the side of the road. Another permaculture principle in action--no waste, but that's for another month.
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JackieI'm a garden farmer, herbal enthusiast, motherwifesisterfriend and Archives
April 2022
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