alex dumitrescu

Hi Michael

Thanks for the quick reply

Any sources of seeds / trees in Europe?

Starting a small nut nursery to fund the development of a 27ha regenerative farm next year and the seed chestnut market looks good (there's only one other nursery selling in the whole country) so I'm wondering, does anyone have a source of chinese or blight resistant chestnuts in Europe?

Thanks

Spring is bringing surprizes!! In april 2014, we're organizing a PDC (permaculture design course) and a short weekend course about forest gardens.

Permaculture is a sustainable human settlement and agriculture design system that mimics natural systems, but with an increase in productivity.

The PDC will cover more modules organised in roughly 90 study hours. It is ideal for farmers or future farmers, people that want to live a sustainable lifestyle or people that just love nature.

With who?
Both courses will be thought by "Rakesh Rootsman", UK born accredited PDC teacher, with a more than 5 years experience in 10 countries.

Where?
In the Romanian countryside, Arges county, Strambeni, there's a 2 year old household project developing according to permaculture principles. The main objectives for now are food production, reforesting with productive trees and revitalising the soil.
We have a small garden which produced most of the food for 6 months of the year + a lot of canned foods, an old traditional cob house, an old plum orchard, a newly planted forest garden with perennial trees, shrubs, vines and roots, an example of water harvesting for the arid plains of Romania, compost piles and vermicompost (warm farming), and a lot of love for nature.

When?
The forest Garden course will take place on the 5th and 6th of April, with the PDC following it, from 7th to the 20th.

How much?
If paid in advance (by the 1st of february), for people from countries nearby Romania (Moldova, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia) the PDC price will be calculated by dividing 2400 euros to the number of participants. So if 20 people sign up (which is the limit), the price will be 120 euros. For citizens of any other country there is a fixed price of 200 euros
If paid after the 1st of february, the price is 250euro (nearby countries) and 300 euros for other countries.
To this we will add the food costs (for which we will chip in and buy locally + complete with greens, canned things and topinambur from the garden) and Rakesh's transport (estimated 10 euros per person)

Rakesh will also take 3 assistents familiar with permaculture to help him out, that will only chip in for the food.

The forest garden course costs 70 euros if paid by 1st of february, otherwise 90. There is a discount to 50 euros if you sign up for both courses. The participants have to bring in their own food.

There's only room for camping in a tent (no left space in the house) so make sure you bring warm clothes for it can get quite cold in april (sometimes even light frosts)

For more details about course content, or other enquiries please mail permacultura.strambeni@yahoo.com

Hi permies

I'm trying to raise chickens (never done it before) in an orchard. It's an old plum orchard with 2 mulberries and a huge pear tree on 345 square meters (3713 sq ft). There's grasses and weeds growing allover the trees, it's quite hard to get in now. I'm in a temperate climate (Romania), so we have grass from early march to Nov-Dec

The main point for me is to do the least work possible so i can get decent eggs and meat.

Now the question is, when you have a paddock shift system with mostly grass, how many paddocks do you have, and how often a year do chicks visit it, so as not to feed them at all? I know Mollison said 18 in a video, but that was for cows. (I'm not talking about the number of chicks, since 5 of them need 10 times less space than 50). I'll get as many or as few chicks as I can, so I don't need to feed them from March-Nov.