The Balcony Garden

Warm days and cool nights, this pleasant but worrying weather pattern continues. Worrying, because there has been insufficient rain. I won't go into the reasons the lack of rain is a worry, if you have been reading my weekly notes, you know why. If you are curious, read back over the past six weeks and find out. Worrying, also because the cool nights are not warming up the soil. This slows growth and means it is till too early to put the beans in, for example. Last night, there was a frost warning. I had to cover the pumpkin and squash, which were doing nicely inside but have slowed down since I transplanted them out.

We spent the pass two days in Marathon, Ontario, about 3 hours east of here. The people we had dinner with were still bringing in the tomatoes at night, as it was far too cold to leave them out. I love getting out of town and travelling along the Trans-Canada. The trees and lakes are awe-inspiring. There are sections of the highway where as you move around a curve and start downhill, you feel that you will drop right into a lake, the road seems to vanish and all you can see is sky, lake and trees. This year, as I have mentioned before, I'm redesigning my balcony. My goal is to create a permaculture site in this six by six space. The word permaculture was coined back in the mid 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It is a contraction of permanent and agriculture. Some practiononners, myself included, say that it is also a contraction of permanent and culture. In future articles I will explore the relationships between permaculture, economics and community development.

I was attracted to permaculture, first by a dawning understanding that this design methodology could be a way to end hunger and save the environment at the same time. As my understanding of permaculture grew, it was the ethical foundation upon which it rests that held my interest. This foundation consists of three principles:

1- Care for the earth,

2- Care for people

3- Share the surplus.

I believe that permaculture design presents us with a way to build a healthy, safe and sane society.

Back to the balcony. I have not yet developed a good rain collection system, but the pails that I have placed around the balcony, in the corners, catch some water which I can reuse. I have two squash plants among the lettuces and peas. I am not going to plant beans this year, at least not on the balcony, I think I need deeper pots and warmer conditions. I am trying cherry tomatoes from seed and the seedlings are just emerging. The glads are doing well. Most nights it gets too cool to sit out without a sweater once the sun moves around the house and concentrates on the back yard. Another growing season is underway, slowly but under way, where it will go, who knows but it is that uncertainty that challenges to learn as much as we can about how we can create ecosystems that will meet our needs and the needs of all Life for generations to come.

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