Read Grow a Sustainable Diet: Planning and Growing to Feed Ourselves and the Earth for Free Online

dryers in a great place in the garden, but by September the big maple tree in the backyard begins to cast a longer shadow and I have to move the dryers to catch a full day of sun. On the other hand, if you thought all you had was shade in your yard because of the trees, look again once the leaves have dropped. You might be able to plant a winter garden in the sun, having greens for your table during the cold months. By the way, make sure the trees are on your permaculture plan.
    When I first planned my large garden, compost bins made of pallets lined the north side. It made sense because it was easy access when I brought in compost materials from elsewhere, primarily leaves and animal bedding. Once I got serious about sustainability, I realized I wanted to limit outside inputs and began growing my own compost materials, which meant adding grains to my garden. Everything was now being moved around within the garden, rather than being hauled in. Before I knew it, I didn’t have to bring the garden cart in anymore. As the biomass from the beds was harvested, it was carried to the compost piles and finished compost was delivered to the beds in buckets.
    After seeing how well my butternut squash grew over my compost pile, I began to rethink how I managed compost. There was obviously fertility leaching away under those compost piles on the north side of the garden and I wanted to harvest it to feed my crops. I got rid of the bins and planned my compost to become part of the garden rotations. The compost piles are now on garden beds, with butternut squash growing over the pile that was built the previous fall. That pile matures over the summer, underneath the squash plants, and is ready to spread in September and October. Any compost that needs to be held longer isturned to the next bed in the fall and the new piles are built on that new compost bed. With the compost bins gone, I bumped out the fence on the north side and have a hazelnut (filbert) hedge there. I also found room on that north side for a garden washing station, two more garden beds, an apple tree, basket willow, and a spot I’ve reserved to dig a small pond when I find the time (see Figure 2.3 ). With my compost, just as with the lunch at the Haiti gathering that I told you about in Chapter 1 , it only took looking at the project in a new way. Stay open to the possibilities and new ones will present themselves, right before your eyes. All you have to do is recognize them as such. The more you make yourself part of the plan, the easier it will be to identify these things.
    Tools for Map Making
    You can start with graph paper, a ruler, pencils, and an eraser. You’re going to need that eraser. Your maps will reflect what you put into them. If you are mapping out your beds, you will definitely need to measure carefully and be accurate. If you are making a map of your property, you decide how exact you need to be. If you know the length of your stride, pacing off your boundaries might be enough. I remember in my high school marching band we had to all take the same size step. Whatever yours is will be your measure. If you do a really good job on this map, it will be more help to you later.
    I’ve found a 100′ tape measure to be a wonderful tool to have. It has a fiberglass tape with inches on one side and decimal designations on the other. The end has a hole that I put a screwdriver through to anchor it in the ground when I don’t have anyone on the other end to hold it. Although in a perfect world it would be clean and dry always, it survives nicely if it is occasionally wound up wet or dirty, since the tape is not enclosed. You can find one at building supply stores. A ruler is good, but an engineer’s scale is even better, particularly if you are drawing on plain paper, rather than graph paper. If you really like this sort of thing you could sign up for a landscape drawing class somewhere, but graph paper, pencil, eraser, and a ruler will get you started.
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