Permaculture chat.

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Is anyone else into it?

I am quite new to gardening for food production,and I'm really aiming to use principles of permaculture as much as possible.

I'd love to chat with others and discuss what we are all up to.

[shovetheholly]

Are you doing this commercially? It sounds fascinating!

I think many of us on the allotment thread are probably doing permaculture-type gardening on a very small scale without really being conscious of it. But we are all pretty small scale!

[shovetheholly]

Ooops, posted too early - meant to add that DoreenLethal isn't small-scale - she does all kinds of gardens! - and I bet she would probably really know tons about this.

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Ooo,give her a shout shove !

No,I'm not doing it commercially -its small scale back garden stuff.

The whole thing is fascinating.Not just gardening but the whole sustainable living aspect.

[shovetheholly]

I think a great deal of small-scale organic allotment or back garden veg/flower growing is a little bit permaculture-like, though probably most people actually doing it might not describe it that way! As far as I can understand, it's when you get the alliance between mechanisation, monoculture farming and maximisation of yield (and therefore profit) on a larger more mainstream scale that those practices that really damage the soil and the surrounding ecosystem seem to creep in. (Have a look at this article which compares soil quality in commercial farms to allotments and gardens: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12254/full )

I know that most of the regulars on the major threads in these forums do things like harvesting and conserving water, composting waste, mulching, using manure, making foliar feeds, rotation, companion planting etc etc just as a matter of course. Of course there are gardening practices that aren't so sustainable (like use of certain chemical fertilizers, insect sprays etc.) but no-one regular on here really seems to use them as far as I can tell - and there's a lot of interest in encouraging wildlife. One of the many reasons I love these forums!

I would love to read more about your journey into permaculture as you do things! It really does sound interesting.

[ThatBloodyWoman]

You're better read on it than me,I suspect shove.

I'm aiming for something thats simple,organic,no dig,and things having sensible relationships with each other.

This winter I concentrated on how to sector my garden and fruits.I've put in several types of fruit trees in the part of the garden that the chickens free range,and here I also have my seating area,a compost section,and my perennial flower garden (can't get past wanting some pretty stuff -though amongst it there are some old fashioned and medicinal plants like feverfew and valerian,and plants specifically to encourage bees,like verbena and lavender).The theory is that the chooks fertilise the fruit trees and in exchange get some windfalls.
In that section is the old chicken run -full of soil thats been added to over the years by the chickens manuring,and plenty of leaf mould.This I've turned into a fruit cage.
As Spring came on,in a different section of the garden,to protect it from the chickens,I have vegetables with a focus on raised beds.Here I have herbs,and would like to give a good section to perennial vegetables -but this year I've got tomatoes,celery,chillies,peppers,rhubarb,squash,courgettes,pumpkin,swiss chard,onions,wild garlic,swedes,potatoes,beetroot,purple sprouting,jerusalem artichokes,and strawberries.The beds I filled with the old compost pile we'd been creating for a few years.

I also have a good comfrey patch,another compost area,woodpile,and a water butt.This section is close to the kitchen.

I'm giving consideration to keeping bees,and creating a wormery,but thats not for this year.

I will have to have a lurk on the allotment thread I think.

I'm enjoying it so much!

[shovetheholly]

Oooooooooohhhhhhhh it sounds LOVELY!! That's a really good range of veg of be growing too. I am of your orchard!

Do you have a greenhouse? I just got one this spring and it has been transformative. I can get stuff to germinate and then plant out, rather than having half of my seedlings destroyed by slugs and other beasties. It has completely changed the way that I garden, and I am getting much better germination and survival rates.

[shovetheholly]

PS Wormery - check out BOKASHI COMPOSTING! It is brilliant because you can put used food, including meat (in my veggie household, cat food) into the bins for composting. The whole lot then goes in the main compost bin, or directly into the soil.

/endobligatorybokashibroadcast