Farm Planning: Planning the Farm on Paper

We closed on land in Manitoba in early 2016 and have been living in Yellowknife, NWT since then. As a result of this technicality, paper planning has been the primary feature of our farm life thus far. Our paper planning has been fairly extensive over the last two years and while nothing physical exists I have still learnt several very important lessons as a result of the planning process.

(Mr. Frank Silver, June 2016) 

Expect a Large Learning Curve
As my experience with indoor composting worms highlights, all new projects come with a steep learning curve. It is important to anticipate and react to this learning curve to prevent discouragement when projects do not go as planned.

Limitations of Paper Planning
There will be unexpected realities when attempting to follow any plan - no matter how detailed. I like to plan some flexibility into the official paper plan to accommodate these unexpected realities. Accepting the limits of paper planning allows one to embrace changes as new information is presented.

(The land, April 2018) 

The Importance of Permaculture
Even though we have yet to begin a farm project, I have embraced the importance of permaculture. I research and detailed an Angora rabbit plan to begin in Fall 2018 but soon discovered that if the rabbits exist outside of a permaculture system the cost of inputs and the problem of their outputs results in an expensive, time consuming and unnatural system. Instead I opted to delay the rabbit purchase until they can exist within a permaculture system which will be more beneficial overall.

There is a time and a benefit derived from paper planning, I am excited to begin projects IRL!

Review: Grow Curious

I have been following Gayla Trail since the early 2000s - well before my first gardens and have most of her other gardening books which I enjoy for their generally approachable gardening advice. As a result of this I was quick to jump on the kickstarter for her 'garden activity book for adults' which is called 'Grow Curious'.

This book has 199 activities that are separated by season as well as by 'tags' such as inspire, explore, and create. The tags seem to cover overlapping topics so they are not much help when attempting to identify activities by type. Some activities include several pages of personal essays, art, and/or additional information while some are simply a sentence followed by a page of empty white space. Most of the activities relate strictly to the five senses with the addition of an artistic exploration and a lot of the activities require you to simply 'note' something. This book is aesthetically pleasing with a lot of wonderful garden related quotes.

Overall, I do not find this book very inspirational. I would rather it was a series of personal essays that inspire related activities rather than a series of very similar activities. The chosen quotes and personal essays that are included relate to the author's relationship to the garden which leads me to think that a book of garden essays from Trail would be a joy to read.