Sheep “mow” an orchard. This relatively inexpensive livestock will eat both grass and tender weeds, and can be rotationally grazed using movable electric fencing. PHOTO: DEBORAH RENDON

Sheep aren’t the only livestock that can serve multiple purposes. Each type of livestock has natural habits with potential uses around your homestead. Pigs are nature’s plows. Geese feast on grassy weeds. Ducks eat slugs and bugs.

Though using working animals on your homestead has many benefits, it involves some work, too. Unlike gas-powered equipment, animals can’t be put away in the garage until the next time you need them. They need food, water, shelter, fencing and occasional veterinary care. So, why keep them?

Multipurpose Livestock

Integrating working animals into your landscape makes your backyard more of a natural ecosystem in which flora and fauna interact. John Hayden, who runs an integrated farm called “The Farm Between” in Jeffersonville, Vt., raises plant crops and livestock. He manages his livestock to reduce the amount of labor and fertilizer he puts into his plant crops. He refers to the technique of using animals for more than one purpose as “stacking functions.”

“We use our animals for their animal purpose — for meat — and we have draft horses we use for work, but we also use them for their manure or to work the ground, control weeds or graze cover crops,” Hayden says.

Matt Elston and Kirk Fackrell own Cascade Meadows Farm, a diversified farm in Sandy, Ore. Their livestock consist of Dexter cattle, pastured poultry, American Guinea hogs, Icelandic sheep and miniature dairy goats. They recently had piglets from their pair of Guinea hogs, and they plan to use this small breed of swine to remove unwanted vegetation. Elston and Fackrell find their miniature dairy goats to be especially effective at blackberry control, and they provide tasty milk, as well. “What we’re trying to do here is bring together a new understanding of old techniques, to have our farm work holistically with as few outside inputs as possible, and get as much as we can out of each individual on the farm,” Elston says.

Sheep Shear Shrubs and More

Though he no longer keeps sheep, Hayden found them useful for controlling vegetation. “We had some stone walls that were overgrown and brushy, and we mobbed sheep on them and let the sheep kill everything there,” he says. “Now we have nice stone walls to look at again.” (“Mob” grazing means confining a group of animals in a small space so they feed on vegetation that may be less desirable to them.)

(Continue reading page 2 at Mother Earth News) >>

A creative design for seed bombs. You do not have to get this fancy. A simple rolled ball will work just fine.

Here’s the recipe:

5 parts dry red clay*
3 parts dry organic compost
1 part seed
1 – 2 parts water

*For the clay it is recommended that you use dry potter’s clay. You should be able to obtain this at any farm or gardening store. It comes as a powder, which makes it easier to mix.

After mixing together all of the dry ingredients, slowly add water to the mixture. You want to add enough water that the mixture sticks together, but you do not want the mixture to be too dry and crumbly or too wet that you cannot role it into balls.

When you get your mixture together it is time to start rolling it in to quarter sized balls.

Mixture rolled into balls ready to be thrown

Once you get the mixture rolled up, the next step is to let them dry out. Generally, the drying process should take somewhere around 48-72 hours. Thats it. You’re now ready to distribute your seed bombs.

Most of the places I have come across use seed bombs to beautify the area. Most are thrown in vacant or abandoned dirt lots. However, if you are feeling frisky and want to take it a step further you could always use all those pot seeds you throw away. I am sure you can come up with some very creative place to distribute the marijuana seeds. Perhaps make a point with the people who will harass, abuse, and imprison you for using it…

As an alternative to the aforementioned recipe, I came across another way to make this work using old Christmas ornaments or water balloons.

Here is another way to spread the seeds of your choice.

Have fun and be safe!

— Johnny Marijuanaseed —

Celine Kuklowsky of Dr. Pop Blog posted this inspiring article about the growth of community in the face of hardship and urban collapse in Detroit.

This article is a sample of a topic JustLive will be focusing on some in the near future — stories of individual and community resilience in times of economic and natural disaster. We’re going to be looking at Detroit, specifically, but will branch out to other areas around the world as well. If you have any stories like this, please share them with us.

When thinking about urban environmental repair, there is perhaps no better place to start than in what may seem to be the most unlikely of places: Detroit, MI. Yes, the ex-capital of the auto-industry is rewriting the rules of urban regeneration as we know them and Detroit residents are creating a whole new way of thinking city-life.

As Rebecca Solnit says, Detroit’s best-known recent history is one of urban apocalypse characterized by “deindustrialization, depopulation, and resource depletion” [...]

But out of this land, another story is emerging, in which the people of Detroit are re-inventing their city as the urban agriculture center of the country.

I recently met Asenath Andrews, the principal of the Catherine Ferguson Academy, a high school for young mothers and pregnant teens who raise animals and organic fruits and vegetables. The school also offers classes on beekeeping and more to the community..

The conversation opened a window for me upon Detroit Green.

In 2009 alone, the Detroit Garden Resource Program Collaborative provided support to 236 community gardens, 55 schools, and 557 families who are growing food. [...]

Read the article at Dr. Pop Blog »

(post photo by jessicareeder on flickr)

Here is a basic overview listed on the site:

A farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

This arrangement creates several rewards for both the farmer and the consumer. In brief…

Advantages for farmers:

• Get to spend time marketing the food early in the year, before their 16 hour days in the field begin
• Receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm’s cash flow
• Have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow

Advantages for consumers:

• Eat ultra-fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits
• Get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking
• Usually get to visit the farm at least once a season
• Find that kids typically favor food from “their” farm – even veggies they’ve never been known to eat
• Develop a relationship with the farmer who grows their food and learn more about how food is grown

It’s a simple enough idea, but its impact has been profound. Tens of thousands of families have joined CSAs, and in some areas of the country there is more demand than there are CSA farms to fill it. The government does not track CSAs, so there is no official count of how many CSAs there are in the U.S.. LocalHarvest has the most comprehensive directory of CSA farms, with over 2,500 listed in our grassroots database. In 2008, 557 CSAs signed up with LocalHarvest, and in the first two months of 2009, an additional 300 CSAs joined the site.

Visit localharvest.org to learn more

Hat Tip PuppetGov.com

Guerrilla Gardening, is a growing method environmental activists are using, in order to take back abandoned pieces of land, and either beautify it or grow food. This is an example of how individuals, without the permission of the state, can take action in a productive manner that benefits the community as a whole. Among the biggest benefit, is the absence of raising your taxes, voting for a bond issue for funding, or inevitably running over budget like government usually does.

The volunteers ambition, is the only thing that is needed for this idea to manifest. The history of guerrilla gardening is rich with stories of huge gardens erected overnight, communal gardens and even mass guerrilla gardening actions during special orchestrated events.

Turning abandoned eyesores around town into thriving botanical displays that brightens the community is a noble action, but the idea of planting free food in a community is a brilliant idea.

There have been examples of this throughout history that I dug up on Wikipedia:

In Northern Utah, apple trees commonly grow along the banks of canals. Asparagus grows along the smaller ditch banks. Many of these plants were seeded 150 years ago by the workers who dug the canals, by burying their lunch apple core in the freshly dug soil or by surreptitiously spreading seeds along a new ditchbank

Tacamiche banana plantation workers in Honduras illegally grew vegetables on the abandoned plantation land, rather than leave with the plantation’s closure in 1995.

Guerrilla gardening is prominent in Melbourne where most of the inner northern suburbs have community vegetable gardens; land adjoining rail lines has undergone regeneration of the native vegetation, including nature strips.

There is a small community group in Melbourne called “Permablitz” who gather regularly to design and construct suburban vegetable gardens for free, in an effort to educate residents in Melbourne on how to grow their own food and better prepare them if/when food prices become too expensive.

The concept of having communal gardens is another way to counter the agricultural-industrial complex, and promote locally grown food. Care should be taking when choosing a location for food that will be eaten, due to possible toxicity from close proximity to highways or toxic runoff.

Their is another form of guerrilla gardening that is more geared for personal gain, cannabis growers. There are forums that cover the subject and even a DVD called Never Get Busted from ex-narcotics officer Barry Cooper, that provides tips on how to avoid law enforcement and rogue harvesters.

There are some great sites with info on how to do this effectively. GuerrillaGardening.org has tons of info about the subject and a community of people worldwide who are practitioners. Richard Reynolds, who launched the blog 2004, also has book called Guerrilla Gardening that was published may of 2008.

Here is a 12 step guide that is outlined on his site:

I also found a great post submitted by Off Grid Ebert on livingoffgrid.org, that also has other useful tips on the subject.

1. Pick a space that is visible and will make an impact on your neighborhood – the spirit of guerrilla gardening is about community. Pick an ugly space that many people see on their drive to work every day – like a dirty median strip or a busy street corner. Beautify it by planting flowers. Or, if your aim is to grow food, pick a space in a centralized neighborhood location, like an old schoolyard or an abandoned lot.
2. Convert the soil – Most likely the space that you pick will have less than ideal soil conditions. Make sure that you clear the area of trash, large rocks, and small shrubs or weeds before you start. You’ll want to then decide on the shape and size of your garden. Next, stake it off and start digging. You’ll want to turn over the soil by digging at least 6 inches into the ground. Discard any rocks and roots that you find. Then, add manure and compost to the soil to ensure that the soil is nitrogen rich. Get the right tools – you don’t have to go high-tech. Guerrilla gardeners only need a few simple and easy to come by tools: a spading fork, a hoe, a trowel, a rake, and a watering can.

You may encounter the following barriers as you attempt to plant your garden:

1. Theft of food – Because guerrilla gardens are on public or abandoned property, you do run the risk of getting your bounty stolen. One way to stop potential looters is to post signage around your garden explaining your project. Make sure that your sign does not name specific people involved with the project. In some states, gardening on property that you do not own can be prosecuted as “environmental vandalism”. A simple sign that says, “Please don’t take what you don’t need – this is a community garden”. Anyone with half a conscience will be deterred. If people do steal food even with signs like this posted, just assume that they needed it and replant.
2. Yield – Many gardeners have been able to eat for at least a summer on their garden’s vegetable yield, but some never see their garden past the seedling stage before the lot owner discovers their garden and pulls it up. Check out the forums of Guerrillagardening.org to read about the experiences of other gardeners. The forums are organized by region.
3. Legal issues – The fact that the word “guerrilla” is attached to gardening in abandoned areas is no accident. What you are doing is illegal and can be unsafe. Most gardeners chose to do most of their work (tilling, watering, pruning, harvesting) at late at night or just before dawn. If you want to plant a garden that needs ongoing, long-term care(like a vegetable garden), you might consider asking the owner of the property very nicely – (tip: it helps to mention how beautifying the lot may help increase property values in the neighborhood, or offer them a percentage of your annual vegetable yield). For gardens that do not need ongoing care, (like flowers, trees, and shrubs), it is easy to plan an overnight mission with a large group of people. Plant everything that you can in a few hours, water what you need to, take a photo, and then get out.

This is a fascinating subject, and of course you should be aware of the risks you take by doing something that isn’t sanctioned by the state. (sarcasm)

-Agora!