Smallest scale permaculture?

Hello Mr. Toensmeier. What is the smallest scale version of permaculture your aware of? Do you have any tips for us apartment/condo dwellers not yet living on a full-fledged homestead? I imagine once it gets small enough it is more or less quasi-permaculture. Thank you for your time.

Zalmen Mlotek wrote:Hello Mr. Toensmeier. What is the smallest scale version of permaculture your aware of? Do you have any tips for us apartment/condo dwellers not yet living on a full-fledged homestead? I imagine once it gets small enough it is more or less quasi-permaculture. Thank you for your time.

This is a great question. I'm currently 'farming' a deck/container garden. I used 18,12,7 gallon totes and grew a lot of tomatoes, herbs, squash, etc. (in NJ)

Tips on permaculture in containers?

(also i want to win a ticket to the event (or maybe win the book!!)...so this is my post for this week)

I'm in a similar position. I currently have only my container gardens, however I help with my parents place in return for some of the produce. The best tips I have come up with are as follows:

1. Sneaky composting; place your compost in a large pot half way up, cover with dirt, plant. This is my way of getting around otherwise restrictive rules.
2. Cycle your dirt. This works best if done in combo with tip 1. This allows the nutrients to stay balanced with out the need for fertilizer. When your done with one season of annuals, just mix all the dirt together.
3. Policultures and layers help. I was gone for a week this year during a heat wave... I lost most my plants and all my strawberries (hierloom) but one. That strawberry was in my poly 5 pot, all the plants in that pot survived. As for the layers, the vertical is your friend.

Sepp Holtzer's book has ideas for planters on the patio..he buries wood into the planters soil, and also plants an upright dead log sticking out for mushrooms and as a support for a vine like a grape or a kiwi or whatever..

on the patio of an apartment building he suggests enlisting the neighbors so that your grapevine goes up and sends fresh roots into the planters on the patio above, and continues up to cover the entire building front...however I do believe pruning gives you better crops..

you can plant anything almost in a pot..pick up a copy of his book or borrow it from a library

polycultures are absolutely a good idea in pots as well, in fact my small 30 gallon pot(or so) that i left near the back door while i was gone all winter survived a LOT longer than all the other pots, io suspect it would have actually made it to see my return if it had some buried wood in it or something