This Sunday, Regenerative Landscaping is welcoming the St. Louis Sustainable Backyard Tour to Illinois for the first time ever! There is an open yard June 11th from 11AM to 4PM. Over 40 backyards are open in and around St. Louis.
For more information on the tour and to register to plan your visits, go to SustainableBackyardTour.com. For more information about Regenerative Landscaping, go to RegenerativeLandscaping.com
Also, people wanting to learn more about permaculture up close are invited to attend the Southern Illinois Farming Alliance Field Day in Fairview Heights. Jeffrey Pitts of Regenerative Landscaping will lead a tour of his half acre suburban site showing how he has incorporated permaculture principles.
Pitts has planted herbs, vegetables, and fruit trees including apple, apricot, peach, plum, pear, nectarine, persimmon, pawpaw, along with mulberry, sassafras, 50ft of blackberries, cherry bushes, raspberries, honey berries, currants, hardy kiwi, and goji berries around his home. Pitts’ yard and gardens have been planned using permaculture principles to minimize maintenance and maximize production and efficiency.
“It’s great when your children can walk into their backyard and snack on their favorite fruit”, said Jeffrey Pitts. “They are much more likely to enjoy eating healthy food when they are involved and can watch real food growing in their backyard!”
The Field Day at Regenerative Landscaping is Saturday, June 17th at 1 p.m.. at 29 Roselawn Ave. Fairview Heights, IL 62208. To attend, go to http://www.fwsoil.org/field-days.html or call 618-370-3287.
Field Days are a great opportunity for small farmers, homesteaders, and home gardeners to network and learn from their fellow food growers. During the Field Day, Pitts will lead the group on a short farm tour, focusing in on one element of production that has been a success or challenge that they can share with the group. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and share experiences during the event. Pitts will highlight the success of the use of zones and will discuss the trees that have posed challenges.
The Southern Illinois Farming Alliance is a network of growers and farmers employing sustainable methods to produce food. SIFA is sponsored by the Southern Illinois based nonprofit organization Food Works which works to advance a sustainable food system in the region. Learn more at www.fwsoil.org
For Christmas, one of my brothers bought another brother mushroom shiitake spawn! 
We cut 3 foot sections of walnut, then drilled holes that matched the dowel rod sizes every 2 inches in three equally spaced columns down the side of each log. Afterwards, we used a hammer to pound a dowel rod into each hole (see below).
This is similar to planting young mushroom fungi into the wood, with the goal of it colonizing the log to convert it into shiitake mushrooms! The key is keeping the log moist, so it has to stay out of the sun and be watered or soaked to keep it from drying out. The last step of preparation is to seal the dowels with bees wax to slow down the drying process as much as possible.
After the log has been fully colonized (~6 months), we will force the log to fruit by soaking it for 24 hours in water, then keeping them around 70 degrees. They should fruit about a week later.
That reminds me that I already have Seaberry and Naking Cherry bushes on order for this spring. I would like to start working with you on designing projects now, so we can order all the rest of the plants that are needed for a thriving/regenerative ecosystem. There are usually short windows that trees can be shipped during the spring, so 
This Thursday, I had a great opportunity to go to the 6th Agroforestry Symposium, hosted by 
their ponds, exploring the forest, or riding along with Grandpa to hay the cows. I remember going out to the “well house” with Grandma to get a jar of canned green beans. It was a whole shed full of canned goods that she had worked on that year.
him standing on a mountain out west.