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Austin Durant

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Austin Durant

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June 29, 2018

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jardindaustin

Branching out (literally!) 🌳 My other passion (

Branching out (literally!) 🌳
My other passion (besides food #fermentation) is regenerative living & permaculture!
Join me at Living Joy Homestead in Lemon Grove, Calif. on Saturday, Nov. 18 where I will be teaching an Urban Homesteading 101 gardening class!
Ideal for people living on less than an acre. We'll give you actionable steps you can take right away to start growing food and creating abundance in your own backyard! 🍎🍓🥦🐝🐔🌱
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#permaculture #zone10a #growyourown #growyourownfood #urbangardening #gardening #backyardgarden #sandiego #urbanbeekeeping #backyardchickens #foodforest #greywater #regenerative

Sheet mulching project. Dug up the perimeter (just

Sheet mulching project. Dug up the perimeter (just grass and weeds) then laid cardboard sheets, followed by chicken manure, then wood chips and straw. (Free straw bales are common after popup pumpkin patches close!)
I was surprised that three different landscape professionals and arborists had never heard the term. Shows that we've got a lot of regeneration to do, including re education!
🌱
#permaculture #urbanpermaculture #stackingfunctions #zone10a #drylands #california #sandiego #regenerativeagriculture #sheetmulching #lawntogarden

🐓 Rooster dance! When a roo dances closely arou

🐓 Rooster dance! When a roo dances closely around his humans, it's a good sign! It means he's fit you into his flock. Even though you've got no feathers, and you're not quite mating material, you have been accepted into the complex social order.
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#chicken #rooster #flock #urbanpermaculture #permaculture #stackingfunctions #growyourownfood #zone10a #southerncalifornia #socal #urbangarden #urbangardening #habitat

Passiflora edulis is a short-lived perennial (avg.

Passiflora edulis is a short-lived perennial (avg. lifespan is 5 years or so), and it grows prolifically in our climate zone (10a).
Besides these gorgeous flowers, its fruits are abundant and delicious, it generates a lot of carbonaceous material, and is easy to propagate from cuttings.
Passion fruit jam is a delightful treat and a good way to preserve the harvest! It creates its own pectin (from the shells), too!
Read all about how to make it on our recipe post. Link in bio!
PS did you catch the 🦗 on the leaf?
#permaculture #zone10a #stackingfunctions #urbangardening #gardening #backyardgarden #notfermented #jam #canning #preserves #passionfruit #harvest #autumn #equinox #passiflora

Anyone know what's going on here? Caught this scen

Anyone know what's going on here? Caught this scene in my garden today. This large bee-like insect is munching on a worker honeybee. Predatory wasp? Wolf in sheep's clothing? I've never seen this before.
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#permaculture #urbanpermaculture #zone10a #drylands #california #sandiego #regenerativeagriculture #bees #wasps

Permaculture Bites: Stacking Functions, Natural be

Permaculture Bites: Stacking Functions, Natural beekeeping, unintentional apitherapy
#urbanpermaculture #permaculture #stackingfunctions #growyourownfood #zone10a #southerncalifornia #socal #urbangarden #urbangardening #naturalpestcontrol #habitat #beekeeping

Mini hugelkultur like garden bed project. True hug

Mini hugelkultur like garden bed project. True hugelkultur beds are usually mounds (the word translates to "mound" from German) above the earth, and can be 2 to 10 feet high!
With this, I dug a hole about a foot deep, filled it with an old bouganvillea stump and other woody sticks. Then some green material, a layer of chicken poop, some finished compost, then watered the heck out of it to charge it. Then I put topsoil back. The idea is that it slows and keeps more water confined, and as the logs break down, they feed the microbes, and create a long lasting self-fertilizing soil bed! I'll monitor it to see how it holds moisture compared to other non-hugel beds.
#urbanpermaculture #permaculture #stackingfunctions #hugelkultur #growyourownfood #zone10a #southerncalifornia #socal #urbangarden #urbangardening #naturalpestcontrol #habitat

Thrilled to see this beautiful medicinal plant com

Thrilled to see this beautiful medicinal plant come to fruition! I found a seed in a plant given to me by a fellow regenerative gardener @duomogardens and sprouted then grew this beauty! A little early for flowering, but she's healthy and lush! She grew to about 6 feet tall in a 5 gallon pot. Outdoor grown, fed only worm castings, aerated compost tea, compost, and mostly rain water.
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#urbanpermaculture #permaculture #cannabis #420 #stackingfunctions #zone10a #southerncalifornia #socal #urbangarden #urbangardening #naturalpestcontrol #habitat #growyourownmedicine

All water capturing vessels are FULL, and it's onl

All water capturing vessels are FULL, and it's only half-time! The eye of the storm is presently passing us, and we have yet to experience the other half. Another inch or so expected in the next 6 hours! We are very blessed to receive this much rain, just wished it wasn't all at once!
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#urbanpermaculture #rainwater #rainwaterharvesting #hurricanehilary #socal #zone10a #summer #california #permaculture #urbangarden

Sunday buffet: All you can eat watermelon 🍉 and

Sunday buffet: All you can eat watermelon 🍉 and flies! This critter posted up on a rind after my chicken was done feasting.
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#clevergirl #urbanpermaculture #lizard #lizardsofinstagram #permaculture #stackingfunctions #growyourownfood #zone10a #southerncalifornia #socal #urbangarden #urbangardening #naturalpestcontrol #habitat #sundayfunday #dinosaur #gardendinosaur #zerowaste

I think I found my sacred space in the garden (an

I think I found my sacred space in the garden (an important element in permaculture!) I put a bench to the east of the new building so it gets afternoon shade. A great respite from the unforgiving, long afternoon sun.
🐔
New flock of chickens free-ranging. 3 Bielefelder pullets, one cockerel (I heard his first proto-crow the other afternoon!) and the older hen from my first flock, Betty White. They seem to have developed a rapport (although the elder still pecks the others).
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#urbanpermaculture #urbanchicken #urbangarden #zone10a #foodforest #backyardchickens #beekeeping #freerange #buildthesoil #sacredspace #permaculture #naturalbeekeeping

PSA: How NOT to inspect a beehive. I've put off po

PSA: How NOT to inspect a beehive.
I've put off posting this, mainly due to embarrassment (and slow recovery from bee venom detox).
I made so many newbie #beekeeping mistakes here inspecting my Kenyan TBH.
- This was 23 days after re-homing this primary swarm (they may be preparing to swarm again, although I didn't see any queen cells in the 10 seconds I had). At this time, new bees are being born as the colony grows.
- I pulled a bar from the _middle_ of the hive instead of the ends, which YOU SHOULD NEVER DO! I immediately knew I had made a huge mistake, and the bees were angry, came right at me, with a distinct displeased frequency. I replaced the comb and beat a hasty retreat.
- This hive design is specifically made to enable inspections from the ends which are much less disruptive to the colony. One should only pull a comb if it's unoccupied, or if they are certain it's a honey comb (not a brood comb like this).
- The queen was probably on a nearby comb, so they were naturally pretty defensive.
- I didn't use a smoker.
- I was only wearing a veil, no shoes, a short sleeve t-shirt and shorts. I got stung about 8x, all on my bare arms. Although not allergic, it feels like I was beaten up from the inside, and a week later I am still swollen! That is probably well above the recommended dose of apitoxin.
I'm grateful that they "let me off" so easily and I regret the loss of the few who sacrificed themselves to defend the hive. 🙁 These Italian honeybees normally have a lovely disposition.
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#urbanbeekeeping #kenyantopbarhive #urbangardening #topbarhive #naturalbeekeeping #apitherapy #bees #honeybees #beehive #sacredgeometry #learnfromyourmistakes

Early summer garden update! Tomato plants, purple

Early summer garden update! Tomato plants, purple pole beans, peppers, squash, strawberries, mulberry, fig, hugel, ground cherry and banana pups.
#urbanpermaculture #urbangarden #zone10a #socal #permaculture #growyourownfood #backyardgarden #summer

WATERmelon. I never noticed its hexagonal pattern

WATERmelon. I never noticed its hexagonal pattern before, but DUH, it makes perfect sense! In 3 dimensions, this is a perfect (and delicious!) icosahedron, a Platonic solid which is associated with the element of water!
🍉 💧
#water #sacredgeometry #platonicsolids #watermelon #natureasart #youcankimchithat #structuredwater #icosahedron #sandia

I added some bare copper wire to the entrance of m

I added some bare copper wire to the entrance of my beehive. That way, the bees will bring copper ions into the hive with them as they walk across it. Studies show that this leads to a much healthier colony! Copper is anti-microbial, and can restore the proper electrical charge within the hive. Next, I will install a few permanent magnets to the hive. Thanks to @electroculturevandoorne for the great advice! Can't wait to see how my bees respond.
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#electroculture #apiculture #bees #naturalbeekeeping #beekeeping #urbanbeekeeping #zone10a #kenyantopbarhive #topbarhive #permaculture #urbanpermaculture

I got bees! I built this Kenyan top bar hive last

I got bees! I built this Kenyan top bar hive last year from all found wood and materials, but only got around to finishing the top bars recently. In pics 2 & 3 you can see how I made the bars. I found the perfect thin wooden molding strip at a big box hardware store, then nailed some to each bar. Then I coated it with melted beeswax to give the bees a good head start to build their own comb. I can't wait to check to see how they're doing! But I don't want to disturb them since they're just a few days in their new home.
My friend who is a bee rescuer brought me this beautiful large swarm of about 10,000 Italian honeybees he had just caught on a nearby job. They seem to be taking well to the new home and they don't mind me. Here's a short time-lapse of their late morning activity.
#urbanbeekeeping #naturalbeekeeping #urbanbees #backyardgarden #honeybees #zone10a #permaculture #topbarhive #kenyantopbarhive #balancedbeekeping #bees #beehive

The new birds are growing fast! I let them free ra

The new birds are growing fast! I let them free range, supervised for now. I think they like this new perch.
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#urbanchickens #urbangarden #urbangardening #backyardchickens #zone10a #socal #bielefelder

Spring garden update. 1. Front bed is taking nicel

Spring garden update.
1. Front bed is taking nicely (strawberry, onion, leek, purple bean); something ate the cilantro seedlings
2. Opened the coop for the first time and let the new chicks (10 weeks old) explore a larger area
3. thorny blackberry fruits are coming in!
4 & 5. Cannabis growing fast (although it's likely either male or a hermie)
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#permaculture #urbangarden #urbangardening #zone10a #socal #southerncalifornia #backyardgarden #urbanchickens #cannabis

Finally transplanted this cannabis seed to its "fo

Finally transplanted this cannabis seed to its "forever home", a 5 gallon container. I found the seed in some flower from a gorgeous plant gifted to me by @ablovin, so I know it has good provenance!
I amended native soil (which is clayey) with compost, then added worm tea, a little urine, some chicken manure, an unhatched egg, and irrigated with rainwater. Hope this little diva appreciates the extra attention! 😍
#urbanpermaculture #cannabis #plantmedicine #urbangardening #california #zone10a #outdoorgrow #hemp #growyourown

Successful transfer of the new flock to their coop

Successful transfer of the new flock to their coop!
They're taking to the outdoors nicely, just being chickens! They haven't discovered the built-in feeder and waterer yet, and they haven't gone "upstairs" but hopefully in time their curiosity will guide them!
The older hen (from my first flock) has also been mildly curious. I'm keeping her out of the coop for now until they get to know each other.
#backyardchickens #chickens #urbanpermaculture #bielefelder #urbanchickens #zone10a

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