Greetings from Zone 8B

Hey Y'all!
I've stalked the forums for a while now, off and on, to discover ideas for our "urbanish" half-acre homestead. I learned about the permaculture mindset back in the mid 90's when my husband's uncle lent me his treasured permaculture textbook. I loved it so much that I wrote a biology term paper on it for a college assignment. (I got an A, woot!)
Being a military family meant we moved quite often, so I was never able to really set roots anywhere, but we tried to leave our homes better than we found them. (Planted trees, etc.) But hubbie's now retired, so we can focus more energy on making a "closed loop" environment here. We finally got 10 hens and a rooster. We'd like to get quail and honeybees in the future. Any other livestock is not an option where we live. We've planted about a bazillion fruit trees and fruit bushes, set up a compost system, and are looking to expand our annual veg garden considerably. We bought our house in 2019, and our goal for summer 2020 was that half of the veg that gets served at the dinner meal came directly from our backyard. I'd like to increase that even more.
I don't personally make New Year's Resolutions. Instead, I try to focus on learning one new skill each year. One year, I learned pressure canning. Another year, I taught myself to knit and crochet. I taught myself to make our own soap one year, and another I started basic seed-saving skills. This next year, for 2021, my goal is to eliminate all food waste. I compost nearly everything as it is, and we use all our leftovers, but getting to absolutely zero is my next skill set. Pressure cooking bones for broth, grinding eggshells for garden fertilizer and/or chicken supplementation, etc. are important to me. Getting to a "closed loop" is my ideal.
Thanks for letting me introduce myself. I hope I can be an asset here, although I have a feeling it'll be me learning more than teaching.

Stacie, welcome to Permies! Thank you for taking the time to introduce yourself!

Good for you for collecting as much experience as you can, even if you aren't settled in a more permanent home setting. I very much agree with the closed loop system. It's a real challenge, but I think worth the effort.

8b, is that like Texas or Florida?
anyway
hello

Actually, we're in Middle Georgia. Thanks for the warm welcome!

I have very close friend who lives in a small town near winder
if you celebrate hope your having a merry Christmas

Hello neighbor, I'm in 8a since about 13 months ago, ready to sow some seeds but getting more prepared every day.

Hello Stacie. My name is Star and I live in central GA. My goal is to learn through experience how have a successful permaculture homestead in these parts. If you all would welcome me to your homestead I'd surely appreciate it.
Thank you.

Hi Kete. My name is Star and I'm new to this area. I have a free hand to help you sow your seeds. Anyone that can help me learn this Macon soil and what thrives in this area would be fantastic. Peace and blessings.

Star Wooten wrote:Hi Kete. My name is Star and I'm new to this area. I have a free hand to help you sow your seeds. Anyone that can help me learn this Macon soil and what thrives in this area would be fantastic. Peace and blessings.

Hey Star, thank you but I don't need any help right now. I have dreamed of needing help one year, but I'll have to practice until I get to that point. We're a little over two hours from each other, and that's a bit much for me to travel. Please let us know how your gardening/farming goes and any questions that you have. Here's a picture of me, screening compost this weekend and removing the worms:

Thank you Kete for your response and the great picture, I appreciate you. I will definitely reach out for advise. Best night to you and yours.

I just tried to screen some more compost and decided it wasn't broken down enough to continue. It's also very moist like fudge, so maybe I should stop opening it up to the rain or decrease. If anyone knows a local source of compost, please let me know, and a PM is fine. I'd like about a "gallon" or two to make more seed pellets. I actually don't know if that's the correct volume name, but I have a milk jug that's half full of clay. So that's why I say a gallon.

Star Wooten, how is your soil?

Kete, my soil is very sandy, ant infested (red and black) and full of mean weeds. I am thinking it would be best for me to use raised beds. Definitely I'm in need of a couple of greenhouses to combat the heat and frost. I'd like to plant a few trees in the front and side of the house. Which trees like this climate and soil please? I'm from California and have been in Georgia since July, all knowledge is helpful. My appreciations.

The forecast changed again. Now, there are no more freezing nights, so I'm going to sow some of my radish seeds and probably some spinach and kale, too.

Here's my natural farming not permaculture advice:

Green manure plants might help with both sandy soil and mean weeds. You can plant your crops with these plants. Wikipedia is down for my VPN at the moment, so here's an archive link.

Cedar might be a good tree. I've seen it in this area, and it doesn't need much water. It can improve soil. You could try a Morishima acacia. They help the soil and cedar and cypress tress with the microbes on their roots. Cypress trees might help your soil, but they are definitely drought-resistant. Other trees resistant to drought are the Bay tree, the Viburnum tinus, which is a bush with leaves similar to the Bay tree, the Cotoneaster, and the Pyracantha. I don't know if they grow in this area, but one thing about natural farming is to try everything. Even if something doesn't work, it may have just been a bad year, so it's worth trying up to two more years. The idea is to trust nature instead of the built-up knowledge of men who were against nature. You can find out more about planting trees by watching this Natural Farming Center video.

I don't know any plants that deter ants, but maybe you could find some.

Best morning Kete and to you all. Thank you for the suggestions and referrals. True, trial and error is the best teacher indeed. Let the fun begin! All the best.

I noticed there's an ants thread but not sure if I liked anything in the part that I read.

Copy that. I'll check it out. Thank you.

Star, I reviewed some more about growing trees on land that is "infertile and dry", so I thought this information might be helpful. Fukuoka presented this information for a hill or a mountain, so the first step might not be necessary.

Masanobu Fukuoka - The Natural Way of Farming section Growing a Wood Preserve wrote:The first thing to do is plant a vine such as kudzu to prevent the soil from washing away. Next, sow the seeds of a low conifer such as moss cypress to create a mountain cover of evergreens. Grasses such as cogon, ferns such as bracken, and low bushes such as lespedeza, eurya, and moss cypress grow thickly at first, but this vegetation gradually gives way to urajiro (a fern), kudzu, and a mix of trees which further enriches the soil.

Evergreens such as Japanese cypress and the camphor tree should be planted on hillsides, and together with these, deciduous trees such as Chinese hackberry, zelkova, paulownia, cherry, maple, and eucalyptus.

You could research these trees and how they or their cousins do here in Georgia.

Best day Kete. I pray you and yours are well. I've decided to use raised beds and a lot of weed fabic. This will get me going. This weekend I cut back my bushes, cleared a ton of weeds and began a compost pile. I definitelty will be working on turning my soil into something more hospitable, I understand that this will take some time. Tommorow I'll begin to make my raised beds, something simple and to the point. Too, I'm going to make a simple greenhouse. I definitely want to get a harvest this year, God willing. It is just me working this property, I will give myself and the soil the time we need to make a proper go at it. Thank you so much for this great information. I will research these ideas. Bless you and best night.

Tansies (Tanacetum vulgare) might deter ants. People have used dried tansy to repel ants. https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/chrysanthe-mum/tansy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tansy#Insect_repellent "hardy at USDA zone 1 and higher" https://hardiness.zone/plant/?sle=Tanacetum&art=vulgare

Tansies...you don't say. Thank you Kete. I've read that mint, marigold, garlic, thyme and lavender also helps to repell ants. Good thing that I enjoy them all.