Steven Fordahl

Another consideration is are there setback requirements for the road right of way? And are your plantings going to encroach into the right of way when mature? Our neighbor just had many mature trees cut out by the county road crew for this reason.

Currently there are 15,656 people signed up to take the course from 98 countries, all 50 states and all the provinces of Canada! This is good news Right?

Greetings Intro to Permaculture class,
Enrollment will soon be closing and we are now at 15,656 students! Over 4,000 people have pinned themselves on the map, and there are currently pins in 98 different nations and territories. It is truly inspiring that you are all taking time out of your lives to learn about and discuss Permaculture.
I encourage you to go back to the map of pins now and browse around to see where your classmates are located. We’ve got people from all 50 US states, every Canadian province, and most nations in Europe, Asia, South America, Oceania, and many African countries. Permaculture is a viewpoint and design system that can help people everywhere, and the widespread interest in this class gives me hope for our future.
Hundreds of students have begun to turn in the first week’s assignments, and it’s been very fascinating to see your design sites and hear about your intentions for the course, as well as follow the conversations coming up on each climate-specific discussion thread. By the end of this week, you should be able to define Permaculture, and have a basic understanding of its ethics and design process.
We are going through the discussion boards to distill out major themes and topics to address in an announcement early next week. With over 15,000 people we cannot address every question, but we’ll do our best to pick out trends to speak to in the next announcement.
Thank you so much for participating, and I look forward to reading and viewing your contributions in the coming weeks.

May your gardens flourish,
Andrew Millison

Thanks to all who posted you have been very helpful I have a lot to research and think on. Thanks

Does anyone have any experience with planting living fences? I am thinking about the formidable kind that would hold pigs and maybe a cow or two. Prickly Ash grows around my 10 acres like weeds and am constantly hacking it back from areas I don't want it. I think I could use some of that for the under story but I am looking for suggestions on what other species to use maybe as a dual purpose food forest row cropping system. The kind of hedge rows I had in mind were the kind the troops in world war 2 ran into when they broke out of Normandy. I was wondering to about the over story trees that could be planted close together without adverse effect. I should mention we are situated 60 Miles north of the Twin cities in Mn. cold zone 4 into zone 3 trying to find zone 3 fruit trees is a bit of a challenge. have been thinking about this for some time and any wisdom or practicle knowledge would be appreciated,Blessings Steve

Thanks, Brenda, I will check it out.

Thank you so much Alex and Paulo for all of the information. You all have given me much to think on. Alex I will contact soil and water to see what is possible. When we put our driveway thru the peat bog to the west of the house we ran into a wall of red tape but finally did get approval. The excavators used a fabric base for the driveway materials like you had suggested for the chinampas beds. Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond to our post. I only hope one day that we will be able to help some one with what we have done that worked.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/assistance/backyard/privatelandsprogram/managing_woodland_wetland.pdf
The type 6 wetland on this page from the Minnesota dept. of natural resources is what our wetlands consist of approximately 3 acres on the east side of our property. The west side of our property consists of type 8 wetlands floating bog, tamarack, black spruce, approximately1.5 acres. The county road runs north, south on the west side of our property There is a rolling ridge angling north east to south west in the middle. This is where our house is. The trees that are here now are some old growth white pines (some over 40 ft. high) and a mixture of cherry,oak; red and white, poplar, box elder, birch,ash, and an understory of prickly ash,(nasty stuff to walk through) wild raspberry, elder. We have been organic gardeners for 20+ years and have grown most vegetables that can be grown in our climate. What we are interested in is growing forage crops for livestock and using our property to be more self sufficient, and maybe if possible provide an income ,some way, for us in the future. I believe a permit can be obtained from the DNR to dig into the wetland. Alex in answer to your questions about the proposed chanampras areas it is all of what you suggest, and to utilize and maximize the productive areas we have at our disposal. We have grown rhubarb by the house and get 3 crops depending on the year. I neglected to mention our soil is a heavy clay. It holds water well but needs to be heavily amended to be optimal. Paulo thank you for your ideas and information sounds like we have a cake walk compared to you there, but even in the harshest of places the earth responds to a man with vision and purpose. Julia, Mark Shepard is a bit of a hero to us. He lives about 250 miles south east of us and has done some spectacular things on his property we aim to visit his place this summer. Thank you all for taking the time to help us. Steve

What we are looking for is a comprehensive design plan for our 10 acre property. We have some ideas in mind concerning a combo chicken coop greenhouse and other pasture animals being a part of the total plan but we know enough about good design to know that we don't even know what questions to ask. I think we would benefit from attending a permaculture design course tailored for our climate. I just don't know of one. We have some woods, swamp, and open field so a little of everything. With the swamp we would like to do several chinampas beds, grow mushrooms in the woods, and do some grazing areas in the open parts. We are looking for as low an input as is workable with the greatest abundance.

Hi all ,
My name is Steven. My wife Ellen and I are learning about permaculture through a video series with Geoff Lawton and Bill Mollison teaching. The teaching is mostly focused on Australia and subtropical and desert environments. We live about 50 miles north of Minneapolis in Minnesota, on the edge of zone 3. As some winters can hit -40 and below, we want to work with only zone 3 hardy plantings so we don't lose years of growth on fruit trees, as happens to some people around here. Water systems are another point of particular concern, as we can have frost in the ground for up to 6 months of the year and as deep as 7 feet. (This is not every year, but once or twice in a decade). All this to ask a question of all you folks, which is this: Is there a Geoff Lawton of the north? By this I mean someone who has done years of permaculture design with our unique climate concerns and issues in mind. Maybe someone from Scandinavia, Canada or Alaska that you know of, or maybe Siberia? Any help with networking or guidance to info sources would be appreciated.
We appreciate all of the information posted on this site. Thanks to all who give their time and energy to help this to be a better world.
Steven Fordahl