In the Garden With Lauraetta : Potato Tower 2018/06/16

In the garden today as you can see we have a potato tower that I have going.

I didn’t reading up a lot on people with grow bags. The whole concept of a growing bag is to grow vertically using strong,fabric like material. For my grow bag I chose to use a feed bag because it’s cheap: it was lying around and it would’ve probably ended up in the garbage. So I chose something that I could up-cycle.

 I highly recommend that you take a closer look at your waste products. I was living on a farm on an island and in terms of waste management we had a very strict dump site that would only allow the residents of the islands to produce only so much waste. You were only allowed a certain amount of bags each year so I really looked into how I could cut out as much waste product I could. 

 That brings us back to my choice of growing containers for this instance.

To take a useless bag and save it from the trash by re-purposing it ,is doing a great deal to save some trash from the landfill.

 I can probably reuse this grow bag maybe for another 2 to 3 years without having to discard it.

If you want to make Your own potato tower you don’t have to use any fancy products: again look at what you have laying around. You could probably even do the same thing with a bunch of sewn up T-shirts that we’re going to go into the trash anyhow. 

But if you don't have any of these materials then I suggest that you use some landscaping fabric and you can  mold it inside some sort of box made out of wood. That should be good enough to grow all the potatoes you desire. You can score some pallets for this project from almost any urban area -just go around and keep your eyes open around any local hardware store or even grocery store. They might have them out back. Always ask for permission before taking anything.

 I planted my potatoes in the Feed bag around the circumference.

I stacked my potatoes two deep. You could even do 3 to 4 deep and  you could possibly go higher (literally and figuratively skies the limit)

 Just make sure that your potato tower is secure for the weight of the dirt. If your going to build your own tower you’re going to have to make something that will withstand not only the weight of the dirt that is in the bag/ within the tower, but can retain the weight of water that it will saturate the whole tower. 

In The Garden With Lauraetta: Waddle fence inspired Trellis how to 2018 06 19

In this how too video I will show you ,step by step, how to make your own waddle fence inspired trellis- The only real materials you need are the still green tree/bush clippings -preferably strait - and that's it! As long as you know how to braid hair/cordage you are well on your way to supporting all sorts of your plants in your garden for free (most of the time ) if you have any questions ask bellow and I'll get back to you!

Stone Beach Permaculture Broadcast: Ep: 6 WildeKultur

I had the pleasure of interviewing a woman from the Black Forest in Germany about foraging wild food. Nadine and her husband Stefan live in the picturesque Countryside of Europe.

Nadine and her husband can be found on Instagram @wildeKultur

https://www.instagram.com/wildekultur/

Stone Beach Permaculture Broadcast : Ep.5 Woodland Cravings

I did a fantastic interview with a man from southern Florida his name is Scot and he's from @Woodlandcravings on Instagram. The way I would describe Scot is that he has a spirit that never ages. 

He's just full of life, full of creativity, full of hope and for the new possibilities this world can offer, He Exudes  optimism he's just full of all of the best things in this world can offer if you had put that in one person. From what we talked about I could tell that Scot had an interesting passion for food forests.

 In the link above he will tell you more so about food forests than I could ever tell you and it's an absolute blessing that he's working in unison with colleges, people and students in the area who are also interested in Permaculture.

 Another topic that we also talk about is foraging and how foraging for him came from this primal childhood place. From there it developed into a sustainable way to fill your plate. Not only is foraging completely satisfying to Scott (as well as myself) but it is another way we can all reconnect with what mother nature can provide for us.

Sent from my iPhone

Scot can be found @woodlandcravings on Instagram

In The Garden with Lauraetta : 2018 05 23

Today we finally see some great herbs up!

They are very different then the store bought varieties ! My goodness , they are no bigger then a thumb nail and they are so potent already- I dare not pick them but I was tempted to rub the leaves a bit and my goodness- the most beautiful scent of basil and sage bit me in the nose!

You cant argue with these beauties !

In The Garden - 2018-05 -18

 as you Today in the garden has been a sluggish one though the bus basils and chives finally sprouted. But it was the ever growing lettuces that got my attention- one of the brands is the fancy lettuce from stokes seeds.

Don’t they look lovely?

Today was definitely a lesson learned for patience. ( something I struggle with haha.)

 look for the little things!

Like these Asian vegetables that sprouted as well. We are suppose to have bok choy and mitsuba in there somewhere. I would love to be more helpful but this is the first time I have grown such plants. But to be fair that’s the point of having a garden trying out new things and failing until you become the best gardener you know. We are all on the same road here that much can be said.

The last picture is of our strong cucumber seeds- I was thinking maybe a trellis should be built for them in the near future-

They are spreading their first real leaves now- see how structurally different they are?

 I cant wait to share this garden with you for the seasons to come.

And I equally am excited to hear from your own experiences.

Happy gardening-

Lauraetta.

In The Garden With Lauraetta - 2018 05 14

Stone Beach Permaculture : In The Garden With Lauraetta

Back in the garden today to check up on the garden, you get a special look at my garden buddy! A black out door cat - its always nice to look after needy animals but remember to spade and neuter your animals

We have tomatoes growing as well as out peas!

We also discuss the stability of our hand rolled seed starter cups!

You get to see our Asian leafy greens up as well as the second leaves of our cucumber plants.

Happy gardening !

Lauraetta!

Lauraetta in the garden: 2018 spring May 14

Checking up on my bee trap! Free bees makes me a happy girl!
Unfortunately as you will see in the video above my bee trap is vacant. But non-the-less the video if full of tips to try to acquire your own free bees with your own bee trap.

You too can have free bees but some reading may be required!

I suggest these books! It should be said you can have bees in the city and now urban bee farms are getting more popular.  So don’t fret if you don’t have a patch of green grass or garden to your name! take your farming to the skies!

Stone Beach Permaculture broadcast: Ep 4 Monica Wilde

I had a fantastic and beyond informative interview with Monica Wilde - she is a researcher and forager in Scotland. Not only did she grace us with talking about the natural diet of humanoid species and how that affects us today, but her information on foraging is unmatched to anything I ever heard thus far.

Her main tools of the trade are a simple pen knife as to separate the plant from its roots - as to preserve the plant and to keep the area of the forest biologically diverse as you will not take away from the woods as you would if you have taken the whole plant.

And also what too look for in your foraging books- and what information to ignore. I can not stress enough how important this is, as miss information is too risky when identifying plants and mushrooms

Here are some links to some tools and books you may be interested in if you ever get the itch to discover the wild food around you.

You can also visit Monica's instagram page at and also her blog here-

Lauraetta in the garden : Spring 2018 May 1

Out in the garden today!

It makes me happy knowing I made my green house out of stuff I found in a throw away pile that was headed to the dump!

Today I was checking up on the greens just peaking up in the greenhouse made from a window that was about to be tossed in the trash! Reduce reuse and recycle!

 I planted some tomatoes, cucumbers and some interesting seeds !

Here are some of the herbs and vegetables I planted!

Don’t be shy and give it a go! If you have any questions you can always contact me!

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds - and some Gourds

Bellow is my next seed haul- I wanted to do a experiment what would be lest costly. So I went to www.OSCseeds.com and ordered some quick to grow vegetables. But also a but of a treat for myself- a big bag of bee friendly flowers-

I plan on using the seeds to mix into a pulp of paper to make some seed bombs- that video will be out later in the week (whenever I get the seeds)

The selection online definitely is something to be attracted too, as not a lot of people can go to a hardware store and pick up a wide seed variety. But the hardware/garden store is convenient.

Please join me in watching the garden grow as we continue our experiments in growing sustainably- 

If you find you are late buying seeds please use my list bellow as a guide on what to plant.

As you can see I ordered a lot of squash- ( I plan on canning them and selling them at a market)

I'm a bit of a Squash nut- but for good reason- you could prepare and store squash in almost unambitious ways. There is gnocchi, pastas, powdered and put into bread , steamed ,canned, pureed, and roasted. My mouth is watering just thinking of it- plus I have many different ways to plant squashes. My favorite being the Dump and plant method.

Squash are natural composting super houses. So if you have a very anaerobic compost pile just remove the "hardware" ( the bin) leave the pile where it is - cover with some black earth- dose not have to be very much and then mulch/dirty hay. Then plant.

I guarantee you will have the happiest gourds you have ever seen.

Stone Beach Permaculture Broadcast - Ep.3 Rossi Farms

You can find Mr.Rossi at his website https://rossinaturals.com

Foraging for ramps 2018

We recently went ramp foraging and I have to admit I thought it was going to be harder then it turned out to be. Not only were the ramps easy to find ( after much consulting of many plant identification books) but they were a breeze to harvest.
Ramps are wild onions that have broad leaves and a white bulb. They are so easy to harvest because of their shallow root systems that make them pull able with little effort.

Ramps can be used in many was but we are going to pickle them. they can be used in pesto's or marinades - anywhere you may use onions and garlic together , you can sprinkle in a few ramps. Over the next couple of days I'm going to test out a few recipes and I hope you get adventurous with cooking with ramps as well as they are a wild, sustainable food source that should be planted and looked after in your area. As long as they are native, that is.

I did harvest 10% or less of the patch I found , as this will not affect the productivity of the patch of ramps. If you wish to keep the ramp population healthy then I suggest following the 10%harvest guidelines .

These are a few items I will/ have purchased to go foraging with. This collapsible shovel is not only light weight but it can be clipped onto your pack or belt with a Carabiner clip.  ( you should always have one on your key-chain )

This makes foraging so much easier , in the future I will not bring a basket or a bucket as I found a much easier way to take your foraged produced out of the woods. This is a collapsible bag , and I think it will be my next must have to bring with me when I go out camping or hiking.

The last thing is a good knife and this fixed blade knife is handy. Make sure it has a belt clip and is not easily opened in your pocket by accident.

StoneBeachPermaculture Brodcast. Ep.2 Norsely

Recently I did a great interview with a man who lives all over the ocean. He go's by the handle of Norsely and his pictures are displayed here on this page. You can click them and head to his Instagram page, and I highly suggest doing so because his pictures are just lovely. Not only was he possibly the most interesting man I ever had the pleasure of talking to but he was a wealth of knowledge about mead making among other things like  history and globetrotting.

In the interview we talked about mead making and you can click on the link above.

Mead is a type of fermentation that was used notably by non other then the Viking and the Norsemen of Europe.

We did get to talking about a starter kit you may be interested in checking out.

He had suggested to refrain from using a Champaign yeast or a wine yeast - and to stick towards ale yeasts. There is more on that topic in the interview above.  

Some of the items in the kit outside of ale yeast- are as follows ----

A hydrometer to monitor your alcohol percentages
Hydrometer - This is a Triple Scale Hydrometer for Home Brewing - Beer and Wine Making - Test Density, Alcohol and Brix - Guaranteed Accurate

Food safe sterilizing cleaning agent, I like this B-Brite Cleanser, 8oz

plastic corks / Plugs
an air lock to let the co2 out
2Pcs Airlock One Way Exhaust Water Sealed Check Valve For Wine Fermentation Beer Making Brewing

Bottles ( though he expressed fermentation can even begin with the simplest of containers and even an apple juice container would do) Glass Wine Fermenter Includes Rubber Stopper and Airlock, 1 gallon Capacity

Norsely was also keen to recommend "the best honey you could buy", and to experiment with your choices and flavors.

Ep.1 Stone Beach Permaculture Podcast

show air date: 2018/04/09

I had the pleasure to have a interview with James from Guerillagrowsomerville at @Guerillagrowsomerville on instagram.

We talked about what his new projects are for the up coming year, worm farming, seed saving and grey water saving.  take a listen in the link below, or tune in to Amherst Island radio next Monday at 6pm. Be sure to give Guerillagrowsomerville a visit and a follow, the pictures he shares are lovely and full of beautiful green plants!
Just what we needed as we anticipate this years growing season.
Visit our page at
@stonebeachpermaculture on instagram

How to: Olla Spiral garden

Recently I had a great conversation with my friend who did not have much space. She is my best friend so I had no problem trying to find her a way to have a low maintenance small space mini garden. 

I took the idea of the olla to make a long , slow leaking water basin that will allow the plants to be watered over a long period of time without needing to be watered every day . ( I have busy friends)

 the plants themselves can occupy a large amount of space for they will live in a spiral tower. Therefore you will have a greatly enlarged growing area to what could never be achieved in the same pot without the spiral fencing.

In this example the plants are herbs and destined to be a back door chef garden.

This is the step by step guide on how to make one for yourself!

untreated clay pots are stacked and sealed together ( with cocking, demonstrated in green ) while the very top of the pot Tower is also sealed as to reduce evaporation. The bottom hole is also sealed shut and placed on a good couple of inches of rocks for drainage. This is all contained by a larger terracotta pot. Stakes are lined up and stacked in a spiral around the olla pots and the rest is filled with soil ( in pink) 

Afterwards when filled with soil and plants it will look like the above picture.
Plants should be planted in respects to their best companions.
The top terracotta pot should stick out of the soil and the drainage hole at the top of the overturned pot will be used to fill the long basin with water. After filling with water cover the hole with a large rock or a small plate .

What you will need :
soil
plants for planting
wooden dowels you will use as the support to your spiral tower- you can use sticks from trees provided the sticks are sturdy and straight
drainage stones - any medium stone will do
A even number of small terracotta pots - like the one bellow -

silicone cocking to seal the pots together.like the one below