Central Florida 1/4 Acre

I've been pouring over everything permaculture for the past year or so. I don't yet have a PDC. I'm starting with my backyard on a 1/4 acre lot in a subdivision in Central Florida. First some details:

My front door faces West
The following soil test kit told me the following:
The soil has a pH around 4.5 to 5.0 in an open area, I am testing under an oak soon to see how that differs
Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash are all at depleted levels
The soil is largely sand, or what we call Myakka sand, very little to no clay or humus. Water standing in a downfall will drain within seconds
There are currently citrus trees that drop fruit before ripening
There is a septic tank and leach field
There are also one large oak and two sycamores but sun reaches at this point roughly 30 to 40% of the ground. Trimming will improve this.

I've included some pics to show an initial overall plan so far (not completed), and two detailed drawings for what I plan to do close to the house.

I've got to work out what plants I will use and tackle some details in the plantings, that's a little daunting right now. I found Nick Garbarino's plant list so that will be a big help.

I heartily welcome all comments, suggestions, ridicules, ribbings, falderall, observations, and general input.

hi Jimmy

welcome to permies

here is an example of what can be done in 3 years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1BpauXRp6U

start with as much mulch and leaves as you can get
then plant like crazy and "chop and drop"

Thanks alot Duane, I'll check that video out. My computer is acting up at the moment and allergic to videos.

I was thinking about next steps today. I could work on fixing the deficiencies by planting legumes everywhere but I'm afraid any nutrients gained are just going to leach out quickly. Until I can provide some humus to hold the nutrients I'm guessing it'll be an uphill battle.

But I guess if I'm doing chop and drop with legumes and things like comfrey I'd be doing both at the same time eh?

I've been saving cardboard and newspaper and I've been thinking of trying to find someone wanting to offload spoiled hay or just stock up on straw.

Composting has been tough with existing materials because of a lack of nitrogen. Ton of carbon, short on nitrogen sources.

I also think the city has a restriction on chickens, I thought about doing rabbits for the manure but I believe the phosphorous comes from the manure of seed eating birds. I imagine it couldn't hurt though.

Thanks for the help and suggestions!

Finally started some actual work today.

I don't have gutters on my house. I capture rain at the valleys of the house with one rain barrel right now and will be adding 5 more eventually. Since I don't have and don't want to pay for gutters, I lose water at the dripline. I thought I could maybe channel that water somewhere, as well as let the channel serve as a way to preserve any overflow from the rain barrels. You can see what I drew up in the plans.

I spent 50 bucks today and managed to start the channel on one side, I ran a pipe under the walkway and have the channel dump out into a swale/mound that I'm going to plant with blueberrries. I added 1 blueberry bush, some society garlic, rosemary, and jasmine groundcover.

More pics

And more...

...I have 1 or 2 of the finished product I'll put up later. I used old small bamboo stakes around the pipe ends in order to prevent dirt from backfilling into the trench and the pipe. I have wood chips coming for the footpaths and the footpath into the backyard will go right over the pipe.

Where the split is in the rock channel there will be a small pond that I will allow to flow over into the channel too.