First Fruits Permaculture

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First Fruits Permaculture

We are an urban permaculture orchard on one acre in Oshkosh, WI.

16/10/2024

Sometimes, you find the most beautiful plants growing in your garden.

These leeks have essentially been ignored since I planted them so many months ago. And yet, here they are. And here I am. Still here, still growing.

May we all keep finding our way through the ups and downs. And sometimes, we also get leeks.

03/10/2024

"Let's pick apples."

They didn't want to, not at first. Their reluctance makes sense- my biggest small just conquered a bike without training wheels. Why stop to pick apples when freedom awaits?

But as we went, every apple in the crate was more exciting, more fun, than the previous. Our trees are young, and this is the first year we've gotten more than a couple off of the trees. Even though there were quite a few apples lost to wasps and other insects, the pure joy of picking something we watched grow all year alongside us is a feeling I savor.

I never get tired of it. I hope they never will either.

There is something special, almost intimate about a tree, a shrub, a garden-growing alongside you. We watch the apple trees out the window in winter, judging the snow by their branches. We celebrate spring when the trees bloom. Summer is filled with walks around the tree, inspecting; we watch in amazement as this tree grows fruit. Autumn is eagerly awaited for: "when can we pick them?" I know every step of the process, and yet my joy and wonder is the same as my smalls. Every year.

Everyone should be able to grow something in their space. Something they can pick, something they can touch. Something that can grow alongside them.

09/09/2024

I've been feeling all sorts of weight lately. The days are long between caring for plants and children, and the fruit of this labor feels far away.

But then I look at my apple tree. Her branches are heavy with fruits as large as my hand, some branches even touch the ground. They are so weighed down, and yet they aren't broken. Simply waiting for the fruit to be ready.

I wonder what my apple tree knows that I don't. She seems so adept at her constantly changing state, while I am always grasping for an equilibrium that never arrives.

How does my tree do it? How does she ride the waves- the cold rest of winter, the beauty of spring, the work of summer, and the heaviness of fall without breaking?

Perhaps, because she knows that each season is only that, a season. This heaviness will soon be released; the work will be finished for now, the fruit sweet to savor. Rest will come in its time.

Perhaps we can hold on a bit longer too, knowing that this season will change as well.

05/08/2024

Today's harvest hit differently as I laid it all out on our table. We haven't had a single harvest from our annual garden close to this in three years. Three years ago I was a semi-high risk pregnancy. Two years ago we were fighting to get our daughter to gain weight. One year ago we were trying to win back our gardens that had been completely overrun with w**ds and rodents.

Today our hard work paid off. Today we again see the light that this land is being healed and can feed us and others. Today we are thankful for the food that will help our bodies be strong while also strengthening the ecosystem around it.

Lately, I've been feeling tired and wondering if it's worth it.

It is. It all is. Run your race with endurance.

It's worth it.

09/07/2024

As idyllic as the first photo looks for harvesting black currants, the excessive rain is giving us all sorts of challenges. The currants are integrated with fruit trees along swales above the Willow Grove, which in turn is the lowest lying area of our little permaculture orchard. That space has been under water for almost a month straight-let's just say the only ones who are loving that are the mosquitoes.

So, rain boots, rain pants, baggy long sleeves, and mosquito netting is now the stand picking outfit. I can only wonder what the neighbors think when they see me heading to the orchard. But we're playing the long game here. Yes, we continue to have water extremes both ways, but over time the practices we are doing building soil, slowing water as it crosses the land, and adding plant biomass to soak it up will all help alleviate this situation in the future.

Healing land takes time. It's our responsibility to steward this place well. Especially because the next generation is watching and learning from us.

Like how the second picture here was captured by my son saying, 'hey Mom, smile!'

27/06/2024

Red currant season begins.

I got the joy of sharing currants with some new folks tonight. We tried all three varieties in the permaculture orchard (pinks, reds, blacks), and these beauties were just too irresistible.

Hosting people and walking them through our urban orchard is one of my favorite things. We can do so much more with the spaces we have.

21/06/2024

Serviceberry season is upon us.

The more I read about the importance of native plants, the more I am convinced that it is important to plant as many native food plants as well. There are a plethora of plants that are native and available to us- might as well plant something that the local wildlife can benefit from too.

I'm not worried about competing for the berries; everyone needs to eat. Instead of worrying about the crop, we're choosing to plant a few extra plants and embrace the fact that abundance is good for all of us (not just the humans).

Call them Serviceberry, Juneberry, or Saskatoon berries-these really are a delight. I can barely get more in the bowl than the kiddos bellies, but that's a win of a different kind I suppose.

14/06/2024

The black currants are looking wonderful this year. They seem to be ripening a bit earlier than usual, but that seems par for the course right now.

We're looking forward to harvest time.

11/06/2024

We have exactly three Burgundy Pearl cherries this year. I'm so paranoid the birds will eat them first, but we keep checking under the leaves....day by day....

The plants have put on a ridiculous amount of new growth this year. So perhaps in a year or two we'll have some serious cherry production.

For now, we'll bide the time.

05/06/2024

"Mom, is this a good bug or a bad one?!"

I had just left the patio to try and squeeze as much planting in as possible tonight when I turned back up the path through the herb garden for my son's question. This little....inch worm (?) was making way across the concrete in a hurry.

Somehow, I've become not only the plant identifier of the family, but also the insect one too. I do have a biology degree; I do not, however, have much experience with entomology.

So thank goodness my Google phone lets me search pictures 😅

We think this might be a type of moth in its caterpillar stage, but the search results were inconclusive. If any one has recommendations for an insect guide or ID app, I would love to know. We're trying to learn more about the creatures we share our space with, and the smallest among us have captured my children's attention.

Also, we really want to know if this is a "bad bug" (invasive) or a "good one" (beneficial insect) or neither. We've identified and killed a few invasives already this year, so we're hoping to find some more friends among us.

31/05/2024

Chalk hand prints because, well I wanted to w**d a bit in our herb garden and mixing chalk with water kept the smalls busy for a while.

Also, because childhood is short and already full of "no" and I want to raise children who experiment and ask questions.

The years of small children are hard. Parenting done right at any time is challenging, but these little years have been hard. I attend a conference once that said to either wait until your child is 4 or your farm is. We ended up doing childhood and starting the urban permaculture orchard at the same time.

My babies grew in my belly while we dreamed and prayed over this space. They are growing up alongside our fruit trees and berry bushes. We've sacrificed a lot- time, money, and chances to hang out with friends and family. But, I think we made the right choice. I hope my children (and the ones I get to watch for my "day job") find wonder in the natural spaces we're creating here.

And I hope that in some small way, we might encourage others to create spaces like this at their homes too.

28/05/2024

Our garden is an ecosystem.

I noticed these insects yesterday, specifically the ladybug, which I'm always so happy to have in company. There were a few on the yarrow by the garden, and I noticed they were doing the good job of "bad" bug control for me. It's a tiny, but important part of this space.

I just finished listening to Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy. There are a small number of books that settle like deep roots guiding my life, and this is one of them. I will be recommending this book to everyone from now on because it's just that well written and imperative.

The take home of this book? Native Plants are foundational to all other species we care about in North America. Specifically, native plants host native insects, which are the number one herbivore that takes energy that plants make from the sun and help move that up the food chain to the animals we care about such as birds, etc. Native insects can't eat most ornamental and invasive plants from other places, so we need to put as many natives back in the ground as we can if we want to preserve the biodiversity that we love about our home here.

The yarrow in my picture is technically not native (it's naturalized). But, I'm finding it necessary to change the way we're doing permaculture in our space, because native plants need to be a priority alongside our growing food. That means some hard choices will be made in the future; some things we've done in earnest will need to be undone.

But I want a world with song birds for my children, and I steward an acre of land that makes a difference. We're all stewards of land in some way. We can all make a difference.

Read this book. It will wreck you and that's ok. Because then we can build a better world together.

23/05/2024

The storms rolled through last night, but the worst missed our tiny farm. I know others weren't so lucky, and it's hard to see so much work demolished in a moment of time.

The 2+ inches of rain these last few days have soaked in, and it feels like the fruit grew overnight. Our black currant bushes are as tall as I am, and it's wild to see how they look as mature plants. In a month and a half, they'll be ready for picking.

19/05/2024

This quince blossom is a delight at the end of a long but wonderful day.

The morning was spent volunteering at the Fox Valley Wild Ones Native Plant Sale, and wowza. It was amazing to see so many people investing in natives for their yards. There is so much hope to be found in bringing back biodiversity and the wonder of Wisconsin plants.

The afternoon was spent with some good friends and my brother taking down an old fence and mulching an area to prepare for planting natives (from said plant sale).

We finished with a walk around the yard peeking under leaves and looking at fruit growing before wrapping it all up with this flower at the end.

The days are long, but they are full.

16/05/2024

Red Bartlett pears are on their way.

This tree, along with most of our other trees that have been around for several years, is likely going to be heavy with fruit. This one in particular has never had more than a handful of pears. This year though, each branch has more fruit than the entire tree did last summer. It seems that this tree is finally fruitful (pun intended).

That being said, there is something here to the putting down of roots. Of taking the time to become deeply settled in a place. To grow down and in as much as up and out, so that when the time is finally right, a flourishing of goodness happens.

We have chosen to stay here on this land over and over. We've seen people we love come and go. We've wondered if we would fit in better somewhere else-another city, another country. And yet, we choose to stay, to dig our roots deeply in this place. To say we will build a home here, plant gardens, and seek good for all who live in this city.

And perhaps, when the time is right, a flourishing of goodness will happen here too.

09/05/2024

Tonight I planted out my basketry willows. I tripled the amount we have, and if they all survive, we'll be well on our way to learning the ways of willow weaving and basketry.

This last week has been a test of taking a deep breath and reminding myself that this year is all about experimenting. Right before planting these pot propagated willows, I planted 5 cuttings of a Japanese p***y willow directly into the ground.... because that's how you plant willow. But way back in March I wondered if I could give the cuttings a jump start by growing them inside in pots. I've learned:

-Willows start growing right away. They are the champs at this.
-Willow roots are DELICATE. This is probably why the preferred method is to stick the cuttings directly into the ground instead of first growing in pots and then planting.

I did take all my own cuttings of the basketry willows, so if they all perish, really all I've lost is time -though did I? Sometimes, or a lot of the time, learning what not to do is just as important as what to do.

Either way, I got to spend an evening in what I'm now calling the Willow Grove, and it makes my soul happy.

What did you do for your soul today?

03/05/2024

In a way, I'm not really building an urban orchard as much as building a community. Six years ago this wasa house on empty land, a sea of grass and a couple trees.

Since then, I've been blessed by so many hands in so many ways. Family and friends who helped take down some old and diseased trees, friends who knew nothing about growing food or permaculture, but who lent their hands and sweat to building some new, a friend whose gift for photography stuns me with the pictures she captures, and all the people who encourage me with their words, their time, their gifts- but mostly, their love. Without this community surrounding us, we wouldn't be here, with these plants growing and this orchard coming to life.

I'm humbled to be part of such a great community of people. I love this city, this land, in a way I wasn't sure I could six years ago. I'm excited to see where the next six years take us, and who we will meet and grow with along the way 🌱

02/05/2024

Fun fact: I have spent most of my life thinking the grass we use as lawns is native. It's not. Kentucky blue grass, despite its American name, is actually native to Europe. The fact that it covers so much of the literal ground I walk on and see in my daily life, is overwhelming. This, more than anything else, helps me understand why our ecosystems are falling apart.

So. Much. Space. All for non-native grass.

I'm already getting rid of most of my grass in favor of edible plants since, well, this is an urban farm of sorts. But what's left of the grass, I'm happily encouraging to be other things. Like native violets. These small flowers are a joy for the kids to pick into bouquets, and they are happy groundcovers. They're also Wisconsin's state flower (and a few other states too), so really we should just let them grow.

Also, who doesn't want a carpet of purple in spring to welcome the warmth back into our lives after the monotone whites of winter?

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Someday I'll learn to harvest my herbs... But I'll always let part of them flower out. This oregano lives in the corner of an annual garden. It's currently covered in bumblebees, Pennsylvania leatherwings, and butterflies. These are my partners as we turn this grass suburban lot into an orchard filled with edible fruits, herbs, and native plants. I'm glad they can find a home here with us. Who are you sharing your home space with? #oregano #bumblebee #pennsylvanialeatherwing #butterfly #beneficialinsects #gardens #sharewithwildlife #coexist #urbanorchard #urbanpermaculture #firstfruitspermaculture

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