The very first blog from Diann The Georgia Garden Lady

The Piedmont region of the Blue Ridge Mountains,  a road  through the forest near our home.

Welcome to our front door.

Greetings from Auburn, Georgia in Barrow County, in the North East portion of the state called the Piedmont region. 

The herb garden we call the Butterfly Garden with bench by the woods at the back of our west beds.

Road through the woods near our home.

We live in a mostly rural area, with lots of winding two lane roads. It's the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, so we don't have much flat land here. There is a lot of untouched forest with some developed areas of individual homes, subdivisions, mcmansions, double wide trailers, and pasture land in among the tall stands of trees. You can see horses, some cattle, hay cutting fields, some goats and a few hogs, then large stretches of woods. The people here are friendly, hospitable, and kind as a rule and we have grown to love it here because of them. You'll find more churches by far than anything else in the way of big buildings. And we have lovely old small towns that go back to pre-Civil War, or the War of Independence as the local people call it. And it isn't unusual to see a Confederate Flag flying along with Old Glory. Usually the towns are in the old pattern of the town square, the old court house, brick or stone buildings, and outside of town the fast food places. Coming from California, it seems like stepping back 100 years, with all the charms of traditional America.

This particular area of Georgia used to be very actively agricultural but over the years it has diminished in activity to running a few cattle, cutting hay, and the odd goat pasture or chicken factory building. People don't even often have gardens. When I first moved here 4 years ago, I was surprised to see so few people growing their own food even though mostly the house lots are very large and would accomodate at least a small plot. I realized that one of the challenges we may be facing in the near future due to rising fuel costs of transportation added to food costs might make food either very expensive for the average person, or even cause some food shortages, though that notion would come as a great surprise to most living here. We are all so used to the convenience of the big grocery store or Walmart box stores. But with the trend towards 'LOCAL', many are realizing that that paradigm may be in jeopardy.

From my own viewpoint,each day we start out looking at how the world can be a better place. Right now there are major challenges all around but there are always things we can do about it. My blog is about those ideas, and a window into what I'm doing, hopefully as an inspiration to you to get out of your ruts and become more causitive over the situations you face, mostly in the areas of survivability, sustainability, self-reliance, and skills needed to stay above the chaos and put in order so your life goes smoothly.

A terraced potato bed with wattle fence.

So, I started out first by creating growing space on the hard Georgia clay hillside in our subdivision between the woods in the back of the property and the sodded lawn spaces, in areas which had not been sodded. This led to the creation of 7 garden growing areas of over 83 beds. This keeps me busy but I am an experienced organic garden having been growing food this way for over 40 years.

But I have been dismayed by the general lack of survival skills in the people here, knowing that things are rapidly changing both economically and sociologically. I don't think people are sufficiently prepared for those changes and I vowed to do something about that with the many skills I have accumulated over a lifetime of learning and experience in many areas. So, I started a community garden in our town of Auburn, worked with the City and created a garden expo - we've had our second one this spring - which morphed into a Farmers Market which I had wished to create to give local growers a venue to sell their produce.

Then I started writing articles, giving radio interviews, and appearing on panels around the area promoting self-sufficiency. I helped form 3 other community gardens as a Permaculture Designer in nearby areas, and have participated and helped to form 2 other farmers markets. Now CGs, little farmers markets, and gardens are popping up all over the area, but when I began this was a dead zone. Now I am focusing on teaching skills to people and helping them by building gardens and forming environments which are sustainable.

I feel with passion the need for people to grow and preserve their own food as much as possible, help preserve bio-diversity by saving seeds that are not hybrid or genetically modified so we can keep the integrity of our food outside the greedy and destructive hands of the people in several large corporations who would deny us our right to good healthy food, by demanding all food be corporate monster food full of weird genetic material and harmful chemicals so they can make a profit. These are the times we live in. We must act individually if we are to keep ourselves and our children and old folks healthy. But we also must network to stay strong.

In this blog I will be discussing organic gardening, food preservation, seed saving, garden planning, environments for best yield, Permaculture Design,  health and food issues, some politics as they relate to keeping your freedoms, some heads-up information from other sources I consider reliable, and maybe even some lighthearted fun now and then to keep things flippant and spirit of play.

20 August 2010, Friday:

This huge butterfly was drinking nectar from our butterfly bush up front.

Wild flowers - the purple ones are native passion fruit flowers.

Today is a cloudy, humid day, but warm (low 80s). I have 83 garden plots on my hillside property, which have been either terraced, set into raised beds, or in-ground on the flatter parts. I have fruit trees and bushes, strawberries, flowers to attract the bees and butterflies, and a whole lot of annual and perennial edible beds, with herbs and flowers mixed in to confuse the bugs.

West Beds with rain barrels full of water.

I catch rainwater to help my plants absorb water better - rainwater has a higher percentage of oxygen than tap water, without all the chemicals too. And it has been found that rainwater has a higher frequency of energy which the plants like than processed and chlorinated and fluoridated city water. If I had a well, I would use that too. When I have to I use city water, but I make sure I catch as much rain as I can whenever it rains in 6 large rain barrels which come off my house eaves.

Okra growing in the East beds.

Baskets sorting vegs from the garden in the kitchen.

Corn relish being preserved in my kitchen.

These planters are on our kitchen deck - beans and flowers.

Here are some pictures I took today. It's late summer. Many of my summer squash and melon plants have already died off but I'm still getting okra, cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, both sweet and hot peppers, beets and beet greens, herbs,  a few beans, and cutting flowers. The last of my fruit has been harvested and mostly preserved of what didn't get eaten or given away.

In the last month I have been producing an abundance of organic vegetables and fruit, and canning and dehydrating the products of my garden. And I have been working with clients to develop and design several gardening environments that people who don't know how can have sustainable edible gardens to feed their families. I have also written a number of articles on these subject and as I write them I will share them in this blog.

East beds taken from our kitchen deck looking down..

Here are some pictures taken today:

You can see I've been busy with planting, harvesting, preserving, and over the past 4 years garden bed building. My husband Loren has helped me make the raised wooden beds and some of the rock work on the West beds.

The lower beds with raised beds and mulched paths.

Another view of the lower beds in their lush production.

Scare crows to keep away the deer in the lower beds.