We are not going to wait for someone to do it for us.

Update on http://nowthepathforward.us

NOW the Path Forward has been operational for two weeks.

Participants have initiated six courses so far.

  1. Alternative Gardening Methods: Round Bales, Raised Beds, Etc.
  2. Cooking From Scratch
  3. Reading Club: Classic Books at http://www.gutenberg.org/
  4. Listening Book Club: Classic Audio Books at https://librivox.org/
  5. Harvesting Rain Water
  6. Building FLOSS C/C++ Programs from Source Code on Windows & Linux

Two people from my SchoolForge list (educational, supporting Linux and Open Source Software) are actively working on developing and contributing.

I added a philosophical statement on the frontpage.

The philosophical premise is that we are not going to wait for someone else to do it for us. We are doing it ourselves ... now.

I got to thinking, "what can nowthepathforward.us offer, that other sites do not?" For example, one participant shared a link to http://davesgarden.com. It is an amazing site with over 700,000 members and discussion forums. But it is scattered information. I hope we can come away with document packages that supply a holistic view. In the case of gardening, I want for each geographical area everything you need to know for a food forest. What to plant, radically amend, water, off season growing, how much to feed your family = a system that works.

Some geographical areas already have systems developed. Not here in north central Texas. Landscaping, yes. Vegetable gardening, no.

Please write in the comments if you have suggestions about how to communicate the purpose better, or any other ideas too.

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dance you monster's picture

There is no one food forest that "works" for any region, but many. The food forest is modeled on what nature already does, which is anything but rigid, or predictable, or consistent, or even reliably stable. Every site should get its own forest, attuned to its specific soils and rainfall and light and microclimates, and one that permits a lot of tweaking over decades as you get to see what works and what doesn't. Nature also tries all kinds of possibilities on any site and ends up with the one that doesn't die. Even after you decide what kinds of plants you want, the sourcing will result in different outcomes, due to the genetics of the individual plants.

And while Davesgarden is very useful (I have it bookmarked), especially because it notes sources for these plants, there are several such sites that should be looked at for any species or cultivar.

More useful for your specific inclinations might be
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Default.aspx

And there's
https://plants.usda.gov/java/
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plantfinder/plantfindersearch.aspx
https://www.wildflower.org/

And for practical input on mixing your plants:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

There are many, many more websites for more specific plant groups and objectives. And of course there are hard-print books that are unavailable on the toobz, especially if you are interested in heritage plants.

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mhagle's picture

@dance you monster

"Food forest" is a term I use rather loosely and in ignorance!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

the best option seems to be growing a traditional harvest garden and preserving the surplus.

So I need help with things like how to make a clamp (that's outside storage for taters) or for how to store the excess in the basement and not attract every mouse and rat in the neighborhood.

Another difficulty we have is that with a short growing season, you don't get any do overs. If Phil the groundhog eats your bean plants, you don't harvest beans that year.

Permaculture, which is where the Food Forest idea comes from, was developed in Australia, and is very applicable to tropical environments. Mollison has some good ideas for cold zoners, but unless you can afford heated high tunnels and greenhouses, you better be planning on food storage.

For you in Texas, you might want be thinking about water capture and storage. If you have a large spread, you might want to consider tree planting on some of it to raise your water table. You have two growing seasons, maters, peppers, cukes and zukes and big squashes in summer and cole crops (cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) in winter.

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Mary Bennett

mhagle's picture

@Nastarana

Thank you!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Daenerys's picture

@Nastarana Get some cats. No, really. Don't use rat/mouse poison. I saw an article about how people put out pesticide for rodents, then owls come along and eat the rodents and get second-hand poisoning and die. I imagine it would affect cats too. The less pesticides put out into the environment the better for everyone anyway.

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This shit is bananas.

@Daenerys
So they don't get into the stored rutabagas and I don't have to buy cat food and litter and don't have cats pooping in the vege beds in summer.

I am thinking of moth balls, inside the basement, not out, which nothing eats and which do seem to deter rodents.

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Mary Bennett

mhagle's picture

@Nastarana

I am so envious of you that you have stored rutabagas.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

@mhagle
I do think they are an excellent variety and I hope to have more this next season.

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Mary Bennett

mhagle's picture

Possibly I am not communicating this properly. Or it might be beyond the realm of understanding.

If I or others do not figure out how to grow food locally here. People will die.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

@mhagle
and look up Bill Mollison. See if you can get his big book, the one with the world egg with a snake curled around it design on the front cover, through interlibrary loan. That is the permaculture bible. I also strongly recommend a subscription to AcresUSA, which is mostly for sustainable farmers but has a lot of good info for gardeners as well. Some Barnes & Nobles carry it.

In the meantime, is there no gardening club near you? The members might be chemical gardeners, and you might have to be too. I hope not, but if that is what it takes till you figure out how to work with your soil and climate, at least it gets you gardening. And the members undoubtedly can connect you to someone who does make a go of non chemical methods. In hot climates, TIMING is critical. I found that out when I lived in CA. Plant after a certain date, it was late April in CA, and your plants simply don't get enough water at their roots, never mind how much you irrigate. Local gardeners can help you with that.

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Mary Bennett

@mhagle
Sometimes that is all you can do. The more folks take up food growing, the more respectable it becomes.

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Mary Bennett

mhagle's picture

@Nastarana

Neil Sperry (sp) says, "we Texans love our state but know it is difficult to grow vegetables here."

Terrible alkaline soil and really short growing seasons. This year when I started growing in big round bales .. I know I crossed a threashhold. Radical soil amending. Plus. It has to be in A March 1.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

divineorder's picture

@mhagle @mhagle in significant numbers but nothing compared to what we are facing.

I think what you are doing is great and can help prevent despair.

I have a brother who has had a veg garden most of his life,even if he had to use pots while living in an apartment. Great skill to have imo.

The unpredictability of climate coupled with increased intensity of drought and storm is a monumental challenge we all will have surmount.

But doing nothing is not an option. Thanks for sharing what you are doing!

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Thank you for the update. I dream about growing stuff but am landless and stone broke, cannot even make dirt. But I can still dream, and I still tend the volunteer oak leaf lettuce in my tiny deck container, ate four leaves yesterday. lol One of my regular bookmark visits is to r/Permaculture/ , a lot of "industrious" people you have to dig for the good stuff. I think its where I saw Lessons of the Loess Plateau. Here is another talk (sorry if its redundant) by Toby Hemenway called Liberation Permaculture.
http://tobyhemenway.com/

This episode is the rebroadcast of Toby talk from PV2 in March 2015.

Permaculture offers more than a path to a sustainable and just food system. It can move entire segments of our society off the radar screens of state oppressors and help return equality, abundance, and justice to people while restoring healthy ecosystems. This talk will tell you how.

Here’s a hint on how that’s possible. If you can’t measure it, you can’t tax it.

Enjoy it, I hope it gets you thinking…

Another documentary from John Liu:
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/ou-on-the-bbc-hope-changing-climate-0

The Open University

Hope in a Changing Climate is a new documentary co-produced by The Open University and the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP) for BBC World News . It reframes the debate on global warming by illustrating that large, decimated ecosystems can be restored. Success stories from Ethiopia, Rwanda and China prove that bringing large areas back from environmental ruin is possible, and the results are key to stabilising the earth’s climate, eradicating poverty and making sustainable agriculture a reality.

The programme documents the remarkably successful efforts of local people to restore empty, degraded ecosystems – transforming them into fertile, life-sustaining environments which enable people to break free from entrenched poverty.

Presented by John D. Liu, founder of the EEMP and creator of the film Lessons of the Loess Plateau, the film contains breathtaking before and after footage of large-scale restoration projects. The area of restoration on the Loess Plateau in China is the size of Belgium and thousands of years of subsistence farming had made it barren and infertile. In 1995 the Chinese Government, with support from The World Bank, took drastic action to rehabilitate the plateau, and local people – seen as both perpetuators and victims of the devastation – became part of the solution.

Thanks for teaching and sharing, and thanks for making dirt and growing food. Cheers!

PEACE

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mhagle's picture

@eyo

The lessons of the loess plateau video really changed my way of thinking. Then I noticed my garden area taking on a life of it's own. Don't really know how the two should merge. ???

I had you in mind when I put up nowthepathforward.us actually. You might not be able to garden, but there can be a course/space on any topic. "Having fun with Slackware"? "Family Stories as History" ?

Peace to you too. Smile

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo