The Key to a Thriving Raised Garden Bed: Understanding the Sun’s Shifting Path
One of the most overlooked factors in placing a raised garden bed is how the sun moves throughout the year. It’s easy to assume that a sunny spot in summer will work year-round, but as the seasons change, so does the sun’s angle. A well-placed raised bed considers both summer’s high sun and winter’s lower arc to maximize light exposure for your plants.
Why Seasonal Sun Mapping Matters
In the summer, the sun is high in the sky, casting shorter shadows. This means that what seems like a perfectly sunny spot in July might be shaded in winter due to nearby structures, fences, or trees. Conversely, an area that receives full sun in winter might become too intense in summer, leading to heat stress for your plants.
How to Find the Best Spot
Observe Your Space in Different Seasons: Take note of where the sunlight falls in winter versus summer. If you’re planning now for spring, use existing trees and buildings as reference points to estimate future shade.
Think About Morning vs. Afternoon Sun: Morning sun is gentler and helps plants dry off early, reducing fungal risks. Afternoon sun can be more intense—great for heat-loving crops but potentially stressful in peak summer months.
Avoid Too Much Shade: A garden bed placed too close to structures or trees might not get enough light, especially in fall and winter when the sun is lower in the sky.
Consider Microclimates: Pay attention to areas that might get extra warmth from reflected sunlight off walls or areas that stay cooler due to consistent shade. These details can help you decide where to place different types of plants.
Get Your Garden Ready for Spring—Start Planning Now
The best time to plan your raised garden bed is before spring planting begins. By assessing your sun exposure now, you’ll have the perfect spot ready when it’s time to plant. If you’re not sure where to start, I can help! Let’s map out the ideal placement for your raised beds so you can grow a thriving garden all season long.
📩 Reach out now for a consultation and set your garden up for success!
Maple Tapping: A Seasonal Tradition with Sweet Rewards
As winter fades and spring starts knocking, it’s maple tapping season! This time-honored tradition, rooted in Indigenous knowledge, isn’t just about syrup—it’s about connecting with nature, respecting the land, and making the most of what’s already around us.
The Basics: When and How to Tap
Sugar maples (Acer saccharum) are the go-to, but red and black maples work too. The best time to tap is when days are above freezing, but nights are still cold. A healthy tree (at least 12 inches in diameter) can handle a tap or two, and smaller taps (5/16") help the tree heal faster.
Tapping the Right Way
Being mindful about tapping means:
Using safe tools: Stainless steel or food-grade plastic taps keep everything clean.
Taking only what’s needed: The tree needs its sap too!
Letting trees recover: Avoid re-tapping the same spot to keep trees healthy.
Encouraging biodiversity: A diverse forest helps trees stay resilient.
Beyond Syrup: Other Ways to Use Maple
Maple sap isn’t just for syrup! Try these creative uses:
Drink it straight: Lightly sweet and packed with minerals, it’s a refreshing tonic.
Ferment it: Turn it into maple kefir, wine, or beer.
Make maple sugar: A natural sweetener that’s great in baking.
Maple vinegar: A tasty alternative to apple cider vinegar.
Cooking with sap: Use it in soups, grains, or even bread for a subtle maple kick.
A Sweet Takeaway
Maple tapping is a fun, sustainable way to enjoy nature’s generosity. Whether you’re making syrup, sipping fresh sap, or experimenting in the kitchen, it’s a great reminder that the best things come straight from the earth. Happy tapping!
Beavers Built a Million-Dollar Dam for Free
Nature once again proves that it knows best. In the Brdy region of the Czech Republic, a family of beavers stepped in to restore a landscape that humans had been negotiating over for years. What was supposed to be a $1.2 million government project—designed to protect the Klabava River from pollution—was instead completed effortlessly by these ecosystem engineers, free of charge.
Without permits, bulldozers, or construction delays, the beavers instinctively built a network of dams, creating a thriving wetland that spans twice the area of the proposed human-made version. Their work not only filters and slows runoff but also provides essential habitat for frogs, birds, and even rare species like the stone crayfish. This is regenerative design in its purest form.
Rather than fighting nature, we should be learning from it. Beavers have been restoring landscapes for millennia, crafting wetlands that retain water, mitigate floods, and build soil fertility—tasks we often struggle to achieve with human engineering. Instead of spending millions trying to recreate what beavers do naturally, it’s time to recognize their role as partners in land stewardship.
The lesson here is clear: When we give nature space to do what it does best, we get solutions that are more resilient, more abundant, and far more cost-effective than anything we could have designed ourselves.
This Fall, Leave the Leaves!
It’s that time of year again for fall garden cleanup. But instead of raking, bagging, and hauling leaves to the landfill, let’s embrace a more sustainable approach: leave the leaves!
Imagine wrapping yourself in a cozy fall blanket and basking in the wonder of Mother Nature. Each tree in your yard is doing just that—covering itself with a blanket of golden leaves. This natural process is not only beautiful but incredibly beneficial for your garden.
Leaving your leaves is one of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gases and benefit your garden. When leaves decompose, they create a natural mulch that helps suppress weeds and enrich the soil with nutrients. This process not only fertilizes your garden but also provides a habitat for wildlife such as lizards, birds, turtles, frogs, and insects. These creatures play a crucial role in pest control and pollination, making them invaluable allies in your garden.
Soil health is paramount in permaculture, and micro-organisms are the unsung heroes. They thrive on the organic matter provided by fallen leaves, breaking it down and enriching the soil. This natural cycle reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and promotes stronger, healthier plants.
Including leaves in your compost mix can further enhance your garden’s fertility. Mulching with leaves is a simple yet effective practice that protects the soil surface, prevents erosion, and moderates soil temperature. By keeping roots warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and retaining moisture, mulch proves especially beneficial during droughts.
You can easily mulch leaves where they fall or chop them up with your mower. Alternatively, use them in strategic garden spots like between crop rows, around fruit trees, or in high-traffic areas. Leaves are also excellent for covering bare soil between growing seasons and for improving compacted soil by reducing runoff and adding nutrients.
Leaving your leaves this fall isn’t just about less work for you; it’s about creating a healthier, more resilient garden ecosystem. So, let’s practice permaculture principles and let those leaves do their magic. Embrace the sustainable choice—leave the leaves!
Hempcrete: Building a Sustainable Future with Plant-Based Materials
Hemp, one of humanity's oldest cultivated crops, has long been valued for its diverse applications. From health foods and medicines to textiles and biofuel, every part of the hemp plant serves a purpose. Today, even the byproducts of hemp processing, like hemp shives (the woody core of the hemp stalk), are making strides in sustainable building. Enter hempcrete—a natural, eco-friendly building material that combines hemp shives with lime or mud cement to create a durable, carbon-negative alternative to traditional concrete.
Hempcrete is lightweight and non-structural, designed to complement conventional construction methods rather than replace them. It can be cast in place or prefabricated into blocks or panels, much like traditional concrete. What sets hempcrete apart is its high silica content, which allows it to bond exceptionally well with lime. As the lime cures, it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, forming calcium carbonate, or limestone, making hempcrete a carbon-negative material. Additionally, hempcrete requires far less water to cure than traditional cement, contributing to water conservation—a critical aspect of sustainable building practices.
The environmental benefits of hempcrete extend beyond its production. Hemp is a low-impact crop that requires minimal water, pesticides, and fertilizers. It grows rapidly, yielding two harvests per year, and contributes to soil health by sequestering carbon, preventing erosion, and improving nutrient content. Once transformed into hempcrete, its benefits continue. The lime coating provides fire resistance, while its vapor-permeable nature ensures a healthy indoor environment. Hempcrete is also mold and pest-resistant, a property that has been harnessed for centuries, as seen in the ancient Ellora Caves of India, where hemp plaster helped preserve artwork from the 6th century CE.
In modern times, the potential of hempcrete as a sustainable building material is being explored globally, including in India, where companies like GoHemp are developing hempcrete structures. With its minimal environmental impact and versatile applications, hempcrete not only supports sustainable building but also offers economic and social benefits, particularly in agrarian economies. As we rethink our approach to construction, materials like hempcrete have the potential to reshape our built environment and contribute to a more sustainable future.
Opportunity Spotting
Brigid Walsh and Jesse Tack had an enlightening discussion about the transformative potential of profitable permaculture businesses in advancing the movement. They highlighted the critical need to integrate permaculture into various problems and households in ways that are both profitable and scalable. Brigid shared her personal journey, detailing how they leveraged their corporate experience to launch a thriving permaculture business. They underscored the importance of identifying and utilizing one's strengths and natural talents to build a sustainable and profitable business model. Additionally, they discussed applying permaculture principles to business and industry, emphasizing incremental changes and the collective impact of millions of people adopting permaculture practices in their daily lives.
Mushroom Mania
It all begins with an idea.
Mushrooms Mushrooms Mushrooms. How I love them so. I have become a foraging fanatic. At the first sight of rain I gaze out of the window awaiting signs from my fungi friends. With all of this glorious H20 that we have been receiving in the North East, they are really showing off their blooms.
After forgoing the mowing of my lawn (this is another story - see “Lawnlessness”), chanterelles began popping up in places I’d been disrespecting for decades. Once I really started to pay attention, glorious eats were arriving everywhere.
The thing about mushrooms is, they are the most incredible and complex system on earth. (You must watch: Fantastic Fungi). They are underneath our feet at all times and everywhere. It’s only their fruiting body that we often identify as the mushroom itself. But oh there is a glorious world going on underneath the soil. Interconnected webs that regenerate life and act as a communication/feeding system for all trees, forests and organisms.
But lets talk about foraging them as food…..I think it’s best to narrow down to just four in your geographic area that are edible, easily identifiable and just stick to those. Safety First! I generally avoid any that are white, too many mistakes can be made there.
Identifying factors: Color, Texture, Gills, Stems but it is also very important to identifying mushrooms by the location, where they are growing (on the forest floor, on a lawn, on a tree stump, in a meadow), how they are growing (singular, clusters), and with what they are growing (type of tree, type of moss).
When extracting the mushroom, never pull it. This will disrupt it’s mycelium system or roots and prevent it from coming back in that same location. Always use a small knife and gently cut the mushroom at the stem. This will ensure your foraging spot re-blooms and you can return season after season.
Here are my “go-to” foraging finds:
Chanterelle: Cantharellus, Grow singular, on a lawn or ground surface. Sometimes seen in pairs or trio. Bright orange in color. Does not have a separation from the stalk and cap. Gills that run downward into into the stem. (Caution not to misidentify with the Jack O Lantern that are found in large clusters at the base of trees, on stumps, or on buried wood. They also have a brighter orange color and a smoother surface and are unsafe for consumption.)
Morel: Morchella. These highly coveted beauties appear in early Spring very specifically. They grow in woodlands or woody edges, under or around decaying elms, ash, poplar and apple trees But sadly many property owners miss out on them because of mowing of lawns. No Mow May should help you with this problem. These are are very tasty delicacy and much sought after in the local farm to table restaurant.scene.
Chicken of the Woods: Laetiporus. I am so fortunate to have a nice recurring bloom of this beauty. They are bright orange and grow in a bright bloom on oak tree stumps. They will reappear several times in the summer and fall. These are hearty and dense and are one of the only mushrooms that can be frozen after harvest to eat later because of their meaty texture.
Black Trumpet: Craterellus cornucopioides, or horn of plenty. The upper and inner surface is black or dark grey. The lower and outer fertile surface is a much lighter shade of grey. The surface is smooth but may be somewhat wrinkled. The fruiting body does not have a separation into stalk and cap, but is shaped like a funnel expanded at the top. Black trumpets mainly grow in the woods, under beech, oak or other broad-leaved trees, especially in moss in moist spots.
What a perfect excuse to get out into the woods, and open your eyes to the glorious details of the forest floor. Get to know that fungus among-us!
Fancy a head start to growing your own mushrooms? Try any of these easy starter kits or “how to” guides: MUSHROOM KITS & GUIDES
What is Permaculture?
What is permaculture?
I’m so glad you asked. Great Question! Well, it depends, since this profound set of principals could be applied to just about anything. It all starts with first asking, “What is the problem you’re attempting to solve?”
I first heard the term Permaculture in the Summer of 2022. In an attempt to solve a recurring water issue in my basement, I burrowed down the YouTube rabbit hole on a quest for answers. I suppose one might just hire a contractor, plumber, or excavator to put a solve together, but for some reason this time I felt compelled to really understand what was going on with the earth beneath our nearly 200-year-old bluestone house in the Hudson Valley.
After a few videos that showed me typical storm water and drainage engineering applied to urban sprawl and track home developments, all interesting stuff but didn’t quite apply to my situation, the algorithm Gods sent down a lightening bolt. That next video, I can honestly say, changed my life. The Oregon timber industry had depleted large swaths of the landscape and a Permaculture group had stepped in to rehabilitate the whole eco system using very simple, natural techniques. My situation wasn’t exactly comparable, but they had my attention. The timber groups had been planting and harvesting large sections of a hillside with one species of tree, then clearcutting large sections and replanting. This dramatically depleted the area of nutrients and topsoil with rainfall bringing only mudslides. The Permaculture team created a cascading series of ponds throughout the hill that captured water, stored it, and allowed it to seep slowly into the soil. They also planted a diversified swath of native plants to hug the soil in and live in concert with the timber crops. Alas, the barren and starving hillside became an oasis of birds, butterflies, turtles and native species who had left long ago due to lack of habitat. This is regenerative agriculture, a whole systems design approach, and the circular premise behind Permaculture.
What I didn’t know at the time was that Permaculture solves for so much more. Simple, nature-based solutions for literally every problem.
Within a year of having first heard the word, I received my Certification in Permaculture Design and now see the world through a very different lens. A good start is to read Bill Mollison’s Introduction to Permaculture.
Thank you for tagging along on my journey. I think we will learn a little something, have some fun, and make a massive impact through surprisingly simple solutions….
One lawn, one house, one person at a time.
Five Minutes With: Northwind Farms’ Amanda Costello
It all begins with an idea.
BRIGID: We're here with Amanda Costello from Northwind Farms, here in Tivoli, in the Hudson Valley. Amanda, I just wanted to ask you a few questions about this beautiful farm you have. What kind of animals do you raise here?
AMANDA: We do chickens, beef, horses, obviously. We have lambs, pigs, geese, turkeys, quail, rabbits, everything.
BRIGID: How long have you been raising animals here in the Hudson Valley?
AMANDA: I've been doing it for probably about three years with my fiancé. Russell's been doing it for over 30 years, his whole life.
BRIGID: What kind of products do you sell, and where do you sell them?
AMANDA: We sell them at the Kingston Farmers Market. Sugar stop. We sell them at the Kingston Farmers Market, at the Woodstock Farmers Market. Right here on the farm, we do whole cows, half cows, quarter cows. We sell it by steaks. We do that with pigs, sheep, everything.
BRIGID: I know that your horse, Sugar, here is about to have a baby.
AMANDA: Yes, She was due on Thursday, still waiting.
BRIGID: I know that you have some experience foaling with horses. Tell us about your experience with that.
AMANDA: Yes, I actually went to college for breeding. I used to breed Standardbreds, and then I got an internship with Becky Thomas with Sequel Stallions in 2015. Then I was there until I, unfortunately, got hurt. But then I got my own gelding and then, my own thoroughbred brood mare, and now I'm just camping out here, waiting for Sugar r to foal out every night.
BRIGID: How long does it usually take once she starts to have the baby?
AMANDA: Once her water breaks, from start to finish, 20 minutes tops. It's quick.
BRIGID: Do you know whether or not it's going to be a colt or a filly?
AMANDA: I have been right about every horse gender and human gender since 2018. So I have a feeling on what it is, but I'm not telling anyone because I don't want to jinx myself.
BRIGID:: Aside from the animals that you have on the farm that you use for your work and sell as a product, what kind of animals do you have as pets as well?
AMANDA: I have the horses. I just got a rescue donkey about six weeks ago, so he's pretty cool. His name is Walter. When I first got him, I couldn't even get within two feet of him. Now he follows me in the field. He runs right up to me. He brays for me in the morning if I don't feed him fast enough, in his opinion. I have some pet goats. I do have some pet cows that are my bottle babies. So they're not going anywhere. They're here for life.
BRIGID: When do you have to get up every morning?
AMANDA: During the summertime, I'm up 4:30. During the winter, I get to sleep until 7:00. So it depends on how much work and if we're butchering that day, because we butcher all the poultry on site. It depends on how busy the day is. If we're getting ready to plant corn, hay, or anything like that, we'll be up at 4:00 AM mowing hay and not go to bed until 11:00.
BRIGID: How many animals do you have on the farm at any given time?
AMANDA: Oh, thousands.
BRIGID: Really?
AMANDA: Right now, we have about 2,500 chicks that we'll start butchering in a few weeks. We have baby turkeys. I have a bunch of Araucanas that aren't out in the hen house yet. We probably have about 300 egg-laying chickens. We probably have about 45 to 50 breeding cows and their babies, and then their babies from last year. So a lot.
BRIGID: What about pigs? Do you have pigs? How many pigs do you have?
AMANDA: Probably about 25 breeders right now.
BRIGID: Goats, do you have goats?
AMANDA: Yep, we have about 12 breeding goats right now.
BRIGID: Are they having babies right now?
AMANDA: They already had their babies. Their babies are sold as pets, so we're just waiting for them to all go into heat to breed again, to have some fall babies.
BRIGID: Where, again, can people find you if they want to buy product from you?
AMANDA: They can go on our Facebook, Northwind Farms, our Instagram. They can find us online. They can find us through the Kingston Farmers Market website, the Woodstock Farmers Market website, or just come to the farm. I'm here literally 24/7 now.
BRIGID: That's in Tivoli, right?
AMANDA: Yep, right in Tivoli. Right on West Kerley Corners Road.
BRIGID: Thanks so much for spending time with us today. I'm Bridget, and we're with Amanda from Northwind Farm, and this is 5 Minutes With.
FIVE MIN W: AMANDA
Fashionable Food Scraps
It all begins with an idea.
Food for Thought: Food Scraps, yes the bits and pieces you chop from your veggies during prep, as well as the leftovers you throw away each meal, account for over 2.5 billion tons of food each year sent to land fills. The US, more than any other country in the world, accounts for 60 million tons - 120 billion pounds - every year.
But its not just me and you and our carrot ends, food is lost all throughout the growing, distributing and consuming process. Food is lost on farms, during processing, during distribution, during storage, in retail stores, in food service operations, in our kitchens, for a wide variety of reasons.
So, what is the problem here. Doesn’t “organic matter” just disappear in the landfill? Well as it turns out, not exactly.
Trucking those scraps to the landfill comes with a high cost, financially and chemically. Once in the landfill the abundance of food scraps generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
So if we just separated these scraps at the source, just like we’ve become accustom to separating our recyclables, we’re solving multiple things at once. We’re removing the tons of scraps from the system which is incentive enough for me, but we also have an opportunity to turn those food scraps into a valuable nutrient rich compost that can be used for home gardening and which sells for $20-$50 a cubic yard.
I have now become a food scrap fanatic. I have tested many household kitchen methods including products such as Lomi, Reencle, Bokashi, and large yard methods such as a pallet built composters, a compost pit, and a tumbler, I’m also now exploring community scale solutions such as BioTechAmericas, which allows large college and business campuses, restaurants or towns to make amazing compost from their collective scraps.
Don’t forget that property storing your food allows for less waste. Here are some valuable items in storing you food properly and giving it a longer life…produce storage bags that can also be used to forgo those plastic bags in the produce section and these beautiful Bees Wrap products that replace single use plastic zip locks.