Early attempt at permaculture

In the beginning, we grew organically, but tilled.  Then we switched to lasagna, no - till gardening.  This year is our first real attempt at permaculture. We started setting up beds last year, but nothing really grew (we were building a house full time and it was neglected).  Even though I'm no where near where I want to be yet, we just used what the field provided around the no-till beds.  Most of the seeds I threw out for companion planting and butterfly gardens around the primary gardens, didn't come up.  Clover came up in abundance in the second garden and the garden was surrounded by whatever grew naturally.  It was and is a stunning variety of beneficial wildflowers.   I cut paths to the garden and creek and usually catch the grass to use for the third no-till bed I'm building now. 

The tomatoes and squash, I don't believe, even needed organic sprays - so far.  Other plants, like the brassicas didn't do well at all.  So far the squash is doing the best, it's needed nothing but water so far.  I think I put some seaweed fertilizer in early on.  On the tomatoes I have something (a mouse I believe) nibbling them and I've had a few hornworms and stinkbugs.  Not too bad though.  The tomato plants look pretty good I think if I could just keep the mice off of them.  The stupid black netting fencing I put around the garden to keep the rabbits out have been killing my snakes.  Won't make that mistake next year. 

Here is the squash.  I did mess up on this patch and planted them too close together and they may have cross pollinated with the pumpkins - whoops.  Live and learn.   Next up, fall garden.  There are some seeds that could/should have gone in already, but I'm worried about this heat.  Going to give it another week.  The beds are ready though!

Looks good.

That black netting stuff is the devil. 

Oh it is!  Just horrible.  I hated rolling it out, stuck to my shoes, hated cutting it, hated putting it up and then it kills my beneficial snakes.  The devil!  I'm sure with all the wildflowers that have now grown through it, it's going to be a joy to take down and then more joy putting up chicken wire as well. 

thanks for the tip on the netting, never used it.

as far as "throwing seeds out" remember some seeds do well being tossed but some need to be put IN the ground or at least put in seed balls so they have good ground contact and are covered..

some seeds prefer light and just touching ground, but some really prefer to be IN the ground so you gotta remember that when you are putting out seed.

broadcasting may not work for everything, even Fukoka used seed balls for some of his seeds

I didn't broadcast everything.  Even though I said "threw out", I just meant put out.  The butterfly weed seeds, I scratched the ground and put them in the dirt, some with a lot of other seeds that didn't come up. 

Sort of a 'rule-of-thumb' for seed planting depth is:
Plant at 2-3x their diameter (or if flat seeds, 2-3x their flat surface thickness).

With many seeds that do not require warm soil, "Snow sowing" works very well.  With an inch or two of snow covering the ground (and hopefully no more frosts due), scatter the seeds on top of the snow, then walk on the snow to squash it beneath your boots.  The seeds are forced to ground level, and as the snow melts, the seeds germinate on the moist soil.  I have seen this done with some clovers for the earliest possible spring germination.

Thanks for the 'heads up' on that black plastic netting...it won't be on my shopping list.

i did snow sowing with lawn seed before..worked like a charm