Nestled deep in the sticks of Schoharie County in upstate New York, lays Raven Crest Botanicals, a 250-acre sanctuary of an organic farm. Over 80 herbs are grown at Raven Crest for a variety of teas, tinctures, elixirs and skin care products. Susanna Raeven, owner of Raven Crest Botanicals, strives to bring “non-toxic, safe and effective, hand-made herbal products, made in small batches with love and intent” to her clients to “help them find balance in their lives with the generous support of the plant kingdom.”

Raven Crest teas, elixirs and tinctures are derived from Mother Earth without harming her, made well for Susanna’s supporters to be well. Ms.Raeven uses a variety of permaculture methods to ensure that each and every one of her products is natural, organic, and pesticide and fertilizer free.

Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer, the “Father of Permaculture,” describes the farming method as an environment where all elements within a system interact with each other; plants and animals working together in harmony. Holzer outlined major themes of permaculture:

• Multi-functionality: every element fulfills multiple functions and every function is performed by multiple elements

• Use energy practically and efficiently, work with renewables

• Use natural resources

• Intensive systems in a small area

• Utilize and shape natural processes and cycles

• Support and use edge effects (creating highly productive small-scale structures)

• Diversity instead of monoculture

Keeping the themes of Sepp Holzer in mind, below are five permaculture tips for a more sustainable farm, as used by Susanna Raeven at Raven Crest Botanicals:

1. Try Sheet Mulching

“If you don’t have good soil, you got nothing,” Susanna Raeven said. Sheet mulching establishes a great foundation for planting by using different layers of inorganic and organic materials to help the soil build itself. Start with slashed vegetation, and then add a layer of cardboard, a thin layer of manure, a foot of straw, compost, and end with mulch. Organic fertilizer can be added too.

At Raven Crest Botanicals, Ms.Raeven uses Espoma plant-tone, blood meal/dried blood, bone meal, azomite, rock phosphate, and lime for soil amendments. For added trace minerals, kelp or seaweed works well too.

The inorganic cardboard brings the carbon and the manure brings the nitrogen into the system, which are both needed for high quality soil. The key to excellent soil is a healthy ecosystem of microorganisms working the land, and sheet mulching is a way to provide good habitat for them.

2. Build Permaculture Guilds

Permaculture is based on utilizing and shaping natural processes, like those seen in forests. One way to mimic nature is to build a “food forest.”  Similar to a natural forest system, food crops and other plants that provide for human needs can be planted together to create multiple layers of vegetation and a diverse environment.  

A good start for a long-term food forest is a permaculture guild. A guild is a grouping of plants, animals, insects and other natural elements that work together to survive, grow symbiotically and help one another reach their fullest potential.

At Raven Crest Botanicals, sheet mulching was laid around fruit trees to provide the ground work for other herbs and flowers to be grouped together around the tree, and eventually establish a permaculture guild, when the soil is ready to be planted in.

Typically, monoculture grass and fruit tree root structures lie at a similar depth in the soil, thus creating competition for resources like nutrients and water. By planting herbs and flowers in a guild instead of planting grass, the competition for resources is eliminated and the plants can grow together symbiotically.

To build a strong permaculture guild, companion planting can be used to facilitate the smaller symbiotic relationships that contribute to the functionality of the system as a whole community. Planting different crops that compliment each other can also help with pest control, pollination and increase productivity. Tarragon and eggplant can be planted as companions. A common example of companion planting is the Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash. The stalk from the corn serves as a trellis for the beans to climb, as the beans fix nitrogen to benefit the corn. Squash vines act as “living mulch,” shading emerging weeds and preventing moisture in the soil from evaporating. 

Reference the companion planting guide put together by MOTHER EARTH NEWS here.

3. Rethink Your Gardening Space

To save money on soil and to reduce water use, consider building a Hugelkultur raised garden bed. A permaculture concept, a Hugelkultur is simply a raised garden bed filled with wood. At Raven Crest Botanicals, trees, branches and stumps were used to build a raised bed. Then, perennial herbs were planted to keep the soil in place. (See lead photo)

The rotting wood contains high levels of organic material, nutrients and air pockets for the roots of the plants in the bed. With time, the soil becomes rich and loaded with helpful microorganisms. As the wood shrinks, it makes more air pockets; allowing for a little bit of self tilling. The wood also helps keep excess nutrients in the soil, not leak into the groundwater, acting as a self-fertilizer. The water held in the tree stumps and branches allows for very little irrigation. Only a foot or so of soil is needed on top of the rotting wood, so Hugelkultur cuts down on soil costs too. 

Another interesting way to completely eliminate soil expenses is to try straw bale gardening. No need for a big plot of land or soil, straw bales allow for gardening on roof tops, in parking lots, and high density urban areas. The bales are moveable too!  To start planting in straw bales, simply add a lot of heavy nitrogen and organic fertilizer for one week, to help aid the decomposition process. Then, spend another week watering the bale. The straw bale will get very hot inside, but once the temperature comes down to 100 degrees, it is time to start planting seedlings. Straw bale gardening makes for an easier harvest too, since roots don’t have to be dug out.

For more information about straw bale gardening, read this article in the New York Times.

4. Go Solar!

Part of the vision of permaculture is to use energy efficiently and work with renewables. At Raven Crest Botanicals, a solar powered irrigation system waters the herbs and flowers with the water from the pond on the farm. Also at Raven Crest is a passive solar, earth-sheltered greenhouse. The greenhouse was built using the plans from The Earth-Sheltered Greenhouse by Mike Oehler, a book featured on Mother Earth News.

The Raven Crest greenhouse is insulated by the Earth and has a cold sink to give cold air a space to settle away from the tender seedlings. The oil-filled pistons of the temperature-sensitive automatic vents allow the greenhouse to regulate its own temperature. The oil in the pistons contracts in the cold (closing the vents) and expands in the heat (opening the vents). There are also ten 55 gallon water drums to help regulate the temperature in the greenhouse.

The hanging beds naturally keep mice away and serve as drying shelves when all of the herbs and flowers have been moved out of the greenhouse, hardened and planted. Although Ms.Raeven has a solar drier to dry her herbs for teas, elixirs and tinctures, the added space from her greenhouse gives her a better chance to dry all her herbs at their peak when they are the most medicinal.

5. Grow the Organic Farming Community – Host a WWOOFer

Susanna Raeven describes her farm as a “single woman operation.”  In order to grow her small business and reach more clients, she needs help planting and harvesting her herbs and tending her farm. Because of this, Susanna has become a part of the WWOOF program as a “host farm.”

Worldwide Opportunities in Organic Farming (WWOOF) is an “effort to link visitors with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices.”  The program connects people who would like to learn more about the organic movement, permaculture and sustainable agriculture, with farmers who want to share their knowledge. No money is exchanged between host farms and “WWOOFers,” just room and board for the volunteers (and amazing food if you are lucky!).

WWOOF is a great way to cultivate the movement for organic, healthy foods and to engage the younger generation in permaculture, farming and the environment. WWOOF creates an atmosphere of trust and respect, with emphasis placed on the value of hard work and integrity. The program shows that living off the land is a way to eat well, be well and wash your spirit clean.

For more information Raven Crest Botanicals, visit www.RavenCrestBotanicals.com. Susanna also offers flexible CSA packages at an affordable price that can be shipped throughout the United States.

Bobbie Mason is living proof that if you want to get something done, you should assign it to a person who is already busy. Previewing her garden days before a double feature of tours for the American Iris Society and, about a week later, the Society for Louisiana Irises, Mason described some of her gardening projects.

There’s the wheelchair-accessible therapy garden for veterans. The flower beds at the town square in Red Oak, where she lives. Her participation in flower shows. Her active membership in gardening-centered organizations, from the Dallas Council of Garden Clubs to the National Garden Club, and her leadership roles in several of them. Not only is she District X director for Texas Garden Clubs, she’s also historian for the Oak Cliff Garden Forum and incoming president of the Ovilla Garden Club.

That’s not a comprehensive list, by the way.

The energy she has put into her own garden is considerable, and that doesn’t count husband Robert’s sweat equity. (He weeds the many beds.) Repurposed containers — “something from nothing,” as she puts it — hold most of her Louisiana irises and other plants.

“My husband just gave up this pair of boots. And so they immediately had to become a flowerpot,” she says of footwear that’s now filled with sedum.

Patriotic by nature, Mason has a towering trio of plants in shades of red, white and blue. The white is a native Texas passion vine. It was a 6-inch stick in a gallon bucket at a Texas Discovery Gardens plant sale that she paid $15 for, although “I’m really allergic to spending money on plants,” she says. “I like to trade too much.”

Perhaps Mason’s original trade was at the tender age of 3, when she asked her great-grandmother in Christoval for some of the flags in her yard. (Some varieties of iris are known as flags.) Her great-grandmother said: “Honey, you can have all those old things you want. I’m sick of them.”

“My mother was not happy because I tore up her grandmother’s iris beds,” Mason says. When the misunderstanding was cleared up, “in the pickup they went.” Those irises “followed me around all my married life, and I’m 65 now. So that’s 62 years I’ve been dragging William Setchell” iris bulbs.

Mason joined the Dallas Iris Society in 2000, and now hybridizers send her their new varieties to show off. They get a good ride since she hosts many iris tours.

In all, Mason has found homes on her property for 150 new Louisiana irises “to go with the 50 I already have.” All of this is on a three-fourths-acre lot. “We have 10 pounds of flour in a 5-pound sack.”

A lovely sack it is, too.

Tips for growing irises

Avid iris gardeners have been known to throw surplus iris bulbs over the fence and have them bloom as heartily as their cared-for neighbors. We’re talking Louisiana iris, especially. We’re talking tough.

Sure, there are guidelines for Louisiana and their bearded relations:

1. Planting depth depends on the type of soil. For clay, go shallow. For sandy soil, plant deeper.

2. Irises like about a half-day of sun.

3. Plant at least 12 to 16 inches apart.

4. Fertilize on Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day and Halloween, advises Bobbie Mason. Use a 5-10-5 fertilizer. Tall bearded irises like dry conditions. Louisianas like acid soil and moist conditions. (Louisiana irises love water gardens.) You should use fertilizer designed for acid-lovers on Louisianas. Try azalea or camellia food, Ironite and Epsom salts — but not alfalfa — for Louisiana iris.

5. With any luck (and it doesn’t take much), you’ll need to divide iris in a couple of years. Divide the rhizomes between sections.

Betsy Simnacher is a Cedar Hill freelance writer.

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. –

Recent rain is testing gardeners’ patience, but experts say that’s exactly what you need right now.

Messing with the soil while your garden is draining could hurt your flowers. Garden experts like Leonard Perry with the UVM Extension say soil with rich organic matter will drain faster and that mulch can help keep the soil intact.

The cool, damp air has lawns growing out of control, but an early deep cut will stress the grass.

“Mow very high, as high as you can, then come back maybe a couple days later and you don’t want to cut off ideally more than a third or a half of the grass at any one time, but sometimes you have to,” Perry says. “But keep it at maybe three inches high — maybe two and a half to three inches high is a good height for mowing.”

The good news is, it looks like you’ll be able to get out there just in time for Father’s Day.

• Give tomato plants the elbow room they need to flourish. Even with stakes or cages to hold them up, indeterminate varieties should have 24 inches of room on each side to avoid crowding. Removing the “suckers” that emerge in leaf crotches will limit the sideways sprawl of the vine.

• Moonvines, or moonflowers, should be started from seed now for their spectacular and fragrant white trumpet blooms, which appear in late summer. The vines need sturdy support and can be used on railings, trellises and fences, in full sun or light shade. Rub seeds against a metal file or soak them overnight before planting, to speed germination.

• Sow bean seeds now for a July harvest. Bush beans are easy and productive, and additional sowings over the next six weeks will provide a summer-long supply. Pole beans need a trellis but will yield over a longer period. Scarlet runner beans should be sown in late July and August for a fall crop.

I have put in hay nets of barley straw in the past (barley straw is difficult
to source now) but it does work in about 60 per cent of cases. Why it does
not always work is a bit of a puzzle to the freshwater biologists. It does
take a good month or two, though, and you must remove it before it starts to
disintegrate, otherwise it increases the nitrogen levels and causes even
more algae.

This time I am adding barley straw extract instead (from Agagroup),
which is quicker and easier to manage, but if it does not work I will try Aqua
Activ Algo Universal from Oase, which has a helpline for
pool-related queries (01264 333225). This control does not last as long as
the more natural straw method.

The fail-safe, but expensive, method is to use a sonic machine that zaps the
weed continually, but it costs around £800 for an area of water around
150sq m.

Another common pest problem is invasive vegetation (reeds etc) which can cover
the whole pool. To combat this, either you can use glyphosate carefully to
spray the vegetation (it is not harmful to fish if used correctly) or you
can cover the base before they emerge (or cut down first) with a needle
punch root barrier (£2.35 per sq m from Aga group, as before). You will need
to weigh it down initially with rocks or silt.

The best way to avoid the pea soup situation is plants, plants and more
plants. Ash Girdler, a pond expert for the Aga group, recommends covering
two thirds of the surface area with floating leaved plants such as water
lilies, water soldier (Stratiotes aloides) and frogbit (hydrocharis).
Another three quarters of the sides, at least, should be planted with
emergent and marginal plants such as irises, flowering rush (Butomus
umbellatus) and water forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides). You
should add some bunches of submergents such as spiked water milfoil (Myriophyllum
spicatum), not to be confused with the highly invasive parrot’s feather (M.
aquaticum). Fish, especially carp, will gobble these up, though, so you
may need to cage the plants.

I originally planted lilies directly into the soil on the base of my pool some
30 odd years ago, using a rampageous white water lily. Now I have contained
them in baskets so we can see some water. These vigorous lilies start
pushing their leaves way up out of the water when they become congested and
every few years we lug them out, split and replant them in the spring.

Some gardeners think their pool base should look like the bottom of a clean
bath. This would be quite horrible for wildlife. What they really want in
the base is about 150mm or more of good, healthy hydrasoil (mud!), which, if
you have left it untouched, you probably have anyway. If you are not sure,
take a scoop out and smell it. If it stinks of rotten eggs or methane, then
maybe you have some anaerobic or partial decomposition. In which case add
some Aquabio (calcium sulphate, from Agagroup). You have just time now to
add it, or wait until late summer; it will slowly sweeten it.

Planting marginal plants directly into the soil, which covers the whole
pool/pond base, gives a better balance. Small quantities of basketed plants
can look rather wimpy. Topsoil is too rich and makes everything turn green,
and clay subsoil and fish are a bad combination, as the clay fines cloud the
water when the fish move. A poor, sandy subsoil is best.

If you want to add marginal plants now, maybe to hide your liner, a great way
to do it is to add pre-vegetated coir rolls. These are sausage-shaped
2m-long rolls, 200mm in diameter. They bend and can be fixed either just
below water level, or partially above it and they will sprout wonderful,
lush, emergent plants (ornamental and native mixes, from the Aga group).

If you are starting a new pool or pond, the choice of liner is very important.
Butyl has been superseded; EPDM rubber is far better. It is not degraded by
UV light and has a 25-year guarantee. Make sure it is 1mm thick. I always
specify a blanket underlay (NP 300) below and usually above the liner too.
If labradors, children and deer are going to stray in, it protects the
liner.

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Saturday, June 8, 2013

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YOUNGSTOWN

Nearly everyone who discovers an oil leak under their car will try to get the problem rectified as quickly as possible.

But what happens if the oil is left on the driveway or in the parking lot? Phillip Boran can tell you.

“The smaller things we don’t think about affects our lives,” said Boran, a Youngstown State University chemistry major. “Hopefully kids can see this as a good opportunity for what they can do to prevent more pollution.”

Boran was referring to a three-dimensional model depicting hypothetical farmland, urban and rural settings onto which he applied food coloring and sprayed water to show how motor oil and other products can mix with runoff water. The result?: Pollutants deposited in lakes, streams and rivers.

Boran’s demonstration was part of Saturday’s Friends of the Mahoning River’s second annual Mahoning Riverfest gathering at the BO Station Banquet Hall, 530 Mahoning Ave., downtown.

The four-hour event was to showcase the Mahoning River and promote more environmentally friendly and green practices, organizers said. Its main sponsor was Vallourec Star (formerly VM Star).

Many people who don’t remember the vibrant steel mills that once lined the Mahoning River received visual reminders, thanks to Nancy Brundage, the Audubon Society of the Mahoning Valley’s vice president.

Brundage found collages of photographs showing the river during the 19th and 20th centuries. Several taken in the 1950s and 1960s show a network of smokestacks and mills paralleling the river.

She also had on hand tips for attracting bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators to people’s gardens.

Another part of the festivities was a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the restoration a few weeks ago of a ramp and 52-foot dock, which will be used for kayaks and canoes on the Mahoning River.

To read more on the event and see photos, see Sunday’s Vindicator or Vindy.com.

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• Megadeth coming to Covelli Centre

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June is the start of summer and an opportunity to relax and enjoy your garden. Lawns lush and green and beds and borders full of colour.

The possibility of dry spells are increasing so a mulch around shrubs and spiking your lawn will ensure that as much as possible of the rain that falls, stays where it will do the most good.

As with hanging baskets, summer bedding, once planted, should be watered regularly to ensure it doesn’t dry out.

Continue to deadhead flowering bulbs as flowers fade but leave the foliage to die back naturally to ensure a good show next year.

Mature deciduous shrubs such as deutzia, philadelphus and weigela should be pruned into shape as their flowers fade. First remove any dead, diseased or damaged growth and then remove a number of older stems at the base to encourage strong new growth.

Faded flowers can be removed from rhododendrons, camellias and lilacs. This encourages strong new growth as the shrubs energy is diverted from developing seeds.

June is the best time to hard prune overgrown lilac. Cut growth down to around 45cm from the base to encourage lots of new growth and give a much bushier and better shaped shrub.

If trimming hedges remember to check for nesting birds and delay pruning if necessary.

Remember to regularly remove weeds from beds and borders to stop them going to seed.

For more information please check out our Monthly Garden Planner at www.briary.co.uk

It’s the 4th Annual McDade’s $1,000 Extreme Garden Makeover Drawing. Transform your landscape into a garden paradise. One lucky McDade’s customer will win the $1,000 professionally installed garden makeover.

The drawing ends June 30th. For every $20 purchased in June, your name is placed into the Makeover drawing. A $40 purchase receives 2 entries and so on – there’s no limit to the number of entries!

The $1,000 Prize includes:
$500 Shopping Spree at McDade’s Nursery
$250 Professional Landscape Installation
$250 Nature’s Guide Organic Products

Previous winners include Dave Davis, 2010 and Joanie Bechard, 2011.

The winner will be announced at the close of business June 30th.

The event is sponsored by Nature’s Guide.

June Gardening Tips

As summer temperatures start to rise, it’s important to monitor what’s happening in your garden. Here are important tips for the month of June.

Fertilize the lawn. Horticultural experts agree a spring, summer and fall fertilization schedule is the best and most effective treatment for lawns. Applying in early June, gives your grass the nutrients it requires to withstand the higher temperatures we’ll see in July and August

Change the Mower Setting. Move the cutting height of your lawn mower up a notch. Having a thicker lawn will require less watering and will keep the grass looking greener. You also don’t have to mow as often!

Water Efficiently. Watering the garden everyday causes plants to develop shallow root systems. A watering schedule of 2 – 3 times a week for longer durations is recommended, as it encourages roots to grow deep.
I
nsects and Fungus. At this time of year we see a dramatic increase in the number of pests in the garden along with different types of fungus. Be on the lookout for insect damage that can quickly destroy vegetable and flower beds. Act quickly by using an approved insecticide to prevent spread and further damage. Fungus can show up in your lawn (especially St. Augustine), on shrubs (like roses), fruit trees and in the vegetable garden.

Mulch. Protect plants and conserve water by applying a fresh layer of mulch. Mulch keeps the soil temperature cooler, keeps out weeds and retains water below the soil line. Cedar mulch is especially effective as it repels insects.

Get gardening tips from expert

10:02am Monday 10th June 2013 in News

GARDENS in Abbotsbury will open to the public as part of an annual event.

Abbotsbury Open Gardens is taking place this year on Sunday June 16 between 2pm and 5.30pm.

The Friends of St Nicholas Church are inviting people to wander around the beautiful gardens of the old Gate House. Other gardens include the Old Manor House, Abbey House and several cottage gardens.

Built in the early 14th century, the Gate House was part of the abbey which has stood in Abbotsbury from 1044 until it was destroyed under Henry VIII’s rule in 1540.

As a special treat this year Steve Griffiths, curator of Abbotsbury Subtropical gardens, will be on hand at to give expert advice on gardening problems.

Plants and produce will be on sale at the venues as well as refreshments at 1 West Street and Fleet Cottage. Tickets cost £3 for adults and can be purchased from Tricia Houlberg on 01305 871085. Visit abbotsbury.co.uk for more information.

All the profits will go to the Friends of St Nicholas, members of the community who raise funds for the upkeep of the ancient Grade 1 listed building of St Nicholas Church.

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