habitat

Permaculture Womens Guild

A baker’s dozen of easy to grow and disease-resistant perennial hedge plants. By Heather Jo Flores No garden is complete without a yummy patch of edible, perennial shrubbery! Even a small garden can squeeze in a few brambles, berries or ‘chokes. To create a low-maintenance food forest with a year-round harvest and multiple layers of plants, a mid-sized perennial understory is an essential piece of the design. Shrubs connect the canopy to the ground and create habitats for birds and insects. The shrub layer also shelters smaller plants and creates boundaries and microclimates. ​I picked a baker’s dozen of the best…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Heather Jo Flores It’s always a good day for mulching your garden! Mulch builds humus. The word “human” comes from the same roots as humus, meaning earth, and in fact our bodies do contain many of the same elements and microorganisms as fertile organic soil. Soil health is linked to our own health, and soil communities bear remarkable resemblance to the flora and fauna in our own guts. A diverse, thriving intestinal community keeps us humans healthy, and the same goes for the soil ecosystem. The Benefits of Mulch ​A layer of mulch, whether up around perennials and fruit trees or…

Permaculture Womens Guild

Delicious, drought-tolerant, easy to grow…what’s not to love? by Heather Jo Flores I can’t stop eating them. There’s a fig tree at the place where I am staying and I can’t seem to keep them out of my mouth! It’s a huge tree, maybe 50 years old, sprawling across the low wood fence and dropping down into the neighbors’ yard. They don’t mind. Every October, both houses get more figs than they know what to do with, just from the one tree. It’s a Black Spanish, and it’s famous among fig aficionados as being one of most prolific, cold-hardy and easy…

Permaculture Womens Guild

Need to attract a more diverse group of insects and pollinators? Here's how to grow a pollinator garden.

Permaculture Womens Guild

Surprise yourself in the garden with self-seeding plants.