Seif Fathi

As someone who hasn't had any land to work with previously I currently only grow in container or self contained raised beds on my Terrace/balcony in my rented 1st floor flat. I call it permacultre in pots, I don't mind that it's not technically permaculture because I follow the principles of permaculture. :)
I've created a micro climate and small area of diversity with regular insect and bird visitors to what would otherwise be a bare tile balcony with no life.
I have two worm bins which supply me with compost for both spreading and compost teas. All the post are done notill all the pots/raised beds have worms in them and when I move away the mulch there are all sorts of insects and fungi doing their thing in creating a living soil. So I have no problems calling it permacultre, I even have comfrey in a pot which is said to have very long deep roots but is doing fine. I've even build a hugelkultre raised bed which is currently in it's first season, and doing very well.

One thing I have found from my 10+ years of growing in pots is that they work better with constant compost teas. As the OP said there is a limited space and nutrients in a pot so but constantly having mulch and compost teas I'm revitalising the soil and trying to not let anything get delpeated.

That said I'm learning everyday as always in the garden everyday is a school day, but I try not to let my idea of what something should be stop me from creating awesomeness :)

I would encourage anyone who is thinking about it to do it.

My next step now is to buy some land and expand into some 'real' permaculture. :)

Just to add a little info from Spain, Olives do well in very hot dry weather here, all are planted in full sun, they can take the 30-40C weather in full sun no problems especially once established though probably will need watering during the first few years. Although we do get hot summers we also get cool winters where night temps can easily be around 5-7C for a couple of months, which is the chil that the olives need to bare fruit.

Good luck with your trees.

Hi all,

I'm in the Denia area also looking for people interested in creating a local Permaculture community maybe to start a community garden in and around Denia. If anyone needs an extra pair of hands let me know. Currently I've got a small urban garden on the terrace of my flat growing lots of greens and strawberries, even a little peach tree I'm relatively new to these forums.

Seif