Planning permaculture acreage for self-sustainability

There's a shitload (no pun intended) of info out there on permaculture. If you can find people practicing this in your area you should definitely get in touch with them. Remember, it all starts with the soil. Or, as maxdancona so eruditely commented:


Soil Food Web

Thanks. We’re all embroiled in tutorials, and you’re right—there’s a lot of info. There’s a local group I joined on Facebook several months ago—people preparing for food self-sustainability—who are gearing up for our first meetup.

Of course, people have conflicting ideas about how to approach planting, etc.

I guess I can find one or two who are convinced by permaculture science. It’s sorta exciting.

Snapshot of a massive migration happening now.

My upstate SC county has been inundated by people moving from NY and CA.
My son saw a ranch for sale 26 minutes after it was posted on Zillow. He immediately called for a viewing. The realtor said he was the seventh call. Son said it was like a rock concert the next day when the realtor had an open house. The realtor said it’s been like this for six or seven months. A blizzard of NY, CA, and other transplants—offering significantly higher bids than the property is worth.

So, bairns offered $25K more than the ask.

They were outbid again. Just found out.

I’m afraid they’re doing to our economy what they did to theirs.

Maybe we should move to Montana…

You might need one of these

How to Build an Underground Bunker in 9 Steps
Get Permission. The most important thing to do is to get the proper permits. ...
Choose the Location. ...
Develop a Blueprint. ...
Pick the Right Bunker Building Material. ...
Choose the Right Excavating Equipment. ...
Acquire Key Living Materials. ...
Start Digging. ...
Reinforce the Shelter.

Underground living spot will definitely be a feature. Hopefully it’ll be used for food storage, not us storage.

Today, my kid showed me how to add a new layer to his worm condo, showed me how to access his compost tea, and leased me 1/2 of one of his raised beds. 🙂. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

From the tutorial videos I’ve watched on YouTube, it seemed counterintuitive to disturb the subterranean ecosystem that was probably already happening, but I have this thing about fresh starts, so I pitchforked my little patch and discarded root systems from previous plants. I was surprised at how many I found 2 or 3 inches below the surface.

Once I cleared roots, I poured in about 12 oz of compost tea and a child’s beach pail of worm casings. My kid took an hour to show me how to get worms to migrate up to a new level in a compost condo to create rich soil in the raised bed planter—and I don’t think I’d have had more fun at Disney World.

My soil looked so loamy. My grandbairn was my shovelman. Exquisite grandma day.

I’m just experimenting, tho. All ideas, but no real knowledge yet. Reading is nothing much without experience.

I thumbed through the kids’ seeds, and tomorrow, I make some ignorant decisions and plant. I’ll be keeping a notebook about the soil, the seeds, and the results.

I’m thinking something similar to a potager / potager’s? garden. Vegs interspersed with flowers. Thoughts now: cukes, beets, lettuces, radishes, flowers.

So far, so good.

The mentally deficient Boston Terrier who never met a thigh he didn’t puncture is a garden pest. I’ve decided not to Monsanto him (because it might get in my soil), so it appears I’ll have to invest in some pest netting accoutrements to dissuade him from being so much him.

It was a lot of fun to sit in my kid’s den, listen to him homeschool the bairn, and peruse seeds. I wish I could say I put a lot of thought and researched strategy into the choices, but nah. ‘Full sun’ was my only criteria. All the plants I chose may murder each other or combine to create an overpowering attraction to the worst pests. I want what I want and I’m taking notes.

Cukes, pollinator attracting flowers 💐 🌸 , radishes, lavender (might try to make my own essential oils), and spinach. I’m thinking about a future growing what I consider to be the healthiest foods. My son already dissuaded me from avocados because the growing process is supposed to be water intensive. I’ll look into it…

Day 1: check

I drew a map of my hopeful plants, wrote down basic knowledge and expectations, devised dog defying plans, ordered accoutrements, sent my son an incredibly embarrassing text and eventually recovered.

A recent freeze ruined the multi-use spray head of his hose: it pulsed, sprayed wide, sprayed more concentrated, lasered and did things I don’t have descriptions for. I really wanted to mist my patch after planting which eventually led me to text, “I’m happy to give you a head if you want one. I don’t mind.”

Seconds after sending, I was suicidal.

The quick response rhythm of our convo died abruptly. I don’t know if he was vomiting, trying to breathe through laughing, or telling his wife though hyperventilating guffaws. In retrospect, probably a combination.
Anyway.

I’m into my patch. No double entendres allowed.

I felt proud in the hardware store, gathering an odd assortment of materials to dissuade Odin from digging up my seeds. Who’s the backyard god, now? (bears teeth)

I got four metal sticks, stabbed two front and back on either side of my patch (about 8 X 6), and created a potential canopy with PVC pipe.

Things went downhill after that. The cheap ass bird netting I bought was impossible to even unwind—like unwinding last year’s Christmas lights that had been stored in glue.

Emphasized lesson: You likely get what you pay for. $6.48 in the trash.

So, I scavenged around son’s materials and unrolled a really tight 5 ft high garden fencing that was dreamy efficient for my patch and one of his. Not sure if he’ll need it elsewhere, so I’ll replace it for him. Probably $30. - $40.

During my dirt travels, I ran into some small blackish and land-stingy ants: today’s reading focus.

I think I’m going to have to plant a few plants. Waiting on seeds takes a little more patience than I’m feeling rn.

Today’s Gardening Rose: Magic little kingdom of tiny creatures when you water healthy soil. They dig out, fly up, come from everywhere to enjoy that water and disappear almost as soon as the water stops. I never noticed that before.
Today’s Thorn: My PVC contraption fail.

Day 3: It rained, so I stayed home.

Day 4: I stopped off by Home Depot and succumbed to buying something I could see in the act of growing. Can’t help but to assign this some degree of failure as I’d initially wanted to test my ability to turn a seed into a plant. Ah well. There are still some seeds doing mysterious underground things.

I planted a broccolini, some marigolds, and a purple kale in a really welcoming blackish spot with worm poop and worm poop tea.

Day 5: I walked out into the backyard quietly sans Odin, and as I neared the garden, I saw the fat retreating auburn colored hind end of a mid-sized rodent run a bit and scuttle under the lawn shed.

It’s a potential Mr. MacGregor scenario. I’m suddenly facing all kinds of existential drama. I told my son who immediately rubbed his palms together and spoke of traps. (shakes head no), but I remember the sadness watching the Biggest Little Farm dude, eventually having to shoot coyotes instead of the hundred expensive non-violent methods he’d studied, tried, and gave up on.

Finding non-chemical, non-violent solutions is important. My son might say grill the ground hog: win - win. 😬 He’s got that new grill, so… nobody’s safe. Odin better keep it kosher.

The story is developing. Plot twists, woman v nature, woman v self, pathos, hapless protagonist; shady, amoral griller foil, and an elusive furry arch nemesis (or maybe snack to go with my purple kale.)

Life started making demands (a pivotal character at work suffered a major mental decompensation and I had to hold the place together), so my little garden experiment grew wild with help from my son.

My kale is a beautiful sight to behold. Enormous upward reaching spiral of purple leaves. I need to cull some of them for salad soon. The broccolini is also hearty and dazzling. Watching for edible parts.

Radishes and lavender are maturing at a slower pace.

No perceptible predator action; I think my son’s fencing has worked.

We’ve been discussing plans to become experts on filling foods that can give vital nutrients. My next goal is to become proficient with sweet potatoes. Food scarcity is coming pretty rapidly, and sweet potatoes aren’t as easy as kale and broccolini.

I’ll document starting my sweet potato slips. 🍠🍠

What are you planning for green manure crops?

Explain!

Edit: Ok, I looked up the reference. This is why my son pressed peas. He and my dil are much more advanced than I am—and use cover crops and nitrogen replacement plants.

It's good to have sources of green matter for composting. One of the best is comfrey, which is perennial. It pushes out lots of vegetation which is great for compost teas as well as for mixing with brown material for solid compost.

Today, I pushed dirt up around the lowermost leaves of my beautiful broccolini, pored compost tea all over my first gen plants, watered them, checked the maturity of the radishes, and harvested 2.

I have very peppery / spicy radishes. I’m in love with my soil.

My lavender is so beautiful. I’m planning to make lavender tea.

I cherished that first spicy bite of the radish I brought to life.

Organic Mother’s Day 🙂🌱🪴🌿(But, I did eat my firstborn, so…)

…poured…