Lisa Brunette

Thanks so much for this; I'm ordering the book, though I'm concerned it won't answer specific questions I have, based on the caveats posted above.

I'd like to go without a liner entirely and make use of our clay soil here for a small backyard pond in a low, wet area at the bottom of a sloped yard on .33 acre. A PVC pipe from half the gutters on our 1200 sq ft house could also drain into the pond. We also have a need to extend a drainage ditch at the property line that has to carry the gutter drainage from several neighboring properties, and that could be routed into the pond as well, with a gradual overflow beach like the one in the video above, plus continuing the drainage ditch out the other side of the overlow to meet with the neighbor's ditch, all of which eventually flows through a storm sewer to a nearby creek.

Lastly, there's a beautiful bald cypress near the area that is best for the pond site, in the lowest point of the sloped yard. I'm thrilled by the idea of encouraging it to root as bald knobs, which is the other reason to avoid a plastic or other synthetic liner. I don't think to build the pond that digging through big roots will be a problem, as the pond site is far enough away from the tree. Where the PVC drain outflows, there are knobs trying to grow already. In a park not far from our home, there is a bald cypress near a pond, and it's sending up bald knobs a good way from the tree trunk, probably about 10-12 feet.

Questions:

We're coming through a drought right now, and the soil is very cracked. Should I amend the pond bottom with bentonite clay? What's the best way to do this? Should we only add bentonite to fill the cracks, or fully line the bottom with bentonite? Should we tamp the clay using machinery, and if so, before or after the bentonite is added?

How much could reasonably drain into a small pond? Will the PVC pipe from our gutters, plus the drainage ditch, be too much?

Some sources say clay soil + bentonite is bad, and others say it's perfect. What sayest thou, oh permies?

What am I not considering here, for a pond I mean to encourage wildlife while also serving as a retention pond for gutter drainage? I've thought about water from gutters containing some contaminants from roof shingles, but maybe the pond plants will filter/handle that. There won't be any fertilizer runoff because our yard slopes down to the pond, and I will not be using commercial fertilizer, only compost, straw, etc. My hope is to grow healthy plants and encourage amphibians, dragonflies, wildlife.

Since a lot of people seemed inspired by this Q&A series on Suburban Homesteading, I've now republished all three posts on Substack and made them available for free. They're grouped under this link:

LIVING LOW

Note there will be a prompt asking for your email address to subscribe if you're new to that platform, but you can easily bypass it. Or sign up if you'd like more stories like this one delivered to your inbox just like a permies email.

Thanks to everyone in this fine community for the advice, commiseration, and support for the past 7 years!

Manda, answers in-line below:

Manda Bell wrote:Excellent. I have a couple questions on implementation:

How do you keep the sawdust from clumping and becoming anaerobic in the bin?  

Never had a problem with this. It sits in an open watering trough outside. It gets rained on constantly, and I've drilled holed into the bottom of the trough to drain it. The sawdust sits there until the trough is full, and then the sawdust gets incorporated directly into the soil via broad fork and pitchfork hand-tilling. It doesn't clump. We have clay soil, and our garden beds are rich and wormy after many years of this.

Manda Bell wrote:Do you let it get rained on a few times or anything specifically in the bin or before adding into the soil? Do you compost it in-ground or in a compost pile?  

See above re: rain. We do not compost this. It sits in the trough, gets rain-rinsed, and then it goes directly into the soil.

Manda Bell wrote:Do you mix it with anything specific or just compost it? Like, coffee grounds? Paper? Plant matter? Or just general composting material?

Nope - I don't make this more complicated than it is. We used to add coffee grounds only because we needed an easily accessible place to dump coffee grounds coming from my husband's coffee habit, and the sawdust trough is located right outside the basement steps for easy disposal from the cat litter box. My husband kicked the coffee habit, so we no longer add coffee grounds, but even without those, the sawdust-as-soil amendment is good use of a substance that would otherwise go to a landfill.

Manda Bell wrote:I have so much excess litter sawdust that I am trying to figure out a way to keep it from becoming a wood block.

Granted, we only have one cat, but I don't see how you could get it to become a wood block. Sawdust will remain dusty unless you glue it together in an industrial process to create particle board, I think!

Manda Bell wrote:Anyway, any tips are appreciated!

Sure thing. After I return from a much-needed hiatus, I'll be covering our whole compost-and-soil enrichment system in an upcoming post on Brunette Gardens, if you're interested. Much luck to you!

Hi, Manda!

Yes, I've continued this method for many years now, and it's a key aspect of our compost system. The sawdust goes to a bin outside as soon as the box needs fresh litter, and this sawdust gets incorporated into the soil with the use of a broadfork. Haven't had any issues.

I haven't seen this mentioned much in the mainstream press, but the new USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map shows some shifts in zone for many regions.

My own went from 6b to 7a.

I'm in a unique position to have returned to a place where I'd gardened in the past after 20 years away, so I can compare then to now. What I've observed:

- far fewer viceroy and monarch butterflies
- far fewer insects of all types
- it's now frequently too hot to grow many annuals in the fall season
- some plants that would die in winter previously, such as lavender and rosemary, can now sometimes overwinter
- armadillos are moving up from the south to our area
- declines in bird species, even once-common ones like blue jays

What I've done in response to weather trends:

- literally stopped buying seeds from an outlet one state to the north of us and instead purchase from two suppliers south of us, which has given better results
- with an assist from heat-sink rocks, overwinter tender perennials
- cut back on my late summer/fall crops
- shifted into more lacto-fermentation and dehydrating to store in a basement that stays 50-68 year round
- cut cool-weather lovers such as arugula and chamomile from my rotation
- adding more heat lovers

Ref: Article in Civil Eats on the new zone map

Has your zone changed? Does the zone map match your observations? What are the implications for your gardening plans, now and in the future?

Thanks to all for your input. I think we'll try the Kitchen Aid for now.

In my ongoing move toward a whole-foods, ancestral diet, I'm looking into the possibility of grinding grain myself, rather than buying flour, especially after what happened with King Arthur's bread flour, which I've posted about here.

Do any Permies have experience with Kitchen Aid's grinder attachment? It would be the best option in terms of ease and price, since I already have the mixer. But I'm concerned about some of the negative reviews.

I realize there are threads here on hand-crank grinders, bicycle-powered grinders, and even this thread on grain mills in general, but it only touches slightly on the Kitchen Aid grinder.

Here's what I'm weighing:

- There are only two of us, and we're 52 and 59 and do not eat a lot of flour - maybe just less than a loaf a week
- We'll be grinding rye and wheat, not anything gluten-free like chickpeas and probably not corn too often, either
- The KA attachment is only $115 right now; whereas, these hand-crank beauties you all recommend can be upwards of $1,000 but at least $300, plus they often attach to a table - we don't have a table that will work for that

So, will the Kitchen Aid fill the bill, or will it be a waste of money?

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I store green tomatoes on a table-top, or in crates. I do not enclose them in anything. For the sake of the best longevity, I want them to ripen as slowly as possible. So if ethylene makes them ripen quicker, I want it to waft away.

Storing them a single layer deep allows me to easily screen them for spoiling. A fruit-fly trap nearby helps a lot.

A big YES to all of this: EXACTLY my process (though surprisingly, I have not seen a single fruit fly). I haven't tried tomatillos, but I'm making a note of that. Thanks, by the way, for jumping in here. I'm a fan of your work.

Mk Neal wrote:At the end of the growing season I bring all the green one in and mostly just let them sit in a fruit bowl on counter. They ripen a few at a time over the course of weeks. My latest one this year ripened around thanksgiving.  If I have more than fit in the kitchen I put some in boxes in basement and check every few days to see what is ripe.

EXACTLY!!! But the Internet thinks you should hang them on vines in the rafters, LOL.

Shookeli Riggs wrote:Im eating one with my broccoli noodles foe supper that i just pulled from a my brown bag,it had a spot on it so im eating the good part of it,cut away about 25%.Keep a good check on them in the bag,when they turn it does happen fast.

Edit: Lisa i bet it is working the same for you in a larger scale same as the paper bag method since you have so many.They are confined in a smaller area and i think they off gas ethylene that helps the green ones ripen.Bananas do the same thing.Good job on your part for saving them before they froze though,they should last a good while.

They're much more ventilated, on a basket set inside a pallet rack. That made the ripening happen a LOT more slowly, so I didn't have 50 of them all going at once. When I wanted a few to ripen more quickly, I brought them upstairs and set them in a bowl together, which hastened it both because of the ethylene gas and because it's warmer upstairs.