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Home / Shop / Plants & Seeds / Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

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Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

This book opened our eyes to the potential of using Permaculture to build our urban food forest and has continued to be a resource we refer back to regularly as we build up our farm.

Category: Plants & Seeds Tag: Recommended Reading

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by Toby Hemenway

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About Our Family

Family photo 2020 — Our family values include nonviolent communication, self-directed education and gentle parenting. We strive to implement permaculture principles in all areas of our lifestyle.

We Love Thyme

Thyme and rustic scissors — We love thyme. With seemingly endless varieties of this aromatic, delicious, medicinal, flowering evergreen ground cover we thought it was a perfect namesake for our farm. We especially loved creating a play on words that reflects our values of hope, regeneration and abundance.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. -Lao Tzu

Our Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry

Ameraucana ~ Bresse ~ Cream Legbar ~ French Black Copper Marans ~ Lavender Orpington ~ Silkie ~ Silverudd’s Blue Isbar

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We love thyme. With seemingly endless varieties of this aromatic, delicious, medicinal, evergreen, flowering ground cover we can’t think of a better namesake for our farm.

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Phone: 917-727-2039

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betterwiththyme

Over the weekend we experienced our first frost of

Over the weekend we experienced our first frost of the year, a full month ahead of the typical timing for our area. This morning there was frost on the field again.

We’re moving our October goals up, starting now:

- Process the roosters we aren’t keeping over the winter. I’m so ready to restock the freezer for winter meals and broth!

- Convert our small cow shelter into a turkey coop. They generally stay outside but we want them to be able to escape weather like freezing rain.

- Build a simple but larger cow shelter. Again, they don’t need much and even prefer to stay out in the snow but freezing rain can be a problem.

- Stack more firewood for winter fires in the wood stove.

How are you doing with winter prep this year? Do you have more to accomplish outside before it gets too cold?

#winterprep #farmlife #homestead #homesteading #homesteadmama #homesteadlife #minijersey #moonbeamofbetterwiththyme #mulberryofbetterwiththyme

We planted the peace tree behind us in this photo

We planted the peace tree behind us in this photo in the midst of starting a farm, building a house and taking care of an infant (and her two older siblings).

It was just shy of two years from when we bought the property and we were still in a tiny RV with no running water and just a little bit of electricity that our solar generator produced.

We planted this tree as a wish for peace here on this land, hoping that we would one day look around and feel at peace instead of stress at all that we were enduring.

Now two years on the other side, we are there. We look out at our ruminants grazing, our birds pecking, we admire our dogs fierce and loyal protection along with their gentle affection. We thank the pigs for their hard work cleaning up our hedgerow. We retreat into our cozy home when a storm rolls in. We look around and feel at home.

The world out there feels more crazy than ever, but here there is peace.

Happy 12th Anniversary Peter.

#homesteadmama #farmlife #homesteadlife #smallfamilyfarm #homestead #homesteadinglife #farmlife #countrylife #westvirginia #12thanniversary #mintofbetterwiththyme

This Blue Orpington hatched out of eggs I ordered

This Blue Orpington hatched out of eggs I ordered that were supposed to be Chocolate Orpingtons. Isn’t she a beauty though? I love her super fluffy feathers.

This spring she tried to brood about 2 dozen eggs (and successfully covered them all with all her fluff!) but the dogs found her nest and started stealing eggs. When we tried to move her to a safer spot she gave up being broody and rejoined the free range flock.

She’ll be a year old next month and still doesn’t have a name. What would you call her?

#meetmychickenmonday @17chickensandcounting @chickouttawater

#orpington #blueorpington #permaculturechickens #freerangechickens #homesteadmama #farmlife #homesteadlife

Our chickens have been an integral part of our per

Our chickens have been an integral part of our permaculture inspired design for our farm since the beginning. Our chickens even moved to our property before we did!

If we think of chickens in terms of what they need and what they give, the first things most people probably would think of are that they give eggs (and maybe meat) and they need food, water and shelter/safety.

If we expand on this list, we can also find ways to incorporate our chickens into the whole system. For example, chickens give with their scratching. Most of our flock ranges behind the cows, scratching through the cows’ manure to remove larvae and leaving behind spread out fertilizer instead of a big pile to smother the grass below (or smear the shoe of someone walking through the field without watching their step carefully). 😯

For the chickens that don’t free range, we use portable pens that I can drag by hand to a new spot as many times per day as needed. When we use chickens this way, they can improve the soil drastically in a short time and cover areas where the soil is too dry to put fencing in for the ruminants. By the next year we have recovered more pasture; it comes back lush and green with fewer plants that are not desirable to our larger livestock.

There are many other “needs” and “gives” but these are two of our top things our chickens give us. What other ways do chickens give to you?

#fierceflockfriday @farmhouse_homestead

#pastureraised #pasturedpoultry #freerangechickens #permaculture #permaculturedesign #homesteadmama #smallfamilyfarm #homestead #homesteadinglife #farmlife #countrylife #westvirginia

I needed a break from shipping hatching eggs so I

I needed a break from shipping hatching eggs so I stopped taking new orders. It’s a good thing I already deep cleaned and packed up the incubators for the year or I might be tempted to do something with all these silkie eggs besides eat them.

#homesteadmama #crazychickenlady #chickenmath but #fallhatchedchicks grow up to lay bigger and more eggs!

#silkiechickens #silkieeggs #eggbasket

Our family has benefited so much from our new rhyt

Our family has benefited so much from our new rhythm as everyone eases into knowing what comes next and everything is getting done in its turn.

I started with bedtime so we get enough sleep as our foundation. We diffuse Seedlings Calm on the nightstand to help everyone surrender to sleep. We added to our rhythm bit by bit and now our whole day is filled from beginning to end with rhythm and oils.

Some days are different but this is what our ideal day at home looks like now:

I’m awake first, and start my day with a big glass of water and peppermint. I work until sunrise, when everyone else starts waking up.

To help us perk up and breath deeply first thing in the morning we keep Raven on the nightstand.

The kids play while I make breakfast and Peter gets some work done.

I start the kitchen diffuser with Frankincense (grounding) and Theives (immune support - perfect for autumn) plus a mood setter for the morning (eg Citrus Fresh, Valor or Joy).

The kids’ area diffuser has Frankincense and GeneYus (focus). I have been absolutely astounded at the difference in their focus. Learn more about GeneYus and the rest of the new little oilers starter kit that was released today in my stories!

After breakfast we take care of all the animals and play outside.

The kids have a snack and work on their projects/play. I’m available nearby decluttering, cleaning, doing laundry or reading.

We break for lunch and then back to projects/play while Peter works.

The living room is a peaceful escape if anyone needs a break (diffuser has Peace & Calming, Lavender, etc). Our littlest takes her afternoon nap there.

We head back outside, checking on the garden and harvesting herbs/veggies for dinner. I make dinner while the kids play in the garden, sand or swing set.

We eat dinner and then milk, move the cows’ fence, collect the last round of eggs and make sure all the animals are set for the night.

We relax in the living room, reading books and sharing our favorite things from the day. Finally we head up to bed and turn on the nightstand diffuser with Seedlings Calm and all go to sleep.

What a blessing this has been for our family. Do any parts of our new rhythm inspire you?

I am loving watching the sun rise every morning. I

I am loving watching the sun rise every morning. I’ve never seen anything like the one we saw today. We could actually look at the sun when it was well above the horizon it was so dim. Have you ever seen a sunrise like that?

#sunrise #morningrhythm #homesteadmama #countrylife

This is June, another hen from our mixed layer flo

This is June, another hen from our mixed layer flock. She’s half silkie and half unknown. Everything about her is silkie except she has barbed feathers. I love her huge crest, beard and feathered legs. She also has the black feathers that shine iridescent green in the sunlight. I kept thinking of Johnny Cash when she was a chick, but since she grew up to be a hen we decided to call her June. I’m curious to see if she goes broody at some point; we’ve never had a silkie cross not go broody on us eventually!

#meetmychickenmonday @17chickensandcounting @chickouttawater

#silkiechicken #silkiecross #mixedbreedchicken #homesteadmama #farmlife #spoiledchickens #permaculture #permaculturechickens #rotationalgrazing #homegrowneggs #freerangechickens

The pups are really enjoying the cooler weather (h

The pups are really enjoying the cooler weather (high of 75 today). Everyone else had enough before Blossom was done (last video).

I’ve felt chilled all day, except when I got nice and warm weeding and pulling the annuals that are done in the garden.

I’m still mentally preparing for the end of warm weather and starting up a big pot of broth today along with diffusing the fall scents in the kitchen.

We’re down to two chickens in the freezer from our last processing and we have plenty of cockerels/roosters running around.

We’ve been waiting for cooler weather to process again, looks like the time is here.

Is the weather cooling off where you are yet?

#livestockguardiandog #lgd #greatpyrenees #akcgreatpyrenees #naturalrearing #naturalrearingbreeder #homesteadmama

I’ve been trying for several days to get a good

I’ve been trying for several days to get a good photo of our ducks at these puddles and finally got them to cooperate this morning!

As I mentioned in my previous post, to me permaculture is primarily a way of thinking about how elements of a design can work together in harmony to create regenerative human settlements.

One specific way to do this is to think about each element (including animals) in terms of what they NEED and what they GIVE and then find as many ways as possible to connect what each element in your design gives to what something else needs. The whole design then moves toward an interconnected web, where each element is building the system up toward more and more abundance.

Here’s a simple example of how we connected our house and our ducks:

Ducks need water; they need to be able to submerse their bills above their nostrils in order to clean them. Our house is a huge water collection surface that runs off clean water anytime we get rain (we have a metal roof).

We planned our final grading around our house to include a swale that runs along the backside of the house and feeds into a low area where we will eventually build a large pond. But for now, we have small holes dug in a couple of places along the swale. The biggest is about the size of those little plastic pools that are often used for ducks.

So every time it rains the swale flushes the water through and we get fresh water for our ducks, and no yucky pools to scrub and clean. If we don’t get rain for a long time, we have a yard hydrant nearby that we can use to flush the water, and we don’t use more than would be used for a little pool.

#permaculture #ducks #permaculturedesign #ecologicaldesign #permacultureducks #regenerativeliving #homesteadmama

Permaculture design is dear to my heart, and I rea

Permaculture design is dear to my heart, and I realized I haven’t shared much about what it means to us. I would like to start sharing more specifics about how we are using Permaculture design on our farm.

The Basics

Permaculture is a design system, and to me it is a way of thinking that focuses on the relationships among elements of a whole system and how they can work together in harmony.

Permaculture is a contraction of the words Permanent + Agriculture (or Culture) and as the name implies, the overall goal is to design at least sustainable and ideally regenerative human settlements.

Our Garden

Yesterday in my stories I walked through our main garden (it’s saved in a highlight if you missed it).

We started with an area about 2,000 square feet directly south of our home. We utilized the chickens to clear, scratch and fertilize the area for more than a year, which significantly improved the soil with high clay content. A little over one year ago, the final grading around our house was completed and we fenced the garden area off from our free-ranging birds.

We laid out a meandering, roundish path through the garden. Off of that path we have many short paths that are each “keyhole” garden beds. Instead of long rows to walk, you can stand (or squat like me) at the center of each keyhole and reach all the plants in that bed, so it’s much easier for weeding, pruning and harvesting.

The next keyhole path is placed so that you could touch fingertips with the person in the previous bed —> Everything within reach, less space dedicated to paths, and a more organic, beautiful layout.

Within each keyhole bed is a polyculture of perennials, annuals, herbs, flowers, fruit and vegetables. Most have a fruiting shrub or small fruit tree at the furthest reach.

We taught our children to walk on the paths only, to maintain the structure of the soil. We plant strategically around the paths so that things that are harvested more frequently and/or by little people are closer to the paths.

Since this is only our second year in this garden, we are far from complete but the design guides us as we continue to add plants.

#permaculture #permaculturegarden #homesteadmama

Bria is all smiles because she loves playing in wo

Bria is all smiles because she loves playing in wood chips and I am all smiles because I got news today that we are now approved members of the Natural Rearing Breeder’s Association.

The Natural Rearing Breeder’s Association
“A Premier Organization
is comprised of like-minded breeders, natural animal health professionals and dog owners dedicated to the principles of rearing our dogs and cats as close to nature as possible. Only incorporating natural remedies and only as needed. We promote a healthy lifestyle to support the complete dog (mind, body and spirit) while promoting an awareness for our changing world.”

We have been raising our dogs with natural rearing since the beginning but I always strive to continue learning and so I found the Natural Rearing Breeder’s Association at the end of last year. At the beginning of 2020 I read the book Natural Rearing: Breeding and Raising Dogs the Way Nature Intended by Dr. Jeannie Thomason (the founder of the association) and applied for membership. Dr. Thomason’s book and work was also one of the key things that opened my eyes to the science behind how essential oils work and got me curious about learning to use them more with our family and our animals.

#briaofbetterwiththyme #livestockguardiandog #lgd #akcgreatpyrenees #farmdog #greatpyrenees #homesteading #farmdog #greatpyreneespuppy #greatpyreneeslife #farmher #farmlifebestlife #homesteading #greatpyr #livestockguardian

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