permaculture.

so, permaculture has become fascinating to me.
for those who don't know, the name is derived from "permanent" and "agriculture"
created by bill mollison, and another guy i never remember the name of.
another huge player in the permaculture movement is Geoff lawton. google his name, and "greening the desert".

anyway. i've decided to incorporate the idea's of permaculture into my mothers yard.

the idea is that the property is designed after a forest. with every level, and everything acting as something beneficial to the forest. the catch though, is that it's an edible forest. or a "food forest"


this has made me think of everything differently. i've realized that you don't need to till, or mow your lawn as much as one might have you believe (watch out neighbors, for fire hazards coming your way) i've also realized that insectacides, and herbacides of any type are unnecessary.

i will post the steps i'm taking as i take them. and the information i get as i obtain it.

plans for this year:
1 add grapes, strawberries, and raspberries to the existing perrenials around the yard.
2 propagate some apples tree's from my existing tree's to plant in the field.
3. plant legumes, maybe an oak tree, and some different nitrogen fixing plants around the property.
4. turn the apple tree's into guilds, by killing the grass (which competes with the tree's) and replacing it with comfrey, and other deep root plants that will bring up nutrition to help apple production, rather than hinder it.
5. i have 5 chickens. i plan to expand the chicken population. this property has a grasshopper problem. which really means a grain-bird deficiency.
6. fence of a portion of the yard to keep rabbits.

this year my goal is to harvest as much of the food that is already here as i can.
including
garlic chives
chives
horseradish
rhubarb
lemon balm
wild mint
berries
apples.
plums
also, i will expand my operations into the mountains as a sort of "guerilla gardening" situation.
i will also harvest as much as those foods as i can.
including
sego lily bulbs
choke cherries
elder berries
black berries.

i realize this is a boring post for most everyone who decides to read it.
i'm sorry.

i'm also interested in starting a group for permaculture in cache valley. i'm interested enough that i've started a group in face book called "cache permaculture"
though it say's "cache" anyone can join. my plans are to start a real group that actually meets in person to talk about it, exchange idea's, and exchange surplus.