Jj Cox

Fantastic series of lectures! Really enjoy Mikes philosophy, methods, and instruction. My only gripe about this e-series is that a “design booklet” is regularly referenced but not included which makes doing the design problems difficult. Overall a fabulous series, I only wish the design booklet was included in the instructional material.

For implementing the building you will need his physical book because it has the charts needed for proper post/girder/beam spacing and sizing. All well with the money!

How did you begin raising ducks in an urban setting? I have wanted to start with livestock of some sort but could never get over the hurdle of my urban enviornment?

Damn! I just bought the three video package a month ago on my birthday and am loving it! Do you think the E-Books will ever go on sale alone? Thats all I'm missing for the full academic experience.

S Bengi wrote:

Nitrogen fixer = legumes/peas/beans family (plus adler and goumi)

Predator/Good Insect attractors = strong smelling herbs esp ones that you can cook with

Soil Pest controllers = they help control nematodes, its kind of a short list Garlic family, Oyster Mushroom

Mineral Miners/Traders = Mushroom/Fungi Family, weeds with long/deep roots like dandelions

Smaller Fruit = Because I am in the city my main plants are only 10ft and so my smaller fruit is usually only 3ft or less. I do have a 2nd site in Florida where my plants will mature to 25ft, so my smaller fruit tree can be alot bigger. Some folks might even have 50ft walnut trees.

Got it! Thank you! the many uses plants have never ceases to amaze me.

Anne Miller wrote:The list of plants that S Bengi lists and his explanations are good.

A food forest would include many perennial plants.

A food forest would mimic how Mother Nature would plant her plants.

For making a food forest, folks usually include layers.

There are 7 layers, including:

Tall Tree or Canopy Layer. This layer would consist of the tallest trees, most likely fruit and nut trees.
Sub-Canopy or Large Shrub Layer.
Shrub Layer
Herbaceous Layer.
Ground Cover Layer.
Underground Layer.
Climber, Vine or Vertical Layer.

For an added bonus these might be added, a Mycelial or Fungal Layer

Since the tree is so young I am having problems suggesting plants to add layers.

So I would suggest something like strawberries for the ground cover and a small berry bush to get your layers started.

Here are some threads to help explain layers:

https://permies.com/t/160695/Start-Food-Forest-Step-step

https://permies.com/t/61177/Planning-Layers-Food-Forest

Thank you! I appreciate your time and wisdom, the beauty and frustration of gardening go hand in hand-- that we cannot build a finished product all at once. But, ground cover is certainly a good way to start! I am currently attempting to sprout strawberries right now! I'll get them out once they're ready.

Thank you, I feel like my horizons are broadening! What resources are available for categorizing plants according to those 4 categories that you listed (small berry being self explanatory).

Abe Coley wrote:Rather than buying plants, learning how to propagate plants has been the way to go. Depending on the species, it is at least 100x to 1000x cheaper on a per plant basis. When I got good at propagation it enabled me to have a near endless supply of plants, which changed my perspective on both the individual plants and the mass plantings within the food forest. Previously, when a tree died I experienced grief and loss, but now it's like no big deal and I just replant something different that might be able to better handle whatever killed the previous plant. Doing mass plantings of 100 or 1000 of a batch of seedlings is akin to sample size in a study, and the successes and failures gives me greater insight about the individual plants, the species as a whole, the site, my methods, etc.

As far as propagation goes, it seems like air pruner beds are better than in-ground beds, and both are better than pots. And fall plantings survive better than spring plantings.

To not get discouraged when I kill baby trees, I think about something I recall hearing Akiva Silver say, something like "Baby trees are super pathetic weaklings and they need a lot of help to survive in the early years. Some trees make millions of seeds per year and they live for hundreds of years, and only 1 or 2 of those seeds need to survive over the lifetime of the parent tree for the population to maintain replacement rate. If that's the measure of success, then it really gives you perspective on how much trees pretty much suck at life."

Abe, what method of propagation do you use that allows you to mass plant seedlings?

S Bengi wrote:dutch clover for nitrogen fixation,
chives/garlic-chives, I like how they are green in the winter, and they are just the right height
winter savory, I love this plant because it is halfway between mint and thyme.
oyster mushroom,  it would be super cool to also get a mushroom harvest too.

This might be a stupid question, but I already took the pain of starting a thread-- so what the heck. How do you know which plants to pair with which trees? For example do all trees require a nitrogen fixer? Or is it shooter's preference on whatever you want to grow and the plants figure out how to work together to make it happen? Thank you!

Hello! I am getting into permaculture and was gifted a fig tree by a gardener I bike by most days in the summer. My wife and I wanted to start a food forest patch with this tree sapling that we're fortunate enough to possess. We currently have it established on the southern lawn of our townhouse and has survived its first winter with us. Now we want to know what we should grow around it to maximize yield and minimize the work we need to do to sustain it.

Hi All! I am my small garden is growing and I have a thriving applemint plant. As my wife and I harvest more and more mint we are looking for ways to use our leaves. Everything online is unoriginal.... Seems people only use mint in tea

I was wondering what original ways folks have come to use both fresh and dried mint so that I don't waste any of my harvest! Thanks!