In the spring of 1963, right before my fifth birthday, my parents purchased the Big House, a plot of land of three and a half acres running between the main road in the area and a deadend street the housed the local elementary school. The house was a three storied stone structure. Across the main road was your typical suburban development, while the properties on either side were both multiple acres, one being a working farm - they were good neighbors. Surrounding the house were nine outbuildings with varying uses and mostly in poor condition. The land had once been a dairy farm, though in the most recent years, had been a rental property owned by an absentee landlord. THe back portion of the property had been fenced off with chicken wire and seemed to be serving priarily as a dumping ground for household waste. The back northwest corner was a dense thicket of overgrown brush and scrap trees, but the rest of the property sported a few fruit trees and a fair number of well-established trees, such as ash and linden and birch (not that I knew any of their names at that early age. No doubt my parents had wandered all over the property prior to my first sight of it, as Dad had plenty of plans for his eventual gardening areas, though those would have to wait until some major issues were dealt with in the house itself first.

I was born in the very late 50's and the world was a much different place than the one we know today. My father earned a very respectable salary as an engineer for Westinghouse, allowing my mother to stay home and take care of the house and my brother and me. Shortly before I was born, my parents bought a small rancher in a quiet subdivision just outside of Baltimore. The property was about a quarter acre, so the little bit of garden area we had lay in the back yard. I don't remember if Dad actually raised any vegetables while living there, but I do remember that he gathered a bunch of neighborhood kids and showed us all how to start flowers in little Dixie cups of soil. He also built a hothouse in the basement to create an environment in which to grow specimen orchids. There was also a section in the basement devoted to house plants that were kept under grow lights and drip-watered on a timer.

I don't actually remember very much about our time in that little rancher since I was so young when we lived there, so most of my memories of that time are triggered by old photographs. Far more active memories of my childhood would come from the next property, that I'll just call the Big House.

What the heck is permaculture? Here's the definition shown by a local Facebook group that I think seems to state it well: "Permaculture is a design methodology that makes the best use of nature's tendencies to maximize your yard's needs and to minimize your work." I like that - it's concise. But, I don't think permaculture is just about the land use on a personal level, but also more about land use in general. Its roots are in agriculture but permaculture also touches on restoring ecological systems, community development and planning, and energy. A search on the internet will bring up many, many diverse pages about permaculture, to the point of being almost overwhelming, but for me, the key point, is to start at home, making some improvements. Consider this to be a starting point as I plan to talk more about what I am doing on my own property. Hoepfully, it will insprie others to do some of the smae.

There is an apple tree in my yard that is in dire need of help as it is suffering from apple scab. It is a perfect tree to use as the base of an apple guild as it is almost certainly going to improve as a result of using permaculture techniques. To create a benficial environment for the apple tree, I need to surround it with various plants.

First, we'll add some preventative medicine for the apple scab tendency - garlic chives. By planting these at the base of the tree, not only will the tree benefit form the natural fungicide properties of the chives, but they will also help to block climbing insects from gaining a foothold on the tree. The white flowers of the garlic chives are quite attractive to bees, always a nice benefit. They are perennial and the foliage with its slightly garlic flavor is a useful addition in cooking.

Apple trees are also prone to problems with woolly aphids and codling moths. For protection against the aphds, two protective plants are spearmint and sage, both of which I already have growing on the property, so I'll take some cuttings to proprogate more of each to plant near the apple. Lacewings love to lay their eggs on sage plants and their young enjoy feeding on aphids and since sage is a popular perennial herb, it is already a useful plant. The spearmint's strong scent acts to prevent pests from coming near and its winter flowers also attract polinators.