Jack Askew

Thanks to all those who have posted a reply.

Lot's of good ideas to get started, there are obviously different ways that you can go about it.

Seed in Rabbitbush and scallion seed now. Both of them lock up metals, and you can use em for starter compost for the trees later. Both are great recyclers, and if tests come back leaded, you can just ship em off for landfill.

This sounds great; are there any other plants that you can use? How long would it take if there are areas of heavy metals? And, how dangerous is it to plant edible food in those areas?

You should check out The Ashevillage institute. It's just south of downtown off of Biltmore Ave. http://www.ashevillage.org/

I've been trying to find a place like this, but for whatever reason the search engines have decided not to show this in their results. Thanks, I'm going to check this place out in the next week.

If you want a good education in cover crops, this free download will do the trick.

http://www.sare.org/publications/covercrops/covercrops.pdf

In your climate, you could grow a lot of organic material between now and next spring, as well as putting a lot of natural, useable nitrogen into your soils.

Thanks for the link, from glancing through I imagine I can get a lot out of this.

@ Jeanine Gurley

That's what I plan to do. We've had the land for a year now and we're over there every day so I feel that I have observed the area quite well. But, after living there for a while I'll get a much better feeling.

Have you a plan to document progress with pictures and/or video?

We've been documenting it with photos thus far, and we plan to start recording videos once we move there. I'm probably going to start a blog and record the process.

Heavy Metals

http://www.umass.edu/soiltest/ - Is this the best way to test for heavy metals? Or is there a home testing kit or other way that will also work? I'm finding it hard to find a good resource on heavy metals, and when I go to the local garden centers they tell me it's something that no one really asks for.

Thanks again,

Jack.

Hello everybody,

I've been reading this forum for a few days now and have been researching permaculture for about six months (Gaias garden, youtube videos and various other books). My wife and I are about to move into our newly built house which was constructed in place of an old house that just had to come down.

The lot slopes slightly down from North to South (right to left as you look at the house from the road), has an old oak tree in one corner, and apart from a young maple the whole yard has nothing but a thin layer of mulch at the moment. To the front and right of the house the soil looks pretty soft (sent for lab tests) and to the left of the house it is good in areas but there is hard clay in other areas (especially where the old house footprint used to be). At the moment the entire yard has been mulched (not sheet mulched), with some weeds popping up in certain areas.

The Plan

I have sketched out a rough plan of various guilds (mini food forests using dwarf trees, or in smaller areas, just shrubs as the canopy layer). There is room for larger trees in certain areas but I'm not too sure if we will put those in. I have also sketched out the various other features including the paths, the shed, compost area, patio, clothes line, temporary dog area / main dog area, potential pond, potential greenhouse, pergola, wood storage and a host of other small areas for functions. We have an idea of what we want to grow but the specific placing hasn't been allocated yet.

I am just about to start a 40 hour video course and also I have just ordered the volume "Edible Forest Gardens." These will help me finalize my sketch and help me with some of the more practice questions.

Implementation

Before I throw myself into the project I want to make sure that the soil is free of lead and other contaminants (the old house most likely had lead paint and was demolished), and that the soil is well prepared. In certain areas there isn't a lot of organic matter and just an inch or two of mulch covering pretty dry clay.

If the lead results come back clean then this is how we will most likely proceed:

1. Put in the paths and start a few small raised beds.

2. Build the organic matter in the soil so that it is ready for next spring.

3. Put in the temporary dog fencing the patio.

The areas where I'm struggling in terms of implementation is knowing when to introduce the trees, shrubs and cover crops and how best to create organic matter over this summer and the winter.

So, here are a few questions:

1. Should we get the dwarf trees in as soon as possible (i.e. this fall) or wait until spring?
2. What is the best way to use some temporary winter cover crops (nitrogen fixers) that will be replaced with some perennial cover crops next spring? Or, should we just start the cover crops that we want to use in our various guilds.
3. When should we think about implementing the different shrubs and berry bushes?

I really want to do local compost and use the compost bins mainly for emergencies and seedling starters (advice taken from Gaia's Garden).

A Bit More About Myself and Our Aims

I'm willing to do as much or as little as I need to (both in the implementation and over the long term). I don't feel the need to get things in right away just for the sake of it. I want to make sure that I'm doing the right things at the right time to benefit each guild and the area as a whole and set things up so that each mini forest garden is as self-sustaining as possible.

I've been dreaming of owning my own area of land for years and I am really excited that the time has come to get started and learn all about permaculture from actually doing it (and not just from reading books) and to create something that benefits everything and everyone in our vicinity.

Any answers and comments are really appreciated and I look forward to getting to know you all on this forum.


Jack.