Living a healthier, balanced life starts with food
On our channel, we show you how to grow food and cook for health and longevity. We explore health-conscious choices that families encounter in a modern lifestyle. Our easy-to-follow videos are made to empower your own health journey.
About Me: I’m a Historical Landscape Architect and Architectural Historian. In my work, I document historic and cultural heritage sites- how we live in relationship with the land. Blue Zones are places with the highest rates of longevity in the world that still live off of the land more directly. These cultures keep ancestral diets and continue a traditional lifestyle.
I think we can learn from that holistic approach to health in our modern society. Our culture has lost touch with real food, creating health problems, especially for our children. A good diet is nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory, and non-toxic. A Blue Zone lifestyle can be recreated wherever you live. My goal is to give you a roadmap.💛
You certainly have some interesting problems and innovative solutions. My garden in British Columbia, Canada last year I had the most productive tomatoes in my 38 years of gardening. In June there were 18 days of >30C or >86F and 2 days over 40C or 104F. In July 28 days were over 30C of which 5 days were over 40C. August was cooler with 17 days over 30C. I don't prune my tomatoes. I grow a tomato jungle with 360 degree of no shade from sun or wind. My 8 plants produced so heavily that the August 7th entry to my diary reads "I am seriously tired of all this harvesting". Five plants produced over 20 pounds of fruits and the others were not far behind. My cherry plant "Sweetie" produced 850 tomatoes (~5kg) when I pulled it out in disgust. Constoluto Genovese produced right up until the end in late September. Other gardeners who grow tomato jungles reported the same 'problems'. I mulch with alyssum "Snow Carpet". I use soaker hose irrigation. I do not use chemical fertilizer, just bonemeal and compost. I saw one hornworm and one praying mantis. No splits, no BER and no other problems - other than continuous harvest. The excessive heat provided perfect growing conditions. This year looks like being very disappointing. Unless I see some serious heat the harvest will be small.
Glad to hear the shady microclimates are working out for you! I start getting over 100 in early June and continue though October or early November. My plants do well in full sun, but I have drip irrigation run under like four inches of mulch.
Inspiring! I wish you could help me with the big picture plan for my place. I really LOVE the children's garden placed in the middle of it all, and how you include them. Where I live everything has to be protected from deer, gophers, birds, wind, insects, even the sun sometimes. I love the openness of your gardens, all in-ground, without fencing, mesh, covers, nets. It's lovely. Truly lovely.
I hope you are not in Oregon and now Maine, where individual family growing areas are being shut down. I definitely think you are on to something important for the future. God bless you and your family.
I started gardening about a two decades ago and did it for grief therapy that my doctor suggested. I was in my forties. NO idea how. Then I learned to preserve. All this and working at a law firm with an hour commute both ways. I didn't have children underfoot but did have dogs. One took the first melon ha ha. Now I live off grid and retired five years and grow on a hillside. I don't draw anything our like you but have learned the land here and put in grapes and berries and asparagus etc and then last September hubs bought six more acres, two open four wooded and we planted 14 fruit trees. Goal is to live to be an older woman and have fruit. God bless
I’ve learned planting the right crop at the right time makes all the difference. I don’t know where your garden is located but brassicas don’t tolerate temperatures above 75F for prolonged periods and will attract pests in warmer seasons. It’s about time for us to remove kale from our garden…I’m thinking kale chips would be a nice way to use it all up at once for a tasty snack.
