My partner and I recently bought a house in the Pacific Northwest. I am interested in permaculture and similar land restoration ideas and we want to get started on our own. We’re going to take the OSU course on it, but in the meantime, is there anything we can get started on now for preparation? Some stats:
* we are on a triangular lot with the front of the house pointing towards the southwest and the back yard opening to the northeast.
* Several trees are already there, including a fairly advanced apple tree, a maple that we don’t love, some ash trees we want to get rid of, and a couple of large douglas firs.
* Our land slopes upward away from the house in the back yard and is quite flat in front. The slope continues into our neighbor yards.
* Average annual precipitation is about 1 meter/yr, primarily from October through May. Winter is mild with a few frosts and very little snow. Summers are getting quite hot and dry from climate change, with several weeks per year near or above 100F (38C). I have not yet got data on the specifics of our own yard microclimate.
* There are about 140 square meters (1500 square feet) of back yard that receives quite a lot of sunlight (6-8 hours). This is somewhat flatter and currently mostly lawn. There are a few garden boxes where we had tomatoes, raspberries, and shiso basil this year that did well.
* Another ~200 m2 (2150 ft2) of very shaded yard under the firs and apple tree, some grass, some barren ground, some pre-existing garden boxes that we can keep or get rid of.
* about 40 m2 (500 ft2) of area that can be made sunny if we get rid of the maple tree and a shed. Right now, what exposed ground exists is mostly very degraded, with basically nothing growing and lots of mud cracks.
* About 80 m2 (875 ft2) of very dark and very wet area that has a big shed, behind which is basically a tiny marshland. This area is on the opposite side of the house from the sunny back yard but is just upslope of the sunny front yard.
* Another ~700 ft^2 (68 m2) of front yard that gets noon and afternoon sun, not much in the morning. Currently it is grass and some ornamental bushes the previous owners had that we don’t especially like. There’s also a Japanese Snowball tree here that we want to get rid of so our tiny humans don’t eat the berries.
So, overall, lots of grass, some sunny, some not. A flattish sunny area, a marshy area, a degraded somewhat sunny area, and a partial sun front yard. We think the front yard may get enough light to have grapes and blueberries and prefer such things there so the dogs don’t eat the grapes.
So, how do we get started? And PNW people, please feel free to DM.
