While studying permaculture, the biggest change that I’ve found in my garden design approach is patience.

I don’t have a landscape plan for my house. I have ideas, but nothing else. My husband brings up possible problems, design ideas, and I just think, “We’ll see.”

Permaculture is all about observing. I’ve only been here a few months, most of which has been in the dead of winter. I can’t plan everything yet–I don’t know the sun angle in relation to the trees in the summer and exactly what areas get full sun or full shade. I don’t know how the irrigation water will run, what areas will be more wet or dry. I don’t know what weeds grow where, and I haven’t dug around in the soil that much.

I could guess, make a plan. I’ve done it all the time, because I don’t have the luxury of sitting on client’s work for months at a time. But with my home, where nothing is pressing, I’m content to wait and observe for a year before I start finalizing plans and ripping out grass or seed meadows. I will do some things: take away what I know I don’t want, start some cover crops, and provide play areas for my children. I’m still planting a vegetable garden. But I’m not in a hurry to order a bunch of fruit trees and start building raised beds.

What I’ve found while observing, is that the first design ideas get tossed away, modified, and mostly improved. New ideas come, and because everything is still flexible, I can incorporate them easily. Problems in the landscape aren’t horrible, because I have yet to determine what everything will be and can easily adjust. Waiting is a good thing.

We cut down the shrubs in the fall, but their ugly stumps remained above the ground all winter. I wasn’t opposed to leaving them and letting them decay on their own…but my husband (Joe) knew this was a less than ideal situation, and so we started digging. And digging some more. The stumps remained firmly rooted. I gave up and told Joe to get them out.

So one day Joe bought a long metal tool home after work. (I’m not exactly sure what to call it, or what it is actually designed for. It is simply a long, sturdy metal pole that has a sharp side and a flat side.) Joe rides his bike to work, so somehow he managed to bring a heavy, six foot long pole home while riding a bike.

Within fifteen minutes, one stump was gone, and the rest soon followed. We are left with beautiful planting beds, that have been naturally tilled by roots and have the added organic matter of many years of needle shed. I’ve already planted one with peas, lettuce, radishes and a few herbs.

Welcome to the living room. This is the room in our house where we spend the most amount of time. I prefer to keep it pretty simple to allow for the influx of toys, people and stuff. I love bright green and used it as the bases of most of the design.

We have it set up withe the couches back to back, creating two separate spaces in the area. It allows for the functions we want, and also creates a fun space to jump and dive between couches. After all, I do have two small boys and the more spaces they have to keep moving the better.

The total budget for this space is just under $1300. That includes two couches, two computer desks, shelf, two chairs, side table, wall decorations, two area rugs, and the Ficus tree.

I love to prune. This year had the added benefit of sharp pruning tools. I didn’t buy new tools, just sharpened the ones I had. The wet stone I bought years ago finally got some use. And I attempted grafting the first time outside of a class. We’ll see if the grafts take. I could put in some how-to, but if you want to prune go to a pruning demonstration. It will be far more beneficial than anything I could write.  As for the sharping and grafting, I watched online videos. Even thought I do remember learning it in school, I don’t actually remember the details.

The only downside is all the pruning and grafting was none of it was on my own property.

I took this picture a few days ago. I took it in Sacramento, but it almost feels like I should be able to find blooming flowers here as well. I got an order from Johnny’s, the lights for my seed shelf are installed, and no snow on the ground. I think the gardening season is starting. I’m not sure if I’m excited or overwhelmed…

Current gardening tasks:

• Prune hardy fruit trees 
• Sow spring plants inside for transplanting, including broccoli, cabbage, spinach 
• Plant peas
• Finish planning garden
• Organize and test seeds
• Order any needed seeds or bare root plants

I remember back in college, a fellow student complaining about the tall fescue infesting bluegrass turf, ruining the solid green color and texture.

When did we start desiring moncultures?

A monoculture is growing one  plant, and only one plant. They are unnatural, unhealthy, and boring.

Here is my idea of a healthy lawn:

This is at my grandma’s. She hated it. There were violets, clover, dandelions, all growing up together. She saw a weed patch. I saw wonderful beneficial relationships. Clover providing nitrogen, leaves overlapping to maximize sunlight use. Not only that, but there were purple flowers in the spring, yellow in the summer. And it was actually producing edible crops in the form of the violets and dandelion greens.

There aren’t any monocultures in nature. There is a reason for that. Moncultures invite pests, require fertilizers, more water, more work.

I hate the smell of 2,4-d on lawns. It’s nasty, even worse when it is somewhere where my kids are. There are some weeds out there that might need eradication. But common lawn weeds are often edible, and beautiful. Dandelions have yellow flowers, edible greens, they provide nectar to bees. Clover fixes nitrogen: more clover, less fertilizer. Wood sorrel is edible and medicinal. Why would we get rid of free flowers and food?

I’m going against the grain of traditional landscaping. One of the main goals we have developed for our landscapes are perfect green lawns. Why, and at what cost? We dump chemicals on them, so we can look at them out our windows. I like lawns. They are fun to play on, and hold up for tons of outside activities in a way no other replacement can. But I’m never going to spray 2,4-d on my lawn to get rid of clover. Actually, I’ve considered seeding in clover, violets and other “weeds.” It is simply healthier, maintains that durable play surface, and simply means less work for me.

If your main landscaping goal is a green boring lawn, just ask the question why? I’m not saying rip out all the lawn (although I have plans to scale back a lot of mine), just find a different vision. Instead of  trying for a monoculture, hold off on spraying that clover, let the lawn grow a little longer. Stop looking for all the problems, and instead find out what a dandelion green salad taste like.