Permaculture was developed in the subtropical climate of Australia, where a wider variety of perennial vegetable crops can be planted in guilds according to their needs and habits. Annual and biennial vegetable plants, however, are not just more ecologically suited to bare soil; they have been bred and grown in weeded gardens and fields for hundreds or thousands of years. Providing them with the conditions to which they are adapted makes ecological and garden sense, and it’s easier on the gardener as well.
Weeds are just plants with enough surplus will to live to withstand normal levels of gardening!--Alexandra Petri
Mk Neal wrote:I am gardening in an urban setting in Chicago,but have a relatively large backyard. I do follow a "forest garden" model primarily, but with a couple patches of annual veg.
This year I want to actually track the calories produced in my garden.
I can see her point about bare dirt beds for some of the common annual vegetables we are used to. Like lettuce and carrots and leeks. However, from what I grow, I think the best calorie producers do lend themselves to the permaculture model. Potatoes, for example, are surprisingly good at sprouting up in spring from tubers left deep in the earth and they muscle out weeds. Squash sprout most anywhere and smother weeds, and clamber over currant bushes once those are done cropping.
And then there's the fruit trees, bushes, and vines which produce a very large crop of high-value foods, often in spaces not well-suited to a traditional veg garden.
teresa rosello wrote:After living overseas for 5 years, I'm moving back home to my little suburban paradise next month! We have 1/3 acre or so, with lots of shade and two septic fields. So it will be a challenge, but I'm really excited to grow what I can there. Plus I can bike to the farmers market. I'm hoping to make my yard an example for others. All I know is that I'm excited to put roots down (literally). I love all the big projects being done with bigger permaculture farms, but I think the suburbs are underutilized and wish more people would use the land they have. We chose our neighborhood because there were no restrictions, and I'm excited to see the chicken laws have gotten better in the last 5 years! I've read a lot, but lack the practical skills right now. When we lived there before I had tiny kids and used them as an excuse to not do much. This time will be better!
William Bronson wrote:I live in a city, and grow in my yard and also in a a yarden I bought for just that purpose.
When I think about moving, it is the acces to jobs and medical, as well as family that keeps me put.
Most of my annuals go in containers to avoid problems with soil and watering.
Most of the rest go in high raised beds to facilitate care and ensure decent soil.
The perennials mostly go in the ground.
I find digging a hole in rocky soil one time to be a pain, but it pays ofendangered.
I do have two blueberry bushes in barrels full of peat.
Last year I plant tomatoes in the same barrels, you could hardly see the berry bushes!
Annuals being bred for zero competition doesn't need to mean annual tillage and bare soil.
I use mulch, plastic cover and cover crops, some times all three at once.
Competition between fruit trees and annuals is real.
Right now my trees are small and don't cast much shade.
The annuals next to them are in two foot tall raised beds, so no tree roots are endagered.
I feed the beds over winter with leaf mulch, urine, etc.
The plan is to nurish the tree by nourishing the raised beds.
Annual plantings of sun loving annuals will give way to greens as the tree shades out the bed.
I favor self sowing varietals of everything and I've found radishes and mustard greens to be almost invasive, which I love.
My aim is not so much to grow my own food as it is to provide for myself from what I grow.
If I can sell pears and buy beans, I will have succeed.
Lisa Brunette wrote:quote=Mk Neal] I'm glad to hear that about squash, as I'm starting to run out of space... Which ones do you grow? I have red kuri, Waltham butternut, Seminole pumpkin, spaghetti, and Illinois white crookneck. All but the Waltham are new to me this year.
Weeds are just plants with enough surplus will to live to withstand normal levels of gardening!--Alexandra Petri
Lisa Brunette wrote:
How much space do you have?
Lisa Brunette wrote:I'm wondering how much shade my fruit trees will eventually cast for this very reason.
Lisa Brunette wrote:Where will you sell? Does being in the suburbs help with this endeavor?
Are others of you out there practicing "suburban homesteading"?
My suburban building and homesteading blog https://offgridburbia.com/
Living a life that requires no vacation.
Mk Neal wrote:
Lisa Brunette wrote:quote=Mk Neal] I'm glad to hear that about squash, as I'm starting to run out of space... Which ones do you grow? I have red kuri, Waltham butternut, Seminole pumpkin, spaghetti, and Illinois white crookneck. All but the Waltham are new to me this year.
Lisa— I have the best luck with acorn variety b/c they have the shortest growing season, and my yard is partly shaded by condo building next door. My favorite now is an acorn called “Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato” I like it because it is very productive, like 5-6 largish squash per vine, but has rather small vines that just creep along the ground under the tomatoes. I also have a green Navaho squash (c. Maxima, like a Kuri). It is a real climber, does not like to stay on the ground. I got just one squash from it last year, but it was large. This year I put it out earlier under cloche to try and extend growing season.
Last year I had bad luck with some volunteer squash I let grow to see what they would produce, and I got loads of huge spiny leaves and just a couple small zucchini things. Other years I’ve had good volunteer acorn squashes.
Aaron Yarbrough wrote:
Are others of you out there practicing "suburban homesteading"?
My wife and I built and timber frame/straw light clay off grid cabin on 1/2 acre lot in the middle of suburb outside of Austin. We planted the first stage of our food forest this past winter.
We've found that a half acre is plenty to work with especially with a small house. I actually fenced of ~1/3 of the lot (~.18 acres) and have just been focusing on that area and that keeps us pretty busy.
love
Hamilton Betchman wrote:I am on my way to suburban homesteading. I am working on progressing towards a more permaculture friendly approach. I try to get as many garden inputs for free as possible. I will frequently grab peoples yard trash bags off the curb to use for mulch. I have all the arborists' numbers saved, and they all know me. I have access to local manure and spoiled hay. I also will take my push mower and bagger into overgrown fields to fill the back of my truck for making Korean organic farming inputs. I make my own pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides using the Korean methods, but try to limit their use.
love
William Bronson wrote:I live in a city, and grow in my yard and also in a a yarden I bought for just that purpose.
When I think about moving, it is the acces to jobs and medical, as well as family that keeps me put.
Most of my annuals go in containers to avoid problems with soil and watering.
Most of the rest go in high raised beds to facilitate care and ensure decent soil.
The perennials mostly go in the ground.
I find digging a hole in rocky soil one time to be a pain, but it pays off.
I do have two blueberry bushes in barrels full of peat.
Last year I plant tomatoes in the same barrels, you could hardly see the berry bushes!
"Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit." [If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need] Marcus Tullius Cicero in Ad Familiares IX, 4, to Varro.
Check out Redhawk's soil series: https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil
Hamilton Betchman wrote:I'd be honored to be a guest on your blog. I have a few pictures from before and during the process that I haven't shared. Just let me know what you need.
echo minarosa wrote:
Everything planted has to feed people or critters...sometimes both or more than one critter. We only have about 30% of the original "lawn" left. That's a guess though. Still...we keep whittling that down. I'm trying to get agreement to take out the ninebarks and replace them, with honeyberries!
William Bronson wrote:
This is a reason to diversify into nut and "salad" trees(moringa, Toon, linden).
Fruit is good for for selling, creating value added goods and offsetting the cost of buying , but it is not much of a staple for most people.
Cara Campbell wrote:Cat in the Flock is apparently no more. Sorry I missed it because it looks like it would have been very interesting.
Cara Campbell wrote:Cat in the Flock is apparently no more. Sorry I missed it because it looks like it would have been very interesting.
Cara Campbell wrote:Thanks! I wish the old one had redirected!
Lisa Brunette wrote:
I met a fellow garden blogger who's interested in permaculture and local to me, and we discussed a wide range of topics over the course of two in-person visits and many back-and-forth email conversations between spring 2020 and spring 2021. The result is a three-part Q&A series I wrote for Cat in the Flock that covers the topics voluntary simplicity, suburban homesteading, and getting the most food for the time and space in your garden.
Claire Schosser writes Living Low in the Lou, a blog chronicling her and her husband Mike's journey of reduced energy consumption and self-sufficiency. She opted for early retirement back in the mid-1990s (with Mike following in 2001) by reducing their expenses through living simply, growing much of their own food, and forgoing many of the shiny new conveniences that the rest of us take as givens. For those outside the area, "the Lou" is a popular nickname for St. Louis, Missouri. The Schosser/Gaillard homestead is located on a one-acre plot in suburban St. Louis and includes many mature, productive nut and fruit trees, an extensive annual garden, an herb garden, and a glassed-in front porch that functions as a greenhouse.
Most of the resources covering permaculture tend toward the assumption of a large plot of land to work with, and in fact, the entire SKIP project is focused on obtaining land, which is great... I am a backer and love the project... but I also think we need much more discussion about something I'm calling suburban homesteading. This 2nd part in my series on Claire and her husband Mike's project is a great example, as they're living the permaculture way on one acre of land in suburbia. I offer it as a basis for discussion. The original post is Suburban Homesteading - Q&A with Living Low in the Lou's Claire Schosser.
The benefits of a suburban homestead:
- Access to transportation, emergency services, and medical care
- Larger communities for spiritual and other connections
- The ability to go just supplementally or partially off-grid
Are others of you out there practicing "suburban homesteading"? My husband and I are on only 1/4-acre and have transformed it into a mix of natives that are both edible and/or support native pollinators and strict food gardens grown with some permaculture techniques and some traditional.
Speaking of permie vs. traditional techniques, also in this Q&A, Claire and I discuss some thorny permaculture issues such as... her assertion that most food plants are first-succession growies that need bare (at least surface-tilled) soil and sunny locations, so they don't lend themselves as readily to food foresting. To quote:
Permaculture was developed in the subtropical climate of Australia, where a wider variety of perennial vegetable crops can be planted in guilds according to their needs and habits. Annual and biennial vegetable plants, however, are not just more ecologically suited to bare soil; they have been bred and grown in weeded gardens and fields for hundreds or thousands of years. Providing them with the conditions to which they are adapted makes ecological and garden sense, and it’s easier on the gardener as well.
Thoughts, defenses, examples to the contrary, examples of support?
Brent Bowden wrote: Next summer I hope the neighborhood kids eat all the strawberries I will be planting on the slope down to the sidewalk. It will be an epic showdown: Bluejays vs. 10 year old.
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught , and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we can’t eat money. “
Kimberly Agnese wrote:Hi,
My daughter and I have named it Meadow Arc and sitting outside watching butterflies, hummingbirds, doves, scrub jays , woodpeckers , sparrows , chats, toads, reptiles, squirrels, gophers, bees, dragonfly’s , crickets, grasshoppers, lady bugs, praying mantis, and insect life is one of our favorite things to do.
We have also seen possums, hawks and several generations of nestlings , all of which were very surprising to us since we live in a heavily lawned suburban area.
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught , and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we can’t eat money. “
Kimberly Agnese wrote:Thanks Lisa:)
May I ask? I have wondered how some of you have the title pollinator after your name.
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught , and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we can’t eat money. “
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught , and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we can’t eat money. “
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught , and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we can’t eat money. “