Permaculture and Community

Recently I had the luck of finding out that a friendly couple down the road had an organic garden. I've been walking, cycling, and driving past their house for years and through a series of events and correspondence, found myself invited for a visit to the garden.
Community is important in Permaculture and I've struggled somewhat with that portion of my practice. So it was incredibly wonderful to get to know about the organic garden down the road, and the gardener who tends it. Her garden, like ours, is in gopher infested land. She has several raised beds with hardware cloth under them to keep the gophers from accessing her bounty. Her trellises are sturdy wire (cattle panel) supported by stakes. Her tomatoes were tall and well-supported. She waters with what appears to be a drip system. The set-up produces quite an impressive yield. I came away with my bicycle basked filled with trombetta squash, tomatoes of various sorts, and some Asian cucumbers, all grown on trellises. Sharing from the garden seems to be a fairly common trait among my gardener friends and it was great to bring organically grown vegetables home from her garden.

I brought along a container of winter pie pumpkin seeds for her to try growing next year.

When I return from Permaculture teacher training, I plan to invite her over for a visit to my non-linear permaculture jungle garden. By then the pumpkins and squash will likely have taken over most of the front and back gardens.

Tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers from a garden down the road.

First tomato blossom

A friend gave me a few tomato plants, big sturdy things that had been grown in used paper coffee cups. I put them in the garden last weekend and noticed just today a few blossoms on one of the plants.
The plant is growing near an apple tree and its accompanying guild plants — yarrow, comfrey, fava beans, narcissus bulbs, and a few volunteer peach seedlings.

tomato flowers

Tomatoes

Some of the tomatoes I started in pots have sprouted their first true leaves.
I'm growing several different kinds of tomato plants this year. I'm trying for a major haul in tomatoes this year, some to dry, some to can, and many to eat fresh.
Last year I got some seeds from other members of the Seed Savers Exchange. They are Black Aztec and Capuchino. I'm also trying German Pink, which I got from SSE when I renewed my membership last year. I'm growing Corne de Bouc, Siberia, Tropic, Glacier, Amish Paste, and San Marzano. I started them in pots on the sunny side of the house, in a garden wagon that I covered with row cover.
I've also rigged up a trellis I've never tried before. Two 2x2's pounded into the ground about 15 feet apart, running north/south, garden twine running horizontally between the two posts, approximately 12 - 18 inches apart. I'll plant 8 or so tomato plants under the garden twine and hope the whole thing doesn't collapse when the plants get big.
The set up will also shade a young apricot tree from the low, hot evening sun in the summer.

Tomatoes

Frost has yet to visit us, but it is looming, and so I've still been picking tomatoes. The flavor is milder than the tomatoes from the hot months, but it is still pretty good. I picked three tomatoes just today, the others are from throughout the past week or so.

Ripeness in Siberia

This tomato variety is called Siberia and has finally started ripening in the last week or so. These are small tomatoes with a nice, sharp tomato flavor (lots of acid). When my other tomato plant —called Cappuchino— starts to ripen, I'll be slicing these Siberias in half and drying them in the solar food dehydrator. Sun dried tomatoes are delicious.

Basket of produce

Today we picked some conadria figs, lemon cucumbers, a tomato, and yellow peaches.
Also pictured are some red torpedo onions and some other onions that have been curing in a warm, shady spot outside for several weeks.

Siberia 8 days later

Eight days later the Siberia tomato has put on quite a bit of growth.

Siberia Tomato and Top-setting onions

This little tomato plant is a variety called Siberia. It is allegedly able to keep setting fruit in cool temperatures (down to 38 ˙F).



Top-setting onions make little onion bulbils at the top of a long stem. These are just like little tiny onions and can be used to grow more onions or they can be eaten.

Frost & Green Tomatoes

The tomato plants finally wilted in the cold weather. I picked most of the tomatoes green and brought them inside. I've been advised to put them into a bag with a banana to get them to ripen. They've been slowly ripening on their own, a few at a time. I think they look beautiful in the shiny green state.