Permaculture gardening

[Ceres]

So I'm moving in a few weeks.. and I'm REALLY excited about my new garden, and most of all about finally getting some chookies! I'm re-reading all my gardening / permaculture books to get some ideas about how I want to set things up. I'm slightly limited by being on a slope, so I probably won't do the movable chook tractor that I had planned, but there's a shed there that's crying out to be turned into a chook palace. Haven't yet decided what kind of chooks I'll get but I'm leaning towards Isa Browns. I'm just trying to remember all the plants I want to plant around the perimeter of the yard, I recall wormwood being one. I'm planning to plant lots of fruit trees and have a native garden to attract the birds. My first job will be to get a LARGE rainwater tank, because water restrictions here are pretty harsh.
I think growing your own food and caring for animals would have to be one of the ultimate home learning activities.
Any other passionate gardeners / permaculturists here?

[Blossomtime]

Meeeee!!!! Our garden is our big project (well mine until the girls get more interested) :lol We have a moveable chook tractor and a large vegie patch and lots of fruit trees. We have one third of the garden devoted to food so far and a native corner, with lots of room for more. Its slow going, but we are hoping that it starts to take a little more form soon. The chooks have really helped. I'm interested in permaculture and we've incorporated some elements, but I really need to learn more about it... I'd like to do the design course one day I think. I'd love a rainwater tank one day too although we have almost no water restrictions here

[esp]

I'll put my hand up but it is a collective family job here. DH does the theory and I keep it all going. Kids help in their own ways.

[Ayla]

Meee! We're just starting out too and I'm blogging (http://oururbanhomestead.blogspot.com/) about it :D We have a huge mulberry tree that was already here which is near where we'll be putting the chook pen which they'll love. I've also started planting comfrey & nasturtium for them to pick at to stay healthy (I don't want to put in wormwood yet because Riley is still young), and we'll build the pen and get chookies when David gets back in a couple weeks. I've started planting fruit plants, I've got a passionfruit, strawberries, mandarin, avocado, blueberry and raspberry. I haven't planted the last 4 in the ground yet because I'm not sure where the best spot for them is yet.

[Ceres]

Sounds so exciting Ayla! Comfrey was one of the other things I wanted to grow at the perimeter of the chooky fence.
What kind of avo did you plant? I haven't grown it - not the best climate for most varieties here - but I recall you need to have one type A and one type B within pollination distance from each other to get a good crop (or something like that..). Apparently some varieties grow really large too. Berries are fantastic aren't they! That's one thing I'm really looking forward to growing because they're so expensive to buy.

[Ayla]

I bought a dwarf variety that self-pollinates - I'm sticking to the KISS principle :lol (keep it simple, stupid :lol)

[bella]

ME!!! We live on a farm and moved here about 18 mths ago. I've planted over 100 natives, many fruiting, and nearly 100 other fruit/nut/food trees. Also various berries, passionfruits and other goodies. We have about 55 chooks (incl roosters and babies) and they are a delight. I have a big greenhouse full of many perennial plants with annuals squeezed in. I'm planning another big greenhouse and another outdoor garden when time permits. We've gathered most of the materials already, which is huge as this self-sufficiency thing can take a heap of cash to set up!

We have our own water supply - plenty of rain, 3 tanks and a permanent creek. We have 2 horses for manure, as well as the neighbour's cows and all those chickens (they're locked in a house at night, free-range widely by day).

This has been an ongoing delight of mine for about 15 years, and now I feel like we've really landed and I can just go for it. Money restricts me sometimes, but with Seed Savers, friends, the dump, growing my own from cuttings and seeds, and a whole lot of patience - we're really getting somewhere! :) I love having the space to spread out, as we've always been on smaller blocks.

What I really love is finding out about bushtucker here. The kids and I love finding new foods in the rainforest (or on the edges) and we've found lots through the year already.

Happy moving and happy growing, ceres! xx

[Ayla]

Sounds divine Bella! Do you have any photos to share? :eager

[Aurora]

I will have to live vicariously through you all, as I'm living in a rental with a modest space for gardening. I am about to start a wee veggie garden along our back fence which gets plenty of sun, but unfortunately space doesn't permit me to persue the permicultural endeavours I really want to! All the best for yours though, hope you enjoy abundant produce :)

[Ceres]

Feeling SERIOUSLY jealous bella! How do you feel about visitors? :lol

[esp]

Is anyone gobbling form their spring crops? We are feasting on broccoli, lettuce, beans and peas currently but I see some random tomatoes might be happening in a day or two and we have the beginnings of zucchinis. Blossoms on the apple and citrus trees. About to do some more planing out tomorrow.
Mulberries are ripening :) Oh and eating carrots too.
I have just put in a whole lot of new herbs that I am excited about and the first of the butterflies arrived in my butterfly garden today.
We should have some hatching eggs that our silkies are sitting on like good wee broody hens so the kids are really excited about that.

Bella your place does sound simply wonderful! We did have our chooks completely free range in the property originally - and then they ate our food! It didn't take the wee blighters long either. Now they have a huge area with lots of trees and stuff and they are quite happy little hens there.

We also have been doing the silk worm thing and they have FINALLY started changing. I thought they were going to kill the mulberry tree at one point.

[bella]

Our food is locked up, our chickens are free. I find it easier to contain the greens than the birds. :p The hens are locked up at night, in a house, and they roam by day. There are treeguards around all young trees (made by us with chicken wire for big trees, gutter guard for native tubestock etc - all 200 or so of them!). The vegies are inside the greenhouse.

There are photos on my garden blog, if you scroll through some of the older posts - Home Grown (http://www.belindamoore.blogspot.com).

Yes, I welcome visitors, Ceres. So long as they expect the whole lot to be a little on the untamed side. ;)

[Honesty]

200 tree guards, wow.
just had a peek at your blog - it looks lovely luscious and green! (i am a blog virgin)

[Ceres]

Well the visitors are pretty untamed too Bella...

[Ceres]

Well I am a bit excited! I have 3 cubic metres of mushroom compost being delivered today, a giftmas present from my dad! Best present ever when you're starting a garden from scratch!
So far I have put a herb garden by the back door, a low-maintenance vegie patch in the back of the yard, and have planted a couple of fruit trees. This week's project is the high-maintenance patch closer to the house, and preparing the asparagus bed which is currently full of agapanthas.

[Ayla]

Very cool! Our garden has gone to shite :lol But we're keen to get back into it again.

[Ceres]

So I'm moving in a few weeks.. and I'm REALLY excited about my new garden, and most of all about finally getting some chookies! I'm re-reading all my gardening / permaculture books to get some ideas about how I want to set things up. I'm slightly limited by being on a slope, so I probably won't do the movable chook tractor that I had planned, but there's a shed there that's crying out to be turned into a chook palace. Haven't yet decided what kind of chooks I'll get but I'm leaning towards Isa Browns. I'm just trying to remember all the plants I want to plant around the perimeter of the yard, I recall wormwood being one. I'm planning to plant lots of fruit trees and have a native garden to attract the birds. My first job will be to get a LARGE rainwater tank, because water restrictions here are pretty harsh.
I think growing your own food and caring for animals would have to be one of the ultimate home learning activities.
Any other passionate gardeners / permaculturists here?
Gawd it's funny reading back over my old posts... I haven't gotten a rainwater tank yet because the gutters are full of holes! So new gutters need to come before the tank. So happy with my fruit trees and chooks tho!

[Sarasvati]

I was looking around my yard the other day and I really don't know if we can have chooks. Our yard is tiny, and I can think of 3 different uses for the only spot I can visualise chooks in. I so wish our front garden was fenced, this block wastes so much space (it's a massive corner block, but the house is set so far back that the backyard is tiny and the front huge but unfenced). It's so crap, I'd so love some chookens.

As far as food growing goes, I'm trying to explain why I'm doing things the way I am to my partner. He grew up with the conventional gardening method, and doesn't understand permaculture ideas intuitively. He can appreciate it but he gets a bit frustrated with his lack of knowledge, and pegs it as "my thing". And I've had so many gardening failures (admittedly, all pot scenarios) that I think he gets a bit over the wasted money. But this time we'll be doing in ground stuff, and I think he's actually marginally more interested this time. I'm looking forward to seeing my first vege garden in peak production mode.

I wish we could do stuff to this house to make it more permaculturally (:lol) sound. Hate renting.

[asimplelife]

Yep, we have a permaculture set up. We're fortunate to be on about 1/5 acre in a narrow section. I'm into my 3rd year and have had mixed results over that time (1st year was great because I followed the book closely, but got lax last year and didn't do so well).

At the top garden up near the house where there is good sunshine and sandy soil I have the herb garden that I am always adding to and really trying to build up my medicinal range, as well as the clothesline sharing a smallish space.

We then have a middle tier (our section slopes down but is in 3 tiers) is where the kids play, have their tramp, sandpit, climbing trees and a very old plum tree and a couple of feijoa trees. This year I also put in a raised bed just on top of the soil (shaped like a half round without borders) with black weedmat sort of sausaging it together, and popped 20 strawberry plants into it (it's next to the sandpit, so the kids like that lol). We have also put two grape vines directly behind that on the edge of the tier and I noticed some wild blackberry have moved in and conveniently drape down over the retaining wall into the 3rd tier.

Down in the bottom is where the vege garden is - approx 15x12m of planting area and a 2x2 chook tractor that we rotate around the 12 beds (also 2x2m) - we only have 2 little banties atm. I'm not good on planned rotation though (I modelled things on Linda Woodrow) and am quite haphazard. My chooks free range mostly and I just shut them in at night, so they don't really fertilize the beds as her plan anyway. We have planted 2 apple trees and a lemon tree. Our house has a large concrete water tank built in under the front porch that collects rain water. DH laid an irrigation hose down to the lower garden that fills up a net-covered bathtub that we then use watering cans to water the garden - the not so fun part! But at least we have water down there since no hose would be long enough.

[Sarasvati]

I've decided to reward myself with some fruit trees if I can harvest a decent amount of veges by winter next year :lol. I still have 2 or 3 plots to construct, and I really want them in by autumn so I can grow peas and beans! But I don't want to rush into fruit trees and then have everything die on me. I'm thinking dwarf citrus in pots to start with, and maybe some small native fruiting shrub. Not sure on that though. Wish we could grow raspberries!

[anaturallearner]

My aim is to get back into Permie lifestyle more next year... I planted a salad vegie garden in boxes on my potting bench last week - in an attempt to pick what I grow, I usually forget to forage come dinner time. Plus this way the bugs won't eat them first. Our chickens are fenced because of the foxes here :-( but they're happy. Guinea pigs too, though the ****** got out for a week and so did Lucky, one lucky guy. We might have baby GPs soon... oops!
Our permie focus at this time of year is to be fire-protected, as much as we can. Ah, the joys of rural living... :-)

Beverley

[Ceres]

If you have baby GP's can I put my hand up for some? Our boys are keen!