Lissa started a Permaculture garden last fall. I wasn't convinced that it would work. She didn't till the soil in her small back yard plot. She scattered some of Molly's chickens' bedding and manure, put down some opened, overlapping brown paper leaf bags and piled layers of leaves on top. She bought some composted chicken litter and scattered that, then added lawn clippings when the grass started growing.
In spring, she liberated some red wriggler worms that she had been raising in the house. When I went over with the tomato seedlings in May, I was amazed that the earth under the mulch was rich and loamy, no trace of the grass that had been growing on the spot.
The three tomato plants went in the ground. The soil was filled with tiny earthworms. They loved their new home.
Meanwhile, I planted twice as many tomato plants. A few got killed by frost. Some of the tomatoes got sunscald.
When next I was at her place, the tomatoes were obviously thriving in their new rich location.
They'd climbed out of their cages by late July.
I began reading up on Permaculture.
Every few days in August, I canned a few pints of tomatoes from my plants. I ran up my water bill giving them drinks. Grasshoppers were feasting on the tomatoes, so I had to bring them in to finish ripening. Mostly, they were small to medium tomatoes.
Lissa gave her plants only occasional water. She had plenty of tomatoes to eat, give away, can whole and make pizza sauce.
I started a couple of Permaculture patches in my weedy garden.
Lis borrowed Chris's Victorio strainer. I suggested that she bring some of her tomatoes up to meet mine. Object: sauce. It was like asking another mother to bring their newborn baby to come meet mine and then finding my preemie was being compared to her husky ten pound future Sumo wrestler.
We cooked two pots of juice down to one pot of sauce, a special blend of three varieties.
We canned 21 half pints of this great stuff, which will be perfect for homemade pizzas.
In addition to turning the handle of the strainer, my part was chiefly planting the original three seeds.
