I’m planning my homestead, and trying to figure out its layout, especially the orchard and garden by the pond, where the soil (clay loam) and sun exposure are best, but the area is exposed to winds.

The land and buildings have been neglected for many years an I have freedom to do whatever I want, including rearraning new buildings. The plot is theoretically in zone 7, but trending towards 8/9. Here’s the map:

https://preview.redd.it/3ej62fd545ne1.png?width=1704&format=png&auto=webp&s=af7df19857d05a5df07ef3c809f5ec6a4cf19f81

Each square is 10 x 10 meters. The contour line marked ‘0’ indicates ground levels around buildings not the actual elevation. The hill is 20m high at approx 20deg.

My ideas are:

1. restore peat pond (approx. 1000m2), and use it for rain water collection, irrigation and reflecting light on plants,
2. raise the ground north of the pond to create terraces with two or three lines of beds with retaining walls out of reclaimed stone, or brick to store heat (alternatively hugels?),
3. fill the beds with wood, leaves, peat and topsoil from pond and road construction,
4. create a small orchard to protect the beds from wind with fruit trees (apples) and bushes,
5. plant windbreaker on the west to protect the orchard,

This should result in:

1. great microclimate around the pond
2. improved soiled and no water-logging
3. easy access to beds without back-bending
4. fruits and vegetables for my family + maybe some extra
5. increased biodiversity
6. nice landscape

I have time, and money to make it happen, I’ve read lots of books but my first-hand experience amounts to exactly zero. I have tried to find example of gardens with similar layout to validate my concept, but couldn’t find any.

I have plenty of questions, but perhaps the key ones are:

1. does it make sense to raise the ground around pond and how high should I raise it to create wind-free climate for my beds?
2. should I go for raised beds or hugels? if beds would work are better how to provide access along them?
3. how do I protect fruit trees from wind before the windbreaker is fully grown?
4. how do I future-proof for warming climate?
   …
5. does it make sens to keep fish in a pond that size (there is 5x bigger pond too on the land) to increase nutrients for irrigation? I could instead try to keep it clean and collect duckfeed for composting.

Any help would be appreciated!

We moved into a new house less than a year ago and I’ve been very eager to set up my own garden in the yard, but our entire yard is taken over by the roots of our neighbour’s cottonwood. The spot where I’d like to plant is where a 40 year old crab apple tree that we cut down last fall was (red circle). The apple tree was 15-20’ tall, flowered heavily and produced way too much worm infested fruit. We didn’t do anything to the roots and simply chopped it down to ground level. So it’s mostly apple tree roots directly below the area I’d like to use for gardening. Is my only option to place solid bottomed raised beds? FWIW I’m zone 3B/4A and the photo is from October 1st last year.

I recently bought a plot of land (30m x 15m) to plant on that is full of coastal acacia trees that are already at least 5 years old. The whole property is full of them as you can see and I’m wondering what I should do with them.

https://preview.redd.it/sy6btfgdu4ne1.png?width=280&format=png&auto=webp&s=5178dad6b76d28423c47922893dd1a021d5cb1fb

I’m planning on planting a food forest in here and was wondering if it’s best to just get rid of all of them for firewood and mulch or to slowly thin them down as I plant stuff in.

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Beginner here. I’ve read to push mulch aside to help warm the soil for spring, is that a good idea? I thought soil should never be bare or the microorganisms will fry. Also, I have big fluffy maple leaves over my rhubarb, rosemary, thyme that haven’t broken down, as well as lots of seaweed and random leaf mulch. I’m worried that my perennials and self-seeding things like parsley and cilantro can’t break through or get sun? Am I taking it too literally to never have bare soil? Mulch is confusing!

Last year I failed miserably at my brassica starts on the windowsill (amateur) so this year I bought lights. Zone 7b

However, in order to conserve space under the lights and start a lot of seeds, which species might be just fine in the windowsill? I did successfully grow squash, zucchini and basil starts in the windowsill last year. Fluke?

Because of my short growing season (lots of shade) I want to start: Arugula Tomatoes Cauliflower Cabbage Broccoli Black kale Lettuce NZ spinach Snapdragons Butternut squash Zucchini Strawflowers Cosmos Marigolds Yarrow

Hey guys,

Just starting down my permaculture rabbit hole actually by hearing a talk by Mark Sheppard who has a cool farm in Wisconsin and wrote the book Restoration Agriculture.

What he asserts (permaculture in general?) is that with the constant of plowing needed to grow annual plants we are oxidizing all the organic material and losing precious topsoil. That civilizations have risen and fallen by the plow as once fertile soils are now devoid of nutrients transformed into dirt. I know that 10,000ish years since the advent of agriculture is quite short in terms of the geological timescale which built all of the soils but is the premise of implementing a sustainable agriculture (around perennials, agroforestry and animal grazing) pretty much requires for us to throw “modern” agricultural practices out the window?

I am not a soil scientist and don’t know enough by agriculture really and would like to hear your input. My family hails from a pretty ancient village in Greece and it just occurred to me that this idea of “ancient” is only old on this human timescale. When I usually think of sustainability I think of this rustic stone village in the mountains since its existed for all these years but I am realizing its existed as a result of modern agriculture. I am sure it wasn’t as bad in years past but when I talk to the shepherds on visits they are all heavily supplementing their sheep with grain and corn derivatives in addition to the forage. The region relies on the cultivation of wheat and beans in the low lands for quite a long time, which are annual crops that need plowing, whether by ox or john deere.

I am not really sure what I am trying to ask, but I just had an unsettling thought this morning as I am learning that even this 2000 year village arose through “modern” agriculture and isn’t as sustainable on first inspection. Any input to my thought process would be appreciated.

Hi All – I wanted to share an idea that is working well for me. I copied an overhead image of my place (check with your county’s parcel tracker) and used drawing software to identify features and for planning new spaces. You can use a different layer for each component. For instance in my case… trees; structures; garden areas; invasive species. When you remove the base image layer you are left with a cool diagram of your place.

In my case I used Krita, which is open source. Didn’t take to much to learn the basics although the full breadth of the software is a bit overwhelming.

Just wanted to share as I’ve seen some questions related to this, and know there is even some paid solutions out there.