New from Cali

Hey everyone, I have been a lurker at this site for a few months now and finally decided to create my own profile.

I'm a 19 year old male from Sacramento, California (born & raised). And I have been delving deeper and deeper into permaculture research the past year or so. I stumbled upon a Geoff Lawton video, then on to some Sepp Holzer. Since then I've been reading all about self sustainability through permaculture.

I chose to create a profile because I decided for my new year's resolution I wanted to get actively involved with permaculture and either donate time at a local permaculture farm (if there are any), attend some workshops, or maybe even purchase my own piece of land to slowly develop while I attend college. If anyone has any input it would be much appreciate.

Thanks,
Cameron

It might be hard to buy even 1 acre of land in Cali, But if you have the money please do buy it.
If you you dont have the money see if you can lease it. It might only cost a grand or so for a year.
With that you can practice with swales/etc. try out mix vegetable from seed (10/lbs) and a few cheap berries.
You can also buy fruit tree seedlings for cheap, as low as $2/plant vs $30.
But they will not be named cultivars so make sure that the plant normally have sweet fruits/nut even if "wild".
Each course in college cost $2500 in fees+books, so go ahead and spend that much for you permaculture "lab class".

I would go all old-timer on you, and tell you to spend the first year "observing" and studying the "edges" of the area you are in.

Start gorilla gardening at your school, and try building some vertical gardens with recycled bits. this will bring together a core of like minded folks, and help keep you tracking forward.

Order a fungi perfecti mushroom bag kit, and see if you enjoy that.

build a worm bin to keep next to the cafeteria door.

get the biology dept to study local soil fungi and bacteria in the leaf litter in different edges around town, and see if any make a big difference to local weed growth.

learn how to harvest and reproduce lichens, and try and grow them on rocks around campus. Turns out they are doing a lot more than we thought, and there is a large group of lichenologists in cali.
We are finding using rocks as surface mulches are working much better than we would think, and if we could find an easy way to get lichens started on them, we might be able to cut out nearly all fertilizers.

study seawater as a fertilizer. try evaporating out different strengths, and finding a output for the chlorides in industry

S Bengi wrote:It might be hard to buy even 1 acre of land in Cali, But if you have the money please do buy it.
If you you dont have the money see if you can lease it. It might only cost a grand or so for a year.
With that you can practice with swales/etc. try out mix vegetable from seed (10/lbs) and a few cheap berries.
You can also buy fruit tree seedlings for cheap, as low as $2/plant vs $30.
But they will not be named cultivars so make sure that the plant normally have sweet fruits/nut even if "wild".
Each course in college cost $2500 in fees+books, so go ahead and spend that much for you permaculture "lab class".

I feel the same way, as soon as I realized that most of the learning in the agriculture courses would not be hands on I chose another path. Unfortunately, I'm paying for my own schooling and therefore can barely afford community college, buying land is looking grim. What I'm trying to do is connect with groups and like minded people personally and perhaps offer my time for real experience using these skills.

Were over here in tuolumne county doing all kinds of fun permaculture stuff. A bit of a drive but we do have people from that area driving to attend the monthly permie group.

Morgan Morrigan wrote:I would go all old-timer on you, and tell you to spend the first year "observing" and studying the "edges" of the area you are in.

Start gorilla gardening at your school, and try building some vertical gardens with recycled bits. this will bring together a core of like minded folks, and help keep you tracking forward.

Order a fungi perfecti mushroom bag kit, and see if you enjoy that.

build a worm bin to keep next to the cafeteria door.

get the biology dept to study local soil fungi and bacteria in the leaf litter in different edges around town, and see if any make a big difference to local weed growth.

learn how to harvest and reproduce lichens, and try and grow them on rocks around campus. Turns out they are doing a lot more than we thought, and there is a large group of lichenologists in cali.
We are finding using rocks as surface mulches are working much better than we would think, and if we could find an easy way to get lichens started on them, we might be able to cut out nearly all fertilizers.

study seawater as a fertilizer. try evaporating out different strengths, and finding a output for the chlorides in industry

Believe me if there was room I would try some guerrilla gardening haha. I have grown some mushrooms before and it was fun. But it is also short lived, a majority of their life they were small mycellium then explode with stems and caps in a short time. I'm ready to establish something that will be around for a long time, that I can always retreat to and enjoy once well established.
Worm bins are very much fun and I had a somewhat successful one last year, but I released them all around the end of summer. Thats interesting I'll definitely have to read more about the lichens. Really seawater? I would think the amounts of salt would be counterproductive. I've heard seaweed is fantastic and I have had decent results as well. I also got fantastic results from fish entrails. I assumed it was the worms and bacteria/ fungus that come up to feed on it.