guildfordcycads

Hi everyone, so I have experience working on a regenerative farm in my local area and also know a good deal about permaculture. I want to apply permaculture perspectives to build an edible garden design and install business. I would love to start with clients who have yards, but working with balconies would also be doable. Anyone have any recommendations on how to find my first clients who want an edible garden? I’ve tried posting my services on Nextdoor and my farm Instagram page but haven’t gotten anyone yet who is willing to redesign their garden with me. I have the contacts with nurseries so supply wouldn’t be an issue. Also labor wouldn’t be an issue as I have many people who would be willing to work, even volunteer, to help make these edible gardens for my project. If you got any ideas for obtaining clients in my city, I’d totally appreciate the input!

Planning to start my first forest next year. I’ve done lots of sheet mulching in the past for vegetable gardens. I’m planning to run my chickens through the area to fertilize and kill off the grass, then dump a ton of wood chips. I could throw down a bunch of compost before the wood chips, but I’ve heard you don’t want to fertilize too heavily before planting to encourage roots to dig deeper.

Will the chickens sufficiently kill the grass so that I don’t need to lay cardboard etc?

Decent plan? Is there a better approach?

We just closed on our dream property and I’m starting to plan my garden for next year. This is the first time I’m working on such a large space. And one with geographical features.

I’d love to get some input on placement as well as row orientation.

The three pics are:

1) a view of the field from the southern corner of the property facing north.

2) a view of the field from the eastern edge facing west (north is to the right side of the image)

3) A view of the field from the western side looking north.

It might be hard to see, but there’s a slight slope on the northern end, sloping down southward. This is where I’m thinking of putting the garden, but would love some feedback on that idea. The slope ends in a large flat area and then slopes down again towards the south (about where that tree shadow is on the first pic).

The idea is that water will naturally run down the slope into the garden. I may need to build some berms or other water retaining earth works, but it seems like the field gets pretty wet but drains well. I walked the area this past weekend while it was raining. The ground was moist but not waterlogged, despite getting dumped on throughout the week and weekend.

Additionally, this area has relatively easy access to my house’s main water supply and some rain barrels should I need to water it.

If I do place the garden there, how should my rows be oriented? East-west or north-south? Or can do I do something maybe a little more creative, such as rounded beds?

Anything else I should be thinking about?

I am in the process of designing a 72 x 72 garden/orchard that will consist of 4 foot wide row beds between rows of orchard trees (avocado, pluot, pomegranate and fig). The trees size will vary but I’m looking at semi-dwarf. My question is… should I lay the trees and bed rows out north to south, or east to west. I remember reading in the past that there are different benefits for each but am looking for the layout that both allows for me to make the most of the space while also creating row beds that will potentially get enough sun to grow full sun crops. Latitude is 34.448050 in Ojai CA.