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Hi I inherited a small piece of land that has been neglected for the last 30 years. I’d love to permaculture it, but the issues are a bit overwhelming. I don’t know where to start.

There are 8 pear and apple trees of about 15 meter height. They shade a lot and cause a mess of rotten fruit on the ground. One seems like a good juice tree and 2 have amazing tasting apples on them. Others taste meh.

One side of property is covered in wolfsbane, another with old rasberries and some sort of wild plum. There are low areas that cause flooding during heavy rain. The soil seems depleted in many areas, compacted and heavy in clay.

And the entire property is full of invasive spanish slugs. The neighbors are stressing me out complaining about the slugs coming from my property to their barren lawn plots.

Good things: very nice east-south facing land, an old greenhouse, deep well, rich soil under the fruit trees, a river next to it and quite a lot of small wildlife and bugs.

Any advice on where to start and what to prioritize so I can prepare for the next spring? Need to get the land into managable shape and growing food.

Update to this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/s/cZ3fdzUpOr

I’ve gotten buy-in from the HOA to install 18-ish fruit/nut trees, and to use this very long south facing fence strip!

Next step is to get a chip drop to smother, till, and put in a cover crop until spring.

The long strip I’m thinking something easy… not sure yet!

Here’s some images. https://imgur.com/a/hRcxFz3

That south facing fence is looking delicious

Just bought this place and I inherited a couple massive grapevines. They’ve fully taken over the bottom 2/3rds of those trees next to them, and some of the trees seem to be dying/covered in lichen (possibly as a result?). I was excited for grapes until the blight showed itself. They started getting ringed spots in early summer, and now most of them have withered on the vine, as seen in image 5. My light research is suggesting a fungal infection called Black Rot, probably caused by a wet spring and the microclimate happening in the trees.

1. Can anyone confirm this?

2. How far can I cut back without killing the vines? The blight has taken the entire crop, even on the original (falling apart) metal trellis. Can I take everything down the the main trunk and have it survive?

3. How do I get the mummified grapes out of the grass? My research said the spores overwinter in them, and start the cycle again next spring. They’re tiny and I don’t know if a Rake will get them all, and they grow as high as 30ft into the trees so I can’t pick them off the vine.

4. My research was suggesting late winter/early spring for the trim, so that the vines will come out of dormancy and immediately start growing new shoots. Does that sound right?

5. I should probably get them away from the trees to prevent this from happening again. I was hoping to retrain the vines onto a new trellis system that goes out and over the walkway in Image 3, kind of making a living arch. Does this seem feasible? If so, how many years should I expect that to take?

6. If it re-emerges next year, how do I handle it?

7. Just a curiosity, any idea how old the plant is? Based on the size, age of the house, rust on the trellis, and culture of backyard table grapes, it could date all the way back to the 40’s, but I have no clue.

Thank you all so much for the help! I love this plant, it’s clearly older than me, and I don’t want to uproot it if I don’t have to 💜

In the last 2 years, I have been working on a multifunctional roof in 2 slopes:

• On the south side, I have installed solar panels,
• On the north side, I have built a small vegetable garden.

The roof has a single layer, meaning there is NO tile under the solar panels, nor under the pots in which the vegetables grow!

The main reason for which I initiated this project is that roofs have large surfaces, but they are used for only one purpose: to protect the house from rain and snow. We should have more benefits from these large surfaces! For example, we could get electricity and food from these surfaces!

A secondary motivation was that, typically, solar panels are mounted on top of the tiles. There are 2 layers basically. This is a waste of material, because solar panels are resistant enough to protect the house from rain and snow. They can be used as tiles. But it needs to be well insulated!

The building on which I built the roof has a footprint of 15x7m. Currently, on the North side, I have installed solar panels spanning a width of 6.5m. On the south side, the hanging garden is 1.3m wide and 4.5m long. The rest of the roof is covered with sheet metal tiles. I plan to extend the ideas to the entire roof, depending on the test results.

I started with an old roof, which was another reason I built the new one.

I made the roof structure of iron. I tried to avoid wood as much as possible. Trees have a much more important function than being used in construction: to produce clean air! I did use wood for the laces under the tiles, for the support of the plant gutters, and on the front side (OSB).

Initially, I intended to build everything in Lego style, without welding, only by mechanical fastening. The beams, rafters, etc. should have been connected only by screws. I built 2 trusses in this way, but then I gave up because the iron at that length (7m) was deforming and the components were no longer joining properly.

The trusses (queen type) are built from an 80x40x3 profile, but with a 60x40x3 base and interior elements. One truss weighs approximately 100 kg. I used 13 supports along the entire length of the house.

The solar panels are placed between T40 metal profiles. I attached the panels to the T40 from inside the attic. Between the profiles and the panels I left a 3-4mm space in which I put silicone. Due to the incorrect application of the silicone (a beginner’s mistake), a few holes were left through which water entered. So, I had to put a bituminous waterproofing tape, which would not have been necessary if I had applied the silicone correctly.

The vegetables are grown in rectangular gutters (cisterns) (120×90) made of 0.6 mm sheet metal. The angle of the roof (38 degrees) is calculated so that these gutters fit together perfectly (the bottom corner of one ends where the top corner of the next begins).

The gutters are placed on two wooden supports (a board 4.5m long, 14 cm wide and 4cm thick) cut in steps. The insulation between the gutters is made with a 75mm wide bituminous tape. I attached the gutters to the wooden support with self-tapping screws. Inside the gutters, I put (only close to the ends) pieces of wood so that I could step on them when I climb up to take care of the vegetables. But in the future, I will put some pieces of 80×80 pipe as a support for the leg.

At the moment, I have grown tomatoes and peppers, which have borne fruit. I have also sown lettuce and spinach, but they have come out very poorly (I only sowed them in July) and the few days ago I threw some wheat grains on them, which have sprouted very well.

There is a lot to say about this project. Some details (but not all) can be found on the project website. It took me personally 2 years to implement it (from the moment I started designing), and I was helped (ideas+work) by several friends. I have changed the design several times, and I have bought many materials that I have not used later. It also requires many machines (for cutting, drilling, welding, milling, etc.), without which I could not have completed the construction.

The electrical installation (solar part) in the house I did myself using Victron equipment. I haven’t connected it to the grid yet, but I’m using some Pylontech batteries. The switch from solar to the grid is done automatically when there is no power from the solar/batteries.

The roof is located at: str. Gh. Lazăr 9, Cugir town, Alba county, Romania.

A video with the exterior and interior of the roof can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZRalp4EQG4

The website for this project can be found at:

https://github.com/f-roof

The CAD files for this project can also be found there (but they don’t currently contain all the details). The license is MIT.

P.S. I personally do NOT build roofs. I did this project out of a personal passion.