Vicki sent this photo of our boys in their bean planting parade... and two links to organic seed sources:HighMowingSeeds is the business started by Tom Stern of Sherman, CT who once helped Debra out on Local Farm during a break from college. The business is in Wolcott, VT.
TurtleTreeSeeds is out of a Camphill Community in Copake, NY.
Vicki plants her seedlings in cowpots from the Freund Family Farm in East Canaan, CT. Other useful links she thought we might be interested in are:
Hay Bale Gardening and no-dig-gardening. An example of another type of no dig garden....a living wall..... not your veggies but pretty to look at: is at woollypocket(She wonders if you could plant some veggies...herbs, greens in those pockets and stack. Perfect for balcony in the city or apt building.) And the NY Times just had an article on living walls at:2010/05/06/garden.
Two links about companion gardening: OrganicGardening and ghorganics
At the workshop, we separated and transplanted three plants from the mint family. Photos and links to information about their uses as herbs follow.
Lemon Balm:
http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_lemon_balm.htm
Here in my home garden, you can see how the plant remains fairly compact and not overly invasive.
Red Bee Balm:
oswego_tea
Here you can see how red bee balm or monarda loves to spread and fill and area.
Woolly mint::
or Apple_mint
This plant is SO prolific that I keep it confined to pots on my porch... Even so it tries to escape as you can see by this sprout coming from the drainage hole in the pot bottom!
Plants we transplanted from seedlings started in a cold frame were:
Borage is an excellent bee plant. Its leaves can be steeped in water for a cooling beverage like we did with the mint leaves. Both the flowers and new baby leaves can be used in salads.
German Chamomile: will blossom with tiny daisy-like flowers with yellow centers. These can be picked and dried for a soothing tea to help induce sleep or relieve a stomachache.
Calendula, a resinous plant that is good for the skin. Blossoms can be dried and prepared like tea for a soothing wash or merely wilted and then steeped in oil as a primary salve ingredient.Plants we picked, washed and added to our salad were:
mitzuna, a cultivated slightly biting Asian green that is delicious raw or cooked,
and volunteer lamb's quarters that can be used like spinach.
Haven sent this link about our mystery "weed," SweetFlag or Calamus. She warns that it is considered carcinogenic.
For a list of plants and prices that Vicki has for sale, check out her website PerryHillFarm.To see Debra's favorite recipe for smoked cheese, scroll down through Care for Cows to about page 13.
Our next Old Style Life-Skills workshop will be Eggs-perience Chickens on June 12.
