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| The Bee Oasis garden in transition from summer to a fall garden, along with a solar oven in foreground! |
A few weeks ago I was fortunate to attend one of The Bee Oasis workshops, led by permaculture guru of the east valley - Don Titmus. His home is a great example of living a sustainable lifestyle, which we can and should all learn from. Don is a master at sharing his practical knowledge and explaining the principles of permaculture.
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| Overturned metal mesh waste baskets from the dollar store serve as cloches to protect young plant starts. What a great idea! |
Don has 40 years of experience in horticulture and has lived in Arizona since 1981. With 14 years of experience in Permaculture (teaching, design, consults and implementations) he is your man if you need a consult on how to set up or improve your garden, lay out a home fruit orchard, or to implement rainwater harvesting features. As Don puts it - he's out to help heal the Earth one home-site at a time!! I can hardly think of a more noble pursuit.
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| A sturdy set of hand made tools at the ready to prepare the fall garden beds. |
Don demonstrated his method of prepping fall garden beds, using a "low-till" instead of "no-till" method. He loosened up just the first six inches or so of the soil before adding amendments, allowing nutrients to get down into the soil without disturbing the beneficial micro-organisms living happily in their own levels within the soil. I like this concept and am giving it a try in my fall garden beds.
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| Hanging herb drying rack with velcro closure, lets air in and keeps bugs and birds out. |
The fall garden prep demo was followed with a great presentation indoors on the principles of Permaculture. I love networking with other organic gardeners and got to chatting with two from Aravaipa Canyon - home of the infamous 100-plus years old Aravaipa Avocado tree. Interestingly, they had also tried to grow one of the off-springs of this tree, and failed.
Other interesting tidbits of information I picked up were that -
Arbico Organics sells worm castings by the truckload!
Maricopa County Cooperative Extension offers free soil and water testing!
Using black strap molasses in your compost speeds up the composting process!
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| Rainwater harvesting tank at the Bee Oasis collects water from the home's metal roof for use in the garden, with overflow going to a nearby lush shade garden. |
The next Bee Oasis workshop is on Rainwater Harvesting. Participants will get to see firsthand how Don installed his rainwater tank and how he incorporated berms and swales into his landscape to slow the rainwater and allow it to soak into his soil rather than letting it run off into the street!
Homestead Garden Series - Rainwater Harvesting, Saturday, October 14 at 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM - Sustainable strategies for Harvesting the rain for garden and homestead resilience. From the top of your watershed.....Slow it, Spread it, Sink it. Store in the soil or in tanks for later, all this and more are demonstrated at the Bee Oasis.
The Bee Oasis holds classes monthly and has great upcoming topics -
2017November - Soil Building
December - Pc Sectors [with a focus on cold/chill/freeze]
2018January - Composting and more
February - Spring Garden, plan and prep
March - Bee Blocks for Pollination and the Natural Mozzie Trap.
April - Chickens and more
May - Climate, Microclimates and Inner climate
June - Garden Shading and more
Bee Oasis FB Page https://www.facebook.com/beeoasis/
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