Blogs - The Resilience Hub

Gearing Up For Permablitzes and Work Parties

June 1, 2020 by Kate Wallace Leave a Comment

The Resilience Hub is committed to building a more localized food system and mutual aid networks in our community. One of the ways we can be of service during this time is to support the building of food growing spaces for people who have been impacted by the pandemic and are seeking greater food security.

To this end, we have decided to sponsor and organize in-person permablitzes / work parties again. We’ve come up with a list of guidelines for these events to lower the risk of transmission. Mt. Joy Orchard has already begun hosting work parties with good success.

Here is the evolving list of guidelines we’ve mapped out (with special thanks to the Mt. Joy Organizing Team for working out most of these):

All volunteers are required to wear masks and carefully keep at least 6 feet apart.
To help make it easier to maintain 6 feet or more between all volunteers, work parties will be split into 2 shifts of 3 hrs each. There will be 10 people allowed on each shift – volunteers can sign up for shifts using Sign-Up Genius.
Hand washing and hand sanitizing stations, as well as materials to sanitize tools between uses will be available at the site.
Participants are required to bring their own water bottle and work gloves.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own tools and use them for the duration of the event. We will provide guidance on which tools will be useful depending on the tasks to be completed at the permablitz / work party. We will request that volunteers stick to one job as much as possible to minimize the amount of tool sanitizing that needs to happen.
Materials piles will be spaced well apart so that people can keep distance easier.
Please stay home if you are feeling sick or have had recent exposure to anyone with symptoms of respiratory illness.

If you are interested in participating and have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to email inf o @resiliencehub.org.

Hugelkultur Planting

May 21, 2020 by Myke Johnson Leave a Comment

Okay, I said I wouldn’t write again about the hugelkultur until I had plants to show, but I can’t resist giving another update. Yesterday, I finished planting the mound! I learned some things in the process. It is very hard to water the whole mound–the water stays on the surface and slides down the sides. So I made small indented areas along the top of the mound in which to plant seeds so they could hold water: a round bowl-like indentation for a zucchini “hill,” and a square indentation for some bush beans. I put the first zucchini “bowl” near one end, so that the plant could drape over the edge. I alternated zucchini, then beans, then zucchini, then beans. I found some brown packing paper to use to help block weeds between the plantings, and put some straw in my seed areas for mulch. I used little twigs and stones to hold down the paper.

I planted three kale seedlings in the next area, then a “bowl” for cucumber seeds at the other end. I really could only plant in the very top across the mound, because nothing else was stable enough to water and keep the soil. I did tuck a couple of borage seeds lower into the side, in case they might grow there, since they are good companion plants for all of these. I tried to pick spots that had some support, and under where the beans would be. But it is very hard to water the sides without the soil sliding down. I imagine that if someone made a hugelkultur mound in the autumn, it might settle enough over the winter to be more usable on all of its surface area. But that idea of planting up both sides didn’t really seem feasible to me, though it was part of what appealed to me in the first place. Right now, planting the squash and cukes which like to spread out with a lot of vines seems the best idea.

Meanwhile, I planted other kale seedlings tucked into spots around the peach and cherry trees circles in our orchard, along with some lettuce and carrots. I love the polyculture feel of the food forest. I now have a total of 13 kale plants thanks to friends Mihku and Sylvia. I think of them as my tried and true veggie for the year–easy to grow, pick and eat, and freeze for the winter. So far, they have grown really well in our food forest.

Meanwhile, we also have sea kale, a lovely perennial kale that we have already been harvesting in early spring, along with our chives and oregano and thyme. The asparagus has been disappointedly spindly this spring so far. I had been hoping I might get a bunch to eat since this is its third year, but I only had a few spears worthy of snacking on. I guess they need more compost to keep them well fed. However, I am excited about these new zucchini, bush bean and cucumber plantings. Wish me luck!

This post was first published in my blog, Finding Our Way Home: A Spiritual Journey into Earth Community. I have learned so much from my involvement with the Resilience Hub, and am so grateful for our community of mutual support.

Hugelkultur 5, plus peach blossoms

May 17, 2020 by Myke Johnson Leave a Comment

Wow, it has been a month since Hugelkultur 4 when I last devoted a full post to progress on our hugelkultur garden bed. I am happy to say that yesterday I planted the first seeds! It has been a slow process of adding more soil and compost, a little bit each day, plus another layer of seaweed to help keep some of it in place. I also added soil and compost to the area between the mound and the logs marking the path, so there is a lower level on that side as well as a higher level. That in turn provided support for something like a slope of soil on that side. We planted lettuce and broccoli and spinach in that lower area, which will get a little more shade than other parts of the mound. It is a bit late in the season for all of those, so we’ll have to see how they do.

I finally decided that it wasn’t really possible to get enough soil to stick to the other side to use that as a planting surface, at least for this year. I’m calling it done for now! But as the mound ages and settles year to year, I think it will continue to evolve and we can keep shaping it and adding to it. For now, I intend to plant zucchini and bush beans and maybe some cucumber and kale on the top of the mound, and the zucchini and cukes can cascade down the sides. Our last average frost date in Portland is May 24, so those will get planted soon. [This will be my last hugelkultur update until I can show you the plants growing all over the mound!]

Meanwhile, speaking of frost, we had three freeze-warning nights this past week, and we covered our blooming peach tree with a tarp each night. But yesterday, I witnessed the best thing ever. I was sitting in my chair and saw a flash of something out the window, so I looked up. There was a tiny hummingbird, the first of the season, visiting each of the peach blossoms looking for nectar. I can’t explain why it moved me so. All of the care given to the tree, all of the natural beauty of the tiny hummer. No way to capture it in a photo, but here is the peach tree in bloom.

I mentioned in an earlier post [on my own blog] that an annual activity in the spring is pruning the cherry and peach trees–each year relearning it all over again and steeling myself to the task which seems so harsh. The peach had produced an abundance of branches, but I took out all of the ones growing toward the center, and those that were smaller than pencil size, in order to preserve a vase shape and to build a strong scaffold for future years. I was happy that I was able to leave some branches that were budding, and if all goes well we might get our first peaches this year.

[This post was first published at Finding Our Way Home: A Spiritual Journey into Earth Community.]

Garden Work and Rest

May 2, 2020 by Myke Johnson Leave a Comment

Wondering what’s been happening with the hugelkultur? The last few weeks I have been outside in the garden a lot, but not writing a lot. I have been adding soil and compost to the hugelkultur mound little by little, and stuffing sod dirt side up into the sides, but in photos it doesn’t change much. I created a new tool–a screen to sift compost that has become inundated with small roots. My friend had such a screen, but this one is even simpler than hers–just two dowels, with a metal screen attached with staples and duct tape. It fits over the top of the wheelbarrow, and makes it so much easier: I shovel compost from the pile onto the screen, then rub it back and forth with gloved hands to sift out the roots, and the usable compost falls through.

In other permaculture garden news, I also put spigots and drain hoses back into six of our rain barrels. They are designed to capture rain from the gutters, fill one barrel, and then overflow into the second barrel, and then overflow through a drain away from the house. The joy of these rain barrels–originally installed during our permablitz a few years ago by David Whitten–is they can stay out through the winter as long as we remove the spigots and any long hoses. I had to go through the plastic drain hoses and cut off sections that had cracked, but luckily we had enough left to make it work. So I thought they were ready for rain again, but then yesterday as I checked them during our rainstorm, I discovered that one fitting had cracked–we’ll see if I can figure out how to fix that.

Our new mulberry tree from Fedco arrived on Wednesday. (We had ordered it via the group order of the Resilience Hub, and a volunteer delivered it to our door!) Our old mulberry tree didn’t do well where we had first planted it–too much shade, and then after I transplanted it last year, sadly it didn’t survive. But most of the work was done, because I had prepared such a great bed for it last year–so all I had to do was pull back the mulch, dig a small hole, and place the new baby tree inside. Baby trees aren’t that photogenic, a brown stick with a brown mulch background, so here is a photo of her roots all tangled up and gnarly before I placed her in the hole filled with water. May our tree be blessed in her new home, and provide food for birds and us too!

On a personal note, two springs ago, as I was preparing for retirement due to chronic illness, my partner Margy bought me an early retirement gift–a hammock. Lately, after working for a while in the garden, I climb into that hammock and rest–so perfect! It feels a bit like laying on the beach in the sun, or floating on the ocean water. I can relax deeply, let go of trying to carry anything or do anything. It has been so healing in this time of existential stress and grief for our world. I rock as if held in the arms of the air, the birds singing, blue sky and greening trees surrounding me, sun warming me. It reminds me that we are held in the embrace of a larger Love, even when we feel so helpless in the face of the troubles that plague our country. May you also find ways to rest your spirit in this beautiful earth!

This post first appeared in my blog, Finding Our Way Home: A Spiritual Journey into Earth Community.

What We’ve Been Up To…

April 21, 2020 by Kate Wallace Leave a Comment

Permaculturists have a saying that “the problem is the solution”. Since its inception, the Resilience Hub has been committed to creating alternatives to the parts of culture we’d like to see change – and building more resilience at the individual, household, and community levels. When the seriousness of the pandemic became clear, we saw the opportunity to act in concert with this vision and take steps to design a better future.

The response is a work-in-progress and has truly been a team effort. Once we identified some ways that our network could potentially be helpful, we sent out a survey to everyone in the Meetup group. The response we got was massive and encouraging, with many offers of time, land, materials, and skills. We want to update you on some of the ways we’ve begun to respond:

We’ve been talking for a while now about our desire to connect people who are seeking land to grow food and medicine with people who have it and would like to share. It turns out that Land in Common has been working on the Maine Land Share Project for over a year now – they have a fully fleshed-out plan in place and a working group dedicated to the project. We have joined efforts with them to match land seekers and land owners in an intentional and mutually beneficial way. The project is committed to supporting the matches that are made throughout the growing season and beyond. If you are interested in getting involved, fill out one of these forms – whether Seeking Land or have some Land to Offer.
We have instituted a Garden Mentorship Program – connecting more experienced growers with those who are just getting started. We offer introductions and a set of suggested guidelines for mentors and mentees to build relationships and learn from one another. So far we’ve matched over 70 people based on geographic location and interest.
We are in the process of coordinating a “pandemic gardens” response for people who are already growing food and/or medicine and would like to grow extra in service to greater food security. We’ve had 80+ people express interest so far, and are working out how we can get this food and medicine from the generous folks who grow it to the people who need it.
The Education Working Group continues to offer workshops and skillshares virtually. We have identified a few people in the community who are interested in serving on a Communications Working Group so that we can better serve people remotely during this time and in the future.

If you would like to get involved in any of these efforts, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Send me an email at kate@resiliencehub.org or fill out the original survey here.

Here’s to our continued solidarity, health, and resilience in the face of change.