Design

I've been thinking quite a bit about 'sustainable gardening' lately.  I promote (what I consider) are sustainable gardening practices in the classes I teach -- minimal inputs of water, fuel, pesticides, herbicides, and inorganic fertilizers, don't let leaves leave your property, don't kill things, promote diversity, plant mostly natives, think naturalistic planting design, minimize areas devoted to lawn, etc.  We've been happy with our 'natural garden' created with this approach in our own home landscape in the Piedmont of South Carolina.  And we're continuing this in our second home in the mountains (where we'll probably 'retire'), where we're populating the slope around our small mountain house with native understory shrubs along with native trees. Vegetable gardening is a bit more problematic;  vegetables, by their domesticated nature, are nutrient and water hogs, so the gardener is ALWAYS grubbing around for more sources of organi...

We've been freeing the slope below our small (urban) mountain house of invasive species. Or, really, I should say my gardening companion has been doing it, with my encouragement.  It's made a huge difference to date;  first, he tackled the Japanese honeysuckle, English ivy climbing up trees and walls, and now is rooting out English ivy sprawled along the forest slope.   He's all the way down to the intermittent creek in the ravine, and is making great progress along the creek bed. Enjoying the hard physical labor, he's ventured forth on the lower slopes of adjoining lots, too, clearing trash as well as weeds.  The results have been great. What was a sea of green honeysuckle and ivy in winter is now bare branches and a rich understory of fallen leaves ( with bags and bags added from our neighbors' collections ). We're plotting additions of woodland wildflowers to accompany the shrubs and trees that have already been added (all characteristic of cove forests)....