it might help to add wood products to the soil and then backblade it levelish and plant it with your lawn plants..but there might be some uneven settling.
as was mentioned above consider what crops require digging and place them where they won't damage the roots of perennials when dug..that is a situation I work with here with my forest gardens, i have to leave a few spots for potatoes and I moved the jerusalem artichokes away from my other plants last year as they were taking over, now they are in woods, fields, and a few windrow strips.
as for the front lawn..if you have enough room consider a highish hedge of evergreens to bring in privacy and to block winds..then whatever you want to plant will be private and people are less likely to object..but also having a food forest bed around each of a few fruit trees in the front yard won't look out of place if you include some insectory plants for the flowers..if there are beautiful flowers blooming spring, summer and fall, most people see the flowers and are not put off by the food..
that also draws in pollinators to your food
also artistically placing your trees and beds should be helpful as well, if you just plop in some square beds of corn people might object, but a lovely curved bed on either side of a path to the front door or driveway..should be considered "beautiful"..that is where food forests are going to be much more acceptable compared to row or raised bed gardens..however..raised bed gardens can also be made beautiful with some arches with vines over paths, some lovely corners of fruit bushes, etc.. If you look at some famous gardens ..they often include a lot of food trees, bushes and vines yet are considered to be quite acceptable as art..so thoughful placing can make all the difference
OK I think I get it, similar to the word sustainable in being able to sustain itself in diverse situations..but also being able to withstand POLITICAL and SOCIAL situations I guess would be added to sustainable.
yeah I tend to plant way more plants that I need for our family and friends..and if it all grows and flourishes and I get a harvest maybe I'll even be able to sell some..I always do give some away every year to needy folks..and have sold a few things..but not enough to make any kind of living at it..which would be nice.
so would this mean that the health of the land and plants were healthy enough to withstand some critical problem and come back ...or something like plants reseeding and being reslient on the land...or am I going in the wrong direction?
I'm not quite as cold as you are, I'm zone 4/5 but I would be LOST without my annual vegetables. I admit I am trying to "perennialize" them, by getting them to self seed or grow on in my climate..as much as possible.
as for your zone I'm sure you can do things like lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, kale..(I wouldn't be without these)..you also should be able to do root crops and allow a few of those to remain in the ground and perennialize them like the potatoes..and let the carrots, beets, parsnips, etc..to go to seed and reseed themselves if they will..mark them well
i also admit to having a small greenhouse for my tomato and pepper plants and some overwintering greens and a rosemary plant that i keep in a corner of the greenhouse.
i also still grow my squashes, cukes, melons here..with an early start on those..and do pumpkins and winter squash if they don't freeze..(should cover better)..I also see no reason not to grow beans and peas..esp peas ..and if you like them try podding radishes, they are spicey and very prolific
try to do a pond on the lowest point on your properpty if you can..an indentation that is natural and that already HOLDS water if possible..that is what we did..then you can take advantage of your own rain, snowmelt and the runoff also..so you aren't just using the creek water alone.
have the overflow go back toward the pond at a lower point.
yeah we all thought we were in a low crime area also until we found out from the cops that 2 murderers were hiding out in a vacant home on the back side just past the edge of our woods (not our property)..about 25 ' away.
cops woke us up in the middle of the night when they raided the place..had a tip from landowner that someone was on their property.
we STILL seldom lock up here..still feel safe..but are learning more and more that locking and common sense carefulness is more needed than in the past..of course we also have our arms...and know how to use them well..
I agree that you have to have privacy as well as line of site..which tend to defeat themselves..we have road privacy and inside our hedges line of site..from several areas on the property..also installed a dusk to dawn light with on off switch over our pond in the rear..and have motion sensors..but admit that some further work is needed
i've read that tomato basil and onion are good companions to plant with your asparagus..i've put onions with them before but not tomato..going to try them this year though. I had to dig up my asparagus bed a couple years ago cause it got a lot of quack grass in there that was choking the asparagus..and it really really really did great after digging it up..was the best year of asparagus we had !! so do try to keep grass out of it
yes there is a chance that it might get too cold here for tilapia..right now the bubbler keeps open water MOST of the time but we dropped well below 0 this week and even some creeks froze over.
our neighbors have bullheads and had a huge bullhead loss 2 years ago, not really sure why..but that was a concern to us.
neighbors the other way have pike, bluebills, perch, large mouth bass and put in some baby fish last year..not sure what all..they tried to get out all the pike first..not sure how successful they were on that.
also i have a gob of baby goldfish..i'm sure they are being eaten by some critters..but in the spring it is amazing how many babies i see..and some are as big as 4" or so..by now..
this pond has cattails, iris, lotus, lily, arum and lots of water plants as well as the native water plants (i put in babies from a bunch from a water garden supply store 2 years ago)..oh it also has sterile lythrum in it which hasn't spread ..at least so far.
some plants LIKE rubble..the peach family seems to be one of those which might include the nectarine, plum, and cherry trees as well..but I would still make sure there is enough soil for some root ball
some of my beds have perennial plants on them like currants, gooseberries, honeyberries, rhubarb, comfrey, etc..but I also use annuals on them as well. My new bed that I just put in has a plan for it of early plantings of greens and salad crops with peas, and later croppings of festivity OP corn, 2 kinds of bush beans, summer squash and more salad crops, collards and kale.
at each end of the new bed is going either 2 peach or two sweet cherry trees..probably the latter (I have 4 peach and 2 cherry trees coming, just deciding on what goes where). I ALWAYS put one comfrey root cutting under each of my fruit and nut trees.
this is a great tool on food self sufficiency by mother earth news..it lists in alphabetical order the food ..then has links on how to grow, preserve and even recipes for the food..browse thru it and then bookmark it if you think it might be a good source for you..I did
above books are great..some of my favorites are
Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway
then there are a lot of books on food forests and permaculture mentioned all over these sites..some available free on this site
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/cd3wd/index.htm I also love the endyclopedia of country living by Carla Emery
we have an outdoor wood boiler with buried pex to our house and our son's house..our greenhouse sits over an area of the buried pex and it provides some "ground" heat..
I have also used candles in the past to keep it just above freezing..but when it is below zero like today, that wouldn't be much help
Check out this site, it has a lot of really great information to download and read for just about anything you would come up against..there is a lot of material specifically from organizations like the peace corp on doing things in developing countries..I have downloaded a gob of info and read from here..way more information than you would ever need
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/cd3wd/index.htm
Personally in dealing with any real estate I have found that people seem most interested in property that has some source of water, such as a creek or pond, and some sources of greenspaces other than just lawns and foundation planting. It seems to me that establishing some fruit and nut trees and perennials that are lower maintenance attract more buyers than things that people have to work hard on maintaining.
We have been working for many years on our homestead pond, and we have deepend and enlarged it, planted it with lots of plants and put in a waterfall for some air in summer and a bubbler for air in winter..have had goldfish breeding in it for about 8 years now and they are doing well so we are hoping to move on to edible protein fish.
We have no "freshwater" going in other than from groundwater springs and it does get warm so trout are out..checking with a local fish hatchery they suggest rock bass, large mouth bass, perch and sunfish, but also I guess there are some catfish that might do OK? (don't know anything about catfish).
was also curious about talipia..any suggestions would be helpful...the pond is 10 years old and about 1/2 acres with some areas 10 feet deep and some areas shallowish
permaculture is basically intensive gardening without the double digging..and hugelkulture would be quite similar to the double digging only adding a bunch of wood..so they are both interchangable in a way
you could hire a house mover to jack up your house onto some steel beams and then dig out the basement..or move it off and dig the basement and then move it back on...might cost more but would be safest way to do it.
when you fence you might want to put up some no trespassing signs cause of the dumping, or even before you fence..to keep possibilities of harmful chemicals esp off of your property and out of your watershed..welcome to the life of permaculture
recently was told that the best way to start paw paw is to get someone in your area that grows them to dig you up a runner..and then do that with someone else from another crop of paw paws, as they require a pollinator from another variety..so finding some in your area might be key
i have also read you can feed them walnuts, but do you have to open them up..if so could you just drive over them in a trench or do you have to do more to them so the chickens can get to the nut meats..
yeah after having tried paw paws rated to zone 4/5 several times and getting actual paw paws from people and planting them myself 4 times..i have pretty much given up..but I also read that the seeds can take as much as 18 months to sprout..and the ones I planted last year it hasn't been 18 months and they were held in the frig in moist moss until the proper planting time..so..I'll still wait to see if I get some trees from those..there were about 7 different kinds sent to me by a few different people to try..so..we'll see..they are planted in the proper conditions and I'll wait to find out if they come up..i also put trees and brush around where they are planted so if they do come up some animals are less likely able to nibble them off
I give them a fighting chance.
as for the kiwi..these are supposed to be super hardy..we'll see..and I plan to baby them like no bodies business !! But I can afford the time and space to experiement, I have 8 acres of my own and an addjoining 5 acres my son owns and 20 my neighbors own that will let me experiement on their land.
so far those have been the only things I haven't been able to get growing that I wanted to get starts on..oh and I have 2 persimmon seedlings that still have green under the bark but have never made leaves?? wierd..a few of my nut trees are still alive but VERY small, so I'm waiting to see how those do as well..and plums have been a bit more difficult for me than any other fruit trees, i have several growing into bearing size this year..from about 8 different varieties..so I have hope
i have deep clay soil..but I don't have the rubble problem (except where a houe burned and that has a lawn/drive over it.
I would try to locate where all the rubble is and put drought tolerant species there..if it was an old construction area or whatnot..if possible have a backhoe or something dig up the area and remove the rubble..otherwise if you can't..make use of it for the drought tolerant species on top of it.
then find any areas where the soil may be deeper for planting trees and shrubs or plants that need a deep taproot.
the hugel beds might need a drip irrigation system on the top of them if it is super dry up there..in order to have plants survive the very dry conditions, but use a lot of good quality mulch as well..and put some of that clay in that hugelbed..but mix it in well with the other things in there..the clay will help it to hold some moisture.
you can also grow SOME DWARF fruit trees in pots on the property..use the largest types of pots you can find..and remove the bottoms of them for drainage and for roots to get out if they can..and put ina good amount of good soil and then add your tree and soil up to the top..
lots of vegetables and whatnot can also be planted in containers..a container can be anything..but you'll still have a problem with the drought..so you'll have to water or provide some moisture holding particulate in the fillling of the pots..use a mix of some of the clay that is already in your soil with the fill..use a dripper or soaker hose if you can? hope this helps
if you do a search on here there are several lists of juglone tolerant and intolerant plants..
if you are bringing in soil from other places you might not have juglone in your soil..but if you aren't you should definately check into those that will put up with the juglone..
I have several lists of juglone tolereant and intolerant plants ..if you can't find them send me a pm
tomatoes are supposed to grow well with asparagus, also you can add herbs along with the tomatoes, esp basil, which will give you your cooking companion flavor for the tomato right there while you are picking them and they will benefit both plants with pollinators..also onions can be put among these as well to give you a nice guild under a tree..mine are under a dwarf sour cherry
i have read both Secrets of the soil and also How to grow more vegetables..jeavons..and prefer the latter.
Both have good info and both cover different subjects..the first one being more "permie" friendly and the second one more "intensive gardening" friendly..
second is avail as a free download ..see the thread where it is mentioned
one kind of maple that we have here that I have found to be super seedy /weedy is the shagbark maple..they make beautiful shade trees and are really pretty, fast growing and strong..but..they send out more seeds than either the red or sugar maples so do be careful of them if they are near an area where you don't want baby maples popping up all over..
they have much smaller leaves than the sugar and red also, which are pretty and are easier to use as mulch. Not sure about sugar from them but probably would work well ..probably would be a good tree for planting where you want a quick forest of maples.
OK I don't live where there are palms and have never worked with them but the clue would be to observe how palm fronds "act" when they are on the soil..do they rot, or are they still there years later..does water shed or soak into them..that type of observation should be able to tell you how you can use them..also note if they seem to kill off any plants that they are near..if so they might be alleopathic..but if not..sure..use them in any application that they seem fit for
yes bury wood, no absolutely do NOT use willow, unless you want willow growing there !!! period.
the smallest piece of willow can sprout and make a new tree
I have been burying wood as i have harvested in many of my beds..last year I dug up and moved a gob of jerusalem artichokes, and as I managed to clear each bed of sprouting babies..i finally dug out all the soil down about 2' and filled the hole with wood and chips and mulch and whatever I could find and then I put the soil back in..
unless you have permanent beds you can do this..even in permanent beds you can dig a hole and stick in a chunk of wood..
you can also use pieces of wood on top of the soil around plants to protect them and feed them, I do that here..putting rotting logs around things like my baby nut and fruit trees, etc.
