Submitted by videl in permaculture

How long have you been growing? What are you growing? How'd you get started? Any surprises? Any tips or advice for someone starting out?

I'm in the process of planning my own garden and would like to hear some of your stories.

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existential1 wrote

I've been practicing permaculture growing stuff for a few years. I only own .18 acres, so not much...but I've grown quite a few trees from seed, have a "wild" area of greens and root vegetables, and a more maintained herb garden and compost area right out the back door.

I would go with the Bob Ross "there are no failures" logic though....that being said I did plant trees that I grew from seed all over the yard to see which would do best where. In the end, I wound up with I think 5 trees now (from around 12) that are very large and healthy. One tree produced apples last year (it was a 2yr old tree) and that was quite exciting for me.

Biggest success has definitely been the community aspect. Neighbors come talk to me when I'm working in the yard. I've heard little kids mention they want to walk by "the house with pumpkins" while out at the store before. I've given people seeds from my garden to start their own stuff. Also given away soil since I generate a lot of healthy soil with my compost. Second place for success is just getting to witness nature. I don't use pesticides, or fertilizer or anything like that. Sometimes something will happen with a particular plant, like leaf eaters getting into an otherwise tasty looking chard leaf...and then I'll see wasps hunting the leaf eaters later that day. I really came to further appreciate the balance nature provides if you, as a human, just get the fuck out of the way.

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ziq wrote

"Just get the fuck outa the way" should be permaculture's subtitle.

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ziq wrote

I planted a small food forest about 10 years ago. About 100 fruit and nut trees. My goal is to have something edible every day of the year.

I got my first substantial avocado crop this winter as well as lots of grapefruits, oranges and clementines. Passion Fruits are ripening now.

Last year I lost all my grapes to grapevine moth. I'm gonna coat them with sulfur powder this year to hopefully avert a repeat of that disaster.

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