Hello From South Florida 10b and boy do I have questions...

Hello everyone.

I am new to all of this. I have been playing with some raised garden beds for about a year now, learned a little about vermicomposting and recently taken a huge interest in KNF and JADAM.

To add to my excitement, I struck a deal with a land owner where I can have free reign over some property (roughly 2 acres) that was used for growing various trees for landscaping as long as I keep it maintained and clean. There are a bunch of live palm trees, oaks, and some other stuff that I do not know what it is. The owner would like to cut down a number of the oaks and other trees to clean up the property some and I am going to make use of it all for growing and building soil.

There is a pile where wood was stacked, i presume to compost, about 7 years ago and is now a pile of light brown dirt/dust and easily crushed logs.

This weekend I am going to start cleaning up the property some by gathering all of the dead branches, limbs, frawns, etc. and piling them up. I also plan to evaluate the land to determine where I can place various things such as compost site and ultimately where I want to set up beds and whatnot.

Since I am going to have a large amount of tree debris, I was thinking hugulculture (hope that is spelled right) beds when I get to the point of setting and establishing grow beds. I also have access to a plethora of horse manure from a friend that has a business where he removes manure from the local horse barns.

SO, questions...

What in the world am I getting into? hahahaha

what should I be on the lookout this weekend when I start cleaning up the property?

is there a particular place in this forum where I should be posting a thread about my undertaking where I can get feedback, advice, and direction from those who know more than I do in respect to how best take advantage of this opportunity?

My goal with this is ultimately to learn about natural farming methods, building soil, and regenerating this property. Having a place to plant, garden, and establish a food forest is the benefit.

I am sure I am missing so much and I would like to document my journey with this so others in my hardiness zone might get something useful out of it. So again, if there is a place on here that I should start a thread, please let me know.

Before you use the horse manure for your gradens be sure to take some and try to grow some beans with it.      Much of the hay here in Florida has herbicide that will kill beans and tomatoes dead.


Being in South Florida I recommend you visit  ->  

https://echonet.org/make-an-impact/get-involved/visit-echo/


But dead wood is great to grow in,   I pile it up near my fruit trees.

Cheers    Mart -> North Central Florida.

James, welcome to Permies! If you have questions, then you've absolutely come to the right place.

What a fantastic deal you made. Congratulations on that! Sounds like you've got some good materials to start with and plenty of enthusiasm. That's an excellent idea to take a look around and evaluate. I'd suggest drawing out the property like a map, filling in the features, and then using that to explore options for what you want to do and where.

And please share it with us. Where? Permies is a huge site, with lots of various forums. I suggest you explore them from the left-hand sidebar. You'll find lots of interesting discussions and places to post your questiosn. We're all on the same journey here and love to discuss all things permaculture.