and compost and crickets ...
Irrigation-Free Permaculture Gardening ...
In Nagano Japan we garden largely without irrigation. A rainy season comes in June-July, so we pretty much rely on the direction of divine nature for the green veggie crops. We occasionally have to put a waterpump in the shrine pond, which is fed by rice-paddy irrigation canals, and pump water to the kobocha (pumpkin, winter squash) and tomatoes, giant dikon radishes, potatoes, strawberries and garden greens.
In Year Three of our Goddess Moon gaia-culture experiment, we are attempting to also go irrigation-free. This last week we brought in a pickup load of Oak leaves for mulching, then two pickup loads of year-composted horse corral sawdust/hay/manure cleanings ... which included a few score of beautiful Crickets to add to our garden song.
Here is the volunteer fruiting Mulberry tree near garden front/center, which we are training sideways along the direction of main wind flow, and along the garden paths to enable ladder-less berry picking.
These are two Aloe Vera plants, on drier area ends of terrace garden beds, which otherwise would not grow any greens. This lower Aloe is on the end of a bed of baby Red Capsicums, Sweet Bell Peppers.
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Another Aloe, on a desert-landscape hill, supports the growth of some baby Oak trees ... which even in a drought only require rare watering to get established.
Bed of many baby loquat trees which will be transplanted into pots to gift to happy homes in the coming weeks.
Two 'treefall terrace' lettuce beds.
Young pomegranates destined for new homes.
Mulch pile from aged broccoli, kale, weeds and other greens pulled out of former season's garden.
Kale-bed-sculpture ... piled high with deep compost on Oak leaves.
Two Liliquoy, Passion Fruit, growing up tall Eucalypts, and upon trellis over picnic table ... a favorite nighttime roost of some garden songbirds.
The collard greens are well stocked with the ladybug's favorite food at this time of year.
If you are not lucky enough to have these helpful beetles visit your garden, a hard blast of water from the hose helps keep aphids in check, too.