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2024 PEM Gardening Sand Badge Challenge

 
master gardener
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I have recently picked up my physical copy of SKIP, and I have been eyeing PEM because it matches my climate more for things I would want to accomplish. It is very New England friendly in my mind. In honor of this, I want to make Mike Haasl have to do even more work as he fleshes out PEM by drawing more interest to it.

Sand badge

Plant 5 types of seeds in a garden
Plant 3 types of seedlings
Plant 2 trees
Lightly mulch a garden bed
Weed a garden bed
Sheet mulch an area

Good Afternoon Permies!

The Challenge : Complete all BBs under the PEM Gardening Sand Badge in the 2024-2025 growing season.

I am planning on tackling the PEM gardening sand badge this upcoming grow season and thought to myself that it would be fun if I could get a group of people to work towards it all at the same time. I'm sure there are plenty of people who want to start at the very least a vegetable garden and can knock out several of these by doing that. There won't be any rewards besides boasting rights on best submissions but we can encourage each other through it!

Let me know if you are up for the challenge.

 
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Thanks for suggesting this Timothy! I think I'll have a go with you.

I mostly start annual vegetable by direct sowing, weeding and lightly mulching are straightforwards. I am intending to start some new perennials, which hopefully will need planting out. I've got Ginkgo trees to plant, lots of cardboard for sheet mulching, although a bit short on organic material for a large area.
I'll measure up the area I was thinking of mulching and see how it stacks up.....

Let's give Mike some more work to do, I'm sure he needs it!
 
master gardener
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I will literally do all those things anyway. And with Mike being almost a neighbor, I think PEM is a better match than PEP for my land. But it's just a matter of whether I'll get confused and diluted trying to do PEM and PEP at the same time and I'm far enough into PEP that it would be weird to just stop and change directions. Something to think about, for sure!
 
Timothy Norton
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The Freaky cheap gardening movie project could be the perfect excuse to start up a new garden this year as well as knock out some PEM BBs with a fun group of people.



 
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I think this sounds like a great idea. I'm in.
 
gardener
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Yeah, I'm in. But this fall, we all get to gather up the fruit of our labors, converge on your location, and pig out for a day...all three meals. Ha ha, now that would be great fun.

j
 
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Christopher Weeks wrote:I will literally do all those things anyway. And with Mike being almost a neighbor, I think PEM is a better match than PEP for my land. But it's just a matter of whether I'll get confused and diluted trying to do PEM and PEP at the same time and I'm far enough into PEP that it would be weird to just stop and change directions. Something to think about, for sure!


Howdy neighbor!

I'd say that over half of PEM is a copy of PEP.  I guess that's good if you want to switch to PEM but less good if you want to get to PEP1...

Great idea Timothy, thanks for getting me going on this.  Off to work on the next PEM badge - Dimensional woodworking.  Unfortunately I have a lot of new BBs to make for that one.
 
Timothy Norton
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We are almost into March, the ground needs to thaw in my neck of the woods before I play in it but the itch to start plants is coming.

I'm going to try and get my "Start Seedlings" BB started with a few extra to make sure I have some room to get success.
 
Timothy Norton
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I'm trying to figure out what trees I want to put in the ground.

I have an apple tree with some heavy rabbit damage from the winter so one of them might be a backup apple tree. Peach? Pear?

Spring is almost here!
 
pollinator
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Welp I was going to say I am game to try until I realized that I needed to sheet mulch a 60 sq ft area.  OOPS don't have that much room on my lot that I can turn into a garden area.  We covered most of it last year with the new beds...  
 
Nancy Reading
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Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:Welp I was going to say I am game to try until I realized that I needed to sheet mulch a 60 sq ft area.  OOPS don't have that much room on my lot that I can turn into a garden area.  We covered most of it last year with the new beds...  



Yeah, I wondered about that too since I don't need more crowing (edit! or even) growing space. 60 sq ft is only 10 x 6 ft, and it could be an area already planting with shrubs that you sheet mulch around. I'm thinking some of my trees could use some ground cover that isn't grass.

Another option might be someone else's garden.
 
Dorothy Pohorelow
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Nancy Reading wrote:

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:Welp I was going to say I am game to try until I realized that I needed to sheet mulch a 60 sq ft area.  OOPS don't have that much room on my lot that I can turn into a garden area.  We covered most of it last year with the new beds...  



Yeah, I wondered about that too since I don't need more crowing (edit! or even) growing space. 60 sq ft is only 10 x 6 ft, and it could be an area already planting with shrubs that you sheet mulch around. I'm thinking some of my trees could use some ground cover that isn't grass.

Another option might be someone else's garden.



Not sure mulching around an already planted area would work as it says

 - Starting with turf or untended weedy growth
 - Area of at least 60 square feet



I may be able to make small areas here and there but honestly most of the available space in front has been covered with the raised beds which have spaces between them for things like water line or gas pipe access just in case.   The back yard area is all dirt from the dogs running on it so I don't think that would fulfill their requirements either.
and sigh most of my friends live in apartments so no yards to work on...
 
Timothy Norton
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I have managed to plant my two trees into the ground.

I now am left to grapple with time as I wait for new growth to appear!
 
pollinator
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Can I offer a suggestion?  When you first put in an acronym, could you spell it out?  After that, it's fine to use the initials, but I don't know what many of these stand for and it just ends up annoying me, because I'm sure it is probably pretty obvious! PEM?  PEP?
 
Timothy Norton
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Thank you for that suggestion! That is the trouble is acronyms, you get so used to whipping them around you forget that others might not know what they mean. My apologize for that oversight.

PEM -Permaculture experience according to Mike

PEP - Permaculture experience according to Paul

SKIP - Skills to Inherit Property

BB - Badge Bit

To learn more - https://permies.com/wiki/skip-pep-bb
 
Barbara Simoes
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Not a problem; thank you for filling in the blanks!  I never would have guessed those...I got the 'p' for permaculture, but that was all!
 
J Garlits
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Most of the stuff I'm putting in the garden this year isn't time-sensitive. I'm in zone 6a. I have a homestead friend in central Indiana who doesn't put anything in the ground until May 1. Chances of frost after that are slim to nil. That said, he does start some seedlings, and has a very nice greenhouse in which to do so. If things look balmy after the middle of April, I may chance it, but I'm not going to risk my efforts out of early enthusiasm.

Lettuce is a different story. I'll be starting seeds soon for that and a few cold-loving herbs. Other than that, I'm happy to wait...

j
 
pollinator
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I’m hesitant to commit but I think I’ll be doing most of this and I’m in the northeast. Humid, except when it isn’t (2022 I’m lookin’ at you).  

I already transplanted 3 trees from my mom’s foundation(they were trying to grow into the house) and I am more focused on getting a berm going.

 
Timothy Norton
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I'd like to note.

You don't have to get EVERY one. I am doing this moreso as a pursuit towards something. Not everybody will have new space they want to make but perhaps a few people might consider submitting some BBs anyway.

Its all fun in the end with some benefits for ourselves in knowledge and plants!
 
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Yes, I do most of this but planting 2 trees will be what I need to work on this season. Thanks for posting.
 
pollinator
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Curious...since there is overlap between PEM and PEP, could performing a task / BB qualify for both?  This thread from the dailyish started me down a rabbit hole.  I don't *think* that I crave recognition, but participating in this community and earning BBs etc could lead to some

Beginning to explore the rabbit warren, I see a lot of BB I'd qualify for simply on what I do on an ongoing basis.  Over the next day or three, some soil blocks are going to become occupied with pepper seeds (11 varieties this year - 4 with some heat...things are getting out of control).

As for the variety discussion, I wouldn't see 5 types of seeds being an issue for us - carrots, beets, potatoes, beans, and more are regulars for us (getting a harvest can be another thing altogether mind you).  We have a short enough season that many things people in warmer climes can be direct sown are started early here.  We have about 115 frost free days in this neck of the prairies.

Sorry...started rambling there....
 
Timothy Norton
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No need to apologize!

PEP heavily influences PEM to the point that many of the BBs are PEP ones that count for both programs.

I participate in both programs for fun. I view it as a real life X-Box achievement system where certain things 'unlock' an achievement. It really is for myself and guiding my personal learning on how to do things I haven't done before.

I'd recommend giving a couple BBs a try, pay attention to what you need as 'proof' to make it obvious you meet the requirements, and start collecting little badges at the bottom of your posts!
 
Derek Thille
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Thanks Tim.

Now, where to start....
 
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I agree that Mike's gardening ideas work better with my vision as well and I'm in to give this a go. I'm in Maine.
 
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Last vote in apple poll was on March 24, 2024
 
Dorothy Pohorelow
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I stumbled across Grocery Row Gardening by David The Good last night and suddenly I am looking at this badge with a whole new set of eyes...    I suddenly think I may be able to do this.  While he talks about tilling the whole area before laying out the garden he also mentions sheet mulching an area for the garden which would work both for the area I am eyeing AND for this badge...  And all the rest of making the garden and caring for it fits in very nicely with the badge bit.    
 
Mike Haasl
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Mu ha haa...  My evil awesome plan is working :)
 
Kevin Harbin
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I worked this weekend on sheet mulching an area. I haven't confirmed my mulch depth yet but I think it's close.

Not for the Sand badge but I'm going to be putting in a swale for some hazelnuts that I ordered. They got surprise delivered yesterday so I am going to need to get to work.
 
Kevin Harbin
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I finished the Sheet Mulch bit and started both of the seed bits.
 
Kevin Harbin
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I bought too many seedlings this weekend. The greenhouse had such good prices. Now I need to figure out where to plant them all.
 
Dorothy Pohorelow
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I finally put out my seedlings I had raised and BAM we got hit by a cold front...  there went my eggplants and I am not sure how well the peppers and tomatoes will do but at least they still look alive.  AND I have replacements for the 3 varieties of pepper and most of the tomatoes.  But that leaves me one species short...   Unless I can count my Dahlias, Marigolds or tiny Rosemary seedlings as culinary...
OR possibly I could try starting some squash inside and plant out once well started...  or beans
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