Permaculture, Regrarians, etc. 2017

[Amiga]

Hi, all, let's see what develops on this thread. We have some interest, training and experience with Permaculture among members.

I included regrarian topics (regenerative agrarian) since it's so closely related to Permaculture.

I earned my Permaculture Design Certificate from Geoff Lawton in 2014. Online course. This makes me no better than anyone! It did really cement much of my prior education and experience into a better whole, though, Filled in some gaps, updated some knowledge, confirmed some hunches.

I have been doing permie kinds of things for nearly twenty years now. Redoing the design for my little place this year. And starting to permify (making up words now) the inside of my house.

Not sure if folks want a post on definitions. They exist, and there are some variations on the theme. I am guessing that many members are well on their way to living the Permaculture life. I don't care much what we call it, if we call it anything. It's living a life that is sensible, that keeps improving the land, improving the abundant yield, improving our health and human connections as well.

 

[Amiga]

Turning in soon.

 

[Beekissed]

I'd like some definitions....sometimes those permaculture things seem sort of murky as to the definition.

 

[tortoise]

I'm particularly interested in heavy-mulch permanent-bed gardening. We have 1/5 acre veggie garden done with traditional rototilling and it's a weedy disaster every year. Kind of amazing to pull any produce out of that garden when the weeds are waist-high!

I am trying to figure this out on small scale before trying to convert DH. I have some small garden beds near the house to play with. Strawberries, perennial onion, garlic in them. My biggest problem is keeping the chickens out. (Hah!)

 

[tortoise]

@rodeogirl, didn't you say you were interested in permaculture too?

 

[freemotion]

I'm particularly interested in heavy-mulch permanent-bed gardening. We have 1/5 acre veggie garden done with traditional rototilling and it's a weedy disaster every year. Kind of amazing to pull any produce out of that garden when the weeds are waist-high!

I am trying to figure this out on small scale before trying to convert DH. I have some small garden beds near the house to play with. Strawberries, perennial onion, garlic in them. My biggest problem is keeping the chickens out. (Hah!)

I've done this for 4 years now. I will never go back! I just had a detailed soil test done on my gardens and another one done on my pastures. Keep in mind that my gardens were made in the middle of my pastures when I tell you that the soil test for the gardens came out pretty close to perfect and I've not really added much for amendments over the years. Lots of compost for my animals and lots of ramial wood chips. The pastures were so out of balance that the guy who did the test ask the lab to retest the samples.

My weeding time dropped dramatically in the first year. What weeds there are pull out very easily. I do a little extra weeding in the spring when things are growing rapidly (a few hours in the first month of spring along with refreshing some mulch) but then I can keep a quarter acre weeded in about an hour a month for the rest of the season.

This is important because the yield is so much higher. For example, I put in 25 feet of raspberries a few years ago. I got them from a farmer friend next door. I dug up some shoots in the spring. That first harvest I picked both my raspberries and his because they were new and he wasn't selling them and would tell me occasionally that I could pick for the day. I literally got four times the amount of berries from my row compared to his. The difference was that I made a hugelculture row with deadfall logs and lots of compost and then after the raspberries were planted I mulched it heavily with ramial wood chips.

 

[NH Homesteader]

My husband has been researching hugelkultur beds. We are really interested in trying them. I'll be watching this thread. I'm tired of weeding!

 

[Beekissed]

I'm in my third year of a BTE garden, though I've made mistakes with it along the way and don't think I've got the same results as many others. I'll be working this year to correct those mistakes, if possible.

 

[tortoise]

I'm attempting a BTE / low-profile hugelkulture to make new soil over blacktop. DH thinks I'm completely crazy! I've been putting layers of dry leaves, wet grass clippings, sticks from pruning, and straw sheep bedding. Just started it this spring, so I have a long wait-and-see ahead.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't think that's a bit crazy....think about how quickly grass and weeds start growing in any leaf or mulch debris that collects in the corners of streets and sidewalks. This past year I was in a little Mayberry type town in VA and saw a foot tall tomato plant growing in the tiniest crack against a shop wall and someone had given it a support...it was producing!

I think you could build soil on top of that old blacktop and eventually have it deep enough to grow just fine. Might take a few years, though.