The Calendar Pages

Using The Calendar Pages

Designing sustainability and resiliency is a holistic approach to life. Part of this involves conscious consideration in how we create, modify, and manage our living spaces and work spaces. The goal for both sustainability and resiliency is to work towards spaces that are self regulating. It is also important that we produce the food that we need to survive close to where we live, ideally in your own yard or space.

The calendar pages are designed to give you one piece of the information to help with that. On the top right hand side of each month, you will find the length of daylight and the angle of the sun at the beginning of the month. I have done this for roughly central Iowa in the US, but this will hold roughly true for anywhere on the north 42nd parallel. North and south of this line will require some adjustment. This is critical information for designing both garden spaces and structures to make them environmentally efficient.

When you are designing most structures, your highest efficiency for both heating and cooling in temperate climates will be to place on the south side (in the northern hemisphere) to collect winter sun and then to have those windows shaded during hot weather.

This also helps you in the garden. By knowing where your sun is going to be, you can extend the season for both heat loving crops and cool loving crops. By predicting where the sun will be, you can build cold frames to collect that sun for the warm crops. By knowing where the shade is, you can extend the cool season crops into the summer by taking advantage of the shade.

Here are your calendars for the week.

Journal Prompts for the week

The Plant Profile

While I am not an expert on every plant that I will profile, I am trying to provide a complete profile for each plant. For the plants that I know, I will supplement the research information with my experience as a mid-western US gardener and as someone who has gardened in pots in an RV. For those plants that I don’t personally know, this is information that I need as well. My primary focus for 2025 is on useful plants that can be raised in almost any circumstances, from an RV or apartment to a small yard garden, to a permaculture garden.

Each profile includes as much information that I can find and is organized in a reference template that will be the same for each plant.

This is what you can expect to find in each PDF profile:

Identification

Plant growth and the conditions that the plant prefers

How the plant matures and develops

How to use the plant

The medicine and magic of the plant.

And when I know, suitable varieties for small spaces.

Any nutritional, medicinal, and magical properties that I include are intended for your informational purposes only. Always check with a reputable medical provider or herbalist before using an herb medicinally.

The version of the profile that I include in the PDF files here are a manuscript version. I welcome and encourage your input as I edit them for final publication.

Building Great Soil

Let’s be honest. Building Great Soil takes time. But no matter where you start, you can have great soil. Where I am right now, The ground is rocky and hard. It is much easier to build great soil on top of it that to break ground. The fast way is to buy soil, and I do some of that. The inexpensive way is to build it from what you have. When you are building soil from what you have, it is important to start in the fall. The leaves are coming down right now. It is time to gather them up. They are gold in the garden. They are gold in the lawn too, but I need them in the garden right now.

So, the bed that I am creating soil in is 3 feet across, 15 feet long, and 2 feet high. The first step in the fall is to mound up the soil that is in the bed and plant the garlic. That is already done. Next, I smooth out the soil that is in the bed that I don’t need for the garlic. The garden debris clean up goes in the raised bed first. I also sometimes toss in twigs and grape vine bark.

As the leaves fall from the tree, I run over them with a lawn mower (optional). Then I rake them up and fill the raised bed with the leaves. I fill the bed as full as I can. This has almost no nitrogen, so I need to find a nitrogen source. The grass clippings is a good source. Old hay is a good source when you can find it free. I throw my coffee grounds on top of the leaves all winter and anything else that won’t attract critters. I make sure that some of the leaves or hay is used to mulch the garlic.

I use the ash from the outside fire place to bring this soil ph to the correct range in the spring. Plus it is a really good source of nutrients for the garden.

By spring, the leaves have started to break down and are about ½ of their fall volume. This is when I buy a small amount of soil and compost. I don’t disturb the leaves. I put a few inches of a compost and top soil mix over the leaves.

This method is called sheet composting. It takes a few years and the more challenging the soil is, the longer it takes. The benefit: This is natures way, It builds great soil over time, and it is almost free.

I would not use oak leaves for this, but maple family works beautifully. As you are building your garden soil, pay attention to the soil pH and nutrient levels in the soil that you are building. Ph test kits are inexpensive and easy to use.

If you have the space for it, vermicomposting systems beautifully turns your kitchen scraps, rabbit manure, or chicken manure into safe and rich fertility for your garden.

To join a community designed around food resiliency and sustainability in tiny spaces, check out Delectable Tiny Gardens, a Skool meeting place. Try it out for free for 7 days at