Garden and Community Abundance - by Steven Miller, Garden Intern 2015

It’s hard to sum up all of the things that have gone on here at Songaia since my last blog post. I’ll just spotlight the most memorable things. 

The opening circle at the Permaculture Convergence.

The permaculture convergence: The convergence was an amazing educational, inspirational and all around wonderful event. The people I met were some of the true innovators and leaders of our time in discovering and implementing sustainable community. 

While at the convergence, a windstorm rolled through Songaia and blew down and broke many branches. Coming back Laura and I spent an hour figuring out how to get back to the community blocked by fallen trees.  All the while the hugelkultur beds benefited and got a little higher.

Wine bottle ready for the ceremony.

Newly cleaned hoop house.

I’ve composted, pulled weeds, pruned lots of fruit trees, picked and preserved even more fruits and veggies and have been working in the woodshop on assembling the roof structure for the soon-to-be cob oven. 

Preparing boards for the cob oven roof.

Winter Squash

We had a cob stomp party and did the mud dance, followed by the ceremonial breaking the wine bottle into the base and then we all finished with a meal. 

Renee, Patricia and I cleared a hoop house and re-setup the irrigation to a drip system (instead of soaker hoses) to hopefully deter the moles from burrowing under the beds and weakening all of our precious plants we spend so much time nurturing. 

Mark and I then went on to install the ends of the hoop houses and patch lots of holes to weatherize it for the coming rains and wind. 

Picking pears piggyback.

As the season closes and the summer garden chaos slowly starts to calm there will still be lots of work to do. But when the cooler, fresher air starts blowing in, it doesn’t seem much like work.

Ground Cherries

Rose Hips