It's June challenge time again

[spiralsheep]

Anybody else planning to squeeze in a June challenge attempt before the end of this month? Or later? Or perhaps you calmly and coolly thought ahead and have already completed a flan that you can't wait to share with us?

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I don't usually pursue that kind of challenge, but I do enjoy walking around urban areas. It's been sweltering here this week, but recently I visited several gardens in a nearby town:

Photos: Charleston Library Butterfly Gardens

Photos: Coles County Community Garden

Photos: Charleston Food Forest

The bike shop has put in a new butterfly garden too, but it's too young to bloom yet. I love seeing how many are going up in this area. :D

Recently we caught the Marshall farmer's market, and we want to go back and walk around the area to see the shops. When it's cooler and not a heat index of 3 digits. >_

Re: Thoughts

[spiralsheep]

All gorgeous. I hope you enjoyed visiting them as much as I enjoyed your posts. Charleston are a very fortunate community. We have similar public projects around here under different name (e.g. community orchard rather than food forest). I like all your posts but the Charleston Food Forest appeals to me most as a garden. You'd hate my side path though, because to keep the concrete paving slabs cooler I planted the cracks with Creeping Thyme (the natural variety) to grow across as cover so I now have a carpet of bees for several weeks each summer. :-)

"Covered in bees!" /Eddie Izzard

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> All gorgeous. I hope you enjoyed visiting them as much as I enjoyed your posts. <<

Very much so.

>> Charleston are a very fortunate community.<<

So it is.

>> We have similar public projects around here under different name (e.g. community orchard rather than food forest).<<

They can be slightly different things. A food forest is densely layered, and this one really is. A community orchard can be just fruit trees, which is also nice.

>> I like all your posts but the Charleston Food Forest appeals to me most as a garden. <<

At home, I call my style laissez-faire permaculture. It's not even as organized as the food forest, but I have taken things from there to grow at home -- harvesting seeds in fall, and digging up things in the paths that would just get trampled.

>> You'd hate my side path though, because to keep the concrete paving slabs cooler I planted the cracks with Creeping Thyme (the natural variety) to grow across as cover so I now have a carpet of bees for several weeks each summer. :-)

As long as there's another route it's fine. I have mother-of-thyme. The food forest used to have creeping thyme all over but they pulled out a lot of it from the paths and under the sign.