Hello all,

Colorado, zone 5b/6A here.

For the past 4 to 5 years, we have tried to learn more about permaculture and natural farming. Read a lot of books and watched countless movies.

We started our little food forest project in our backyard about 2 years ago. It is a small lot (0.25 acres), but that doesn’t stop us. We have several fruit and nut trees and adhere to the guild approach, trying to incorporate a fair amount of layers and focus on yield and/or function.

We aren’t thrilled about using, for example woodchips to fill up the bare spots but would prefer a living mulch. Having read Fukuoka, we know that he used clover as a living mulch, and we would like to go in this direction (Dutch White Clover). However, some websites and posts advise against using living mulch like clover because it would compete with other plants and, especially, fruit trees in that guild.

We have seen plenty of food forest movies and permaculture movies and more often than not, the food forests are covered with living mulches like clover and even grasses or weeds. This doesn’t seem to negatively influence the food forest at all.

Personally, if I had to choose, I would prefer to have a weed growing instead of having a bare spot.

To make a long story short, should we be concerned about using clover as a living mulch, or perhaps some grasses like blue gramma or buffalo grass for pathing?

Thanks in advance!

What is the difference between permaculture, food forest, self-sustaining garden and food foraging garden? How do they all interact?

I’m actively looking for folks who want to join me on my land in Vermont. Off grid, beautiful 17 acres with several good building sites and also a well-built cabin shell that won’t take too much to finish.

I bought the land in June, 2022 and have been building a food forest, including an orchard and lots of veggies and flowers. I have chickens, ducks, and a couple Icelandic sheep that lambed in August and the babies are just ridiculously cute. The zoning is conducive to homesteading and cottage industry so there is freedom for various projects and endeavors.

I’m a woman in my 50s, work part-time as an RN, an omnivore with conscience, an atheist who is inspired by folks including Thich Nhat Hahn and Pema Chodron, practice radical honesty and non-violent communication, care deeply about promoting social justice, and I am not a fan of corporate capitalist culture.

I have a lot more information for anyone who might be interested, but that’s enough for an introduction.

We have clay soil on our property that drains very poorly and we believe is contributing to water in our crawl space during the wet months (we are in the PNW). We dug several holes around the perimeter of our house after some light rain and they had standing water in them within an hour that persists. Under the shed water often pools. We are in the process of re-doing our downspout drainage with new piping to ensure that is not contributing to the problem. They are currently all feeding to a pop up emitter in an alley that runs along our back fence line which is the lowest spot in our backyard. Any recommendations on how to remedy the drainage issue to keep water away from the house?

Hello friends,

I often hear this statement: “Organic farming isn’t a good choice for the environment because it requires much more land to produce the same calories as conventional farming.”

And yes, at first glance, that makes sense. A hectare of conventionally grown cabbage will likely yield a bigger harvest than an organically grown one—due to pest control and other factors. I understand these arguments, and as far as I know, they are true. Politicians use them to justify supporting large-scale conventional farming. Science podcasts and videos present this as evidence that organic farming is worse for the environment than many people assume. In my country, many believe that feeding the world’s population would be impossible if we switched entirely to organic farming.

But you know what really grinds my gears?
Most people don’t look hard enough for real alternatives. For them, it’s simply a matter of labels and prices, and agriculture remains an industrialized, large-scale, highly optimized process in designated areas, even for organic crops (e.g. when you look at the huge greenhouses in Spain where they produce tomatoes).

In my ideal world, there are so many more possibilities. What if we used land more efficiently? Through diverse crop systems, such as layered food forests or polycultures, could we actually make farmland more productive than conventional methods?

Let’s consider this hypothetical example (numbers are just made up, so don’t take them too seriously):

Conventional Farming:

I have 5 hectares, with each hectare dedicated to a single crop:
→ 1 ha = 1000 kg apples
→ 1 ha = 1000 kg beetroot
→ 1 ha = 1000 kg grapes
→ 1 ha = 1000 kg potatoes
→ 1 ha = 1000 kg beans

Total yield: 5000 kg of crops

Food Forest (or similar system):

I have the same 5 hectares, but instead of monoculture, I grow all five crops together across the entire area.
→ 2000 kg apples
→ 1500 kg beetroot
→ 2000 kg grapes
→ 3000 kg potatoes
→ 1500 kg beans

Total yield: 10,000 kg of crops

That means my food forest produced more calories than the monoculture. Labor costs are a different matter, but if we’re really smart, couldn’t we reduce them to the levels of work in conventional farms?

Now, my questions for you:

1. Is it really possible to produce more calories organically by using space wisely?
2. Does anyone have scientific evidence to support this theory? I’ve been searching for a long time!
3. If this is true, why isn’t it more widely known? That would mean conventional farming isn’t as efficient as everyone assumes?

+ a super simplified statement to start a discussion with you guys: With diminishing fertile land, someday soil will become more precious than human labor. And THEN we will really see big changes in our agricultural system towards sustainability.

What are your thoughts?