Growing Community in Southwest Michigan
Documentation of the growth habits / forms of some of the woody perennials at my (PJ’s) forest garden, with a snowy backdrop and a 6-foot “yardstick” to show scale, with notes about planting years. I have dry, sandy soil and a lot of these things didn’t get much care or watering—plus many have been...
Since I want to socialize and hope to distribute some issues of Permaculture Activist, I’m going to have a movie-watching get-together for Sunday, Feb. 15th, 7pm. We can watch some of my excellent “Holistic Orcharding” DVD featuring Michael Philips, especially the parts on tree pruning (it’s getting to be that time of year). Eat...
Since many of us have fruit trees growing, and most trees some require annual pruning for optimal health, I thought it would be a good idea to have a place to collect info on what people have, so that we can exchange ideas, comments and scion wood with each other. This is purely voluntary...
Our March Van-Kal Permaculture meetup was at Rachelle’s place. We spent a couple hours outdoors pruning a really overgrown old apple tree (Thanks to John and Josh for the pruning guidance and Tomme and Steve for their skill and daring in tree-climbing). We also had an excellent meal and conversation indoors. A great time...
Looking at pictures of the Permaculture gardens at Bealtaine Cottage, it seems completely impossible that such beauty and abundance could have come from 3 acres of north-facing, wet, rush-infested land, without the help of any chemicals or tilling. It’s even more remarkable that this garden of Eden was built almost entirely by one woman...
Tomme and Dale have offered to host a get together for fruit tree ordering in Kalamazoo on Wednesday February 19th, 7 PM at their home, Trybal Revival Gardens. Their house is located on the corner of E. Michigan Ave and Foresman Ave. http://goo.gl/maps/CEYvh I will bring the information from Sunday’s meeting and hopefully we...
Oikos Tree Crops is a national treasure of temperate-climate permaculture plants, and we are very lucky to have them right in our area (Lawton). While they are not a retail nursery—they do not let people go there and “shop” or take tours, on account of it being a mail-order / internet business staffed by...
Grandpa’s Orchard is a local (Coloma, MI) nursery that sells a good variety of grafted fruit trees, specializing in apples, peaches, plums, pears, cherries, apricots, etc. Group members have reported that their plants are of very high quality. From their site: Grandpa’s Orchard® is your home for the biggest selection of bareroot fruit trees...
The Conservation District’s tree sales are events not to be missed. Here you can get bulk quantities of mostly-native perennials at very good prices, including many of our native forest trees and shrubs. Plants like Serviceberry, American Hazelnut, Nannyberry, American Plum, Spicebush, Elderberry and Pawpaw are of special interest to permaculturalists, but they have...
Fruit Tree Meeting #1, Hey folks, we will be meeting this Sunday, 2014/02/16, 1 PM at the Lawton community room to work on the fruit tree order. Can’t make it? Don’t worry I will be trying to organize a meeting in or near Kalamazoo during the evening this coming week. What’s that? can’t meet...
