Flora Phillips

I am designing and prepping our property to plant fruit trees along a 7'x80'fence on the north facing side. While the fence is 7 ' tall and technically I'll be planted on the north facing side it does have south facing sun once whatever is about 4-6' tall.

Should I plant along that fence? It's a very warm yard. I live on the coast of Northern California in a small town called Eureka zone 9b, micro climate mostly south facing yard about 2mi from the ocean. I drew a map and will attach ariel view, red line is where we want to plant fruit trees. We took down all existing trees along the fence and are hoping to plant one avocado (it's a stretch to get it to fruit but there is a healthy one a few blocks away) 2 olive and one persimmon. I have about 80' of fence to plant along.

Let me know what you think.


Also, in picture 4 is my compost, always in the shade.... Do you think this could be a natural worm bin. Every 2 weeks I layer yard waste, typically weeds, One 5 gallon bucket of food scraps which sat for 2 weeks to ferment (I live in the city and don't want to attract rats.), And cardboard. Thoughts???

Finally. I'm budget making raised beds. I'm layering these with wood chips on the bottom, yard scraps, load of top soil, 5 gallon bucket of kitchen scraps, 2 loads of top soil, 2 quarts of pearl light raked in on top, finished with on load of garden soil and another quart of pearl lite. I'm letting it settle for a couple weeks then will mulch with wood chips and plant brassicas for the winter.

Here are some pictures I took of 3 different areas of disturbed soil because we pulled ivy or blackberries out by the root. I also have another question (s)


Should I do a cereal rye/ hairy vetch mix?  


The rains will start coming but it's been in the mid to high 60's for 2 weeks now but I am doing all the rain dances I know how...  The rain will grace us with it's presence this winter!  Regardless, I'm curious about how to plant the cover crop.


Do I just throw the seed down?
No need to sow?
Also throw the seed down on a sunny or foggy week, or does it matter?


Thank you again for your time.

-Flora

Hello Redhawk,

I've been following permies for 3+ years; it has grown and grown and I love it. This is my first brave post.

Okay, so I just packed up my sleeping back and van and moved into a house for the first time in 5 years.  I'm a college student and work seasonally during the summer months.

We have a front fenced area about 12 x 17 yards which has had nothing growing but wild grass, some bird seed that took off, Blackberries and English Ivy.

--Lay out of the house and yard. North Facing yard with a house between some of the south facing but they yard does get some of the South exposure. The east side has a steep hill into a creek which tightly wraps around the east, south, and west area of the house. (2 Plum Trees on West/North corner, 2 Apple in front yard, 3-5 OLD cherry trees.)

We are on Day 3 of the English Ivy eradication.   We have cut and pulled our hearts out. Anyway 3 questions.

1. Should I Immediately try to replant the sides where we "killed" the ivy or let it sit?
2. If we let it sit should we lay cardboard down over they old root and cover it with wood chips; if we do will that continue to kill the Ivy? If the Ivy continues to die does the hill loose it's structure?
3. Our soil.  I am chomping at the bit to get things planted. Do I till the soil and plant clover and leave it for the spring? Or do I leave the yard as is until I can afford soil test?

I'm currently making calls to all the local farmers in hopes of organic byproducts. We live in a Marijuana cash crop areas so anything that could improve soil or help one with soil improvements is ridiculously prices.  I.E. 90/truck load of cow poop... Not compost just poop.

Today we're building a lil 6 hen chicken coop and 3 bay compost area searching for answers on what to do next.

Thank you for your time

--New Permie Gardener