Hello all,
I've got a 1/2 acre or so of
land around my house that I will be designing into a place to produce food, plants and garden related products. I am posting because I am looking for suggestions of what I might produce successfully, playing to the strengths of my site. Any feedback you might have for me is welcome.
Stats:
-Location is metro Atlanta, Piedmont bioregion. Hot summers, wet winters.
-Site is suburban home with surrounding
yard space. (no strict rules on yard use)
-A small variety of well established
trees in various spots around house, surrounding beds previously landscaped, so there is a lot to work around and a lot of organic matter sources, lots of moisture overall.
-Overall site faces southeast, but main issue is that existing trees create light/shade extremes of full sun to zero sun throughout the day. Where and how long is totally relative to time of day and time of year... Not a lot of consistency and no truly full sun anywhere.
-Site is at the top of a north facing hill. Front yard (to the southeast) is mostly level, gets the midday and some of the afternoon sun. Side yard and drive slope somewhat steeply to backyard, which slopes down and levels off into woods (to the northwest). At the lowest level of the backyard, there is a large patch of exposed granite, and at this point the soil isn't too deep until it enters the woods.
-Lots of organic material available for harvest overall and slopes with opportunities for
water harvesting.
I have already found the
thread on shade tolerant/loving edible plants, and I am in the process of creating a master list for myself of preferred species to experiment with, so I've got that covered. I see a lot of potential using hugulkultur beds here because of all the sources of material on site.
I am trying to think outside the typical garden box, possibly propagating shade tolerant edibles and
natives (would be useful to many in this region). I'm also sure I'll do
mushrooms, already have a few young live oaks for that on site, but I still feel nervous about spending too much time/energy/money on trying plants that just won't get quite
enough sun to be productive.... So I've recently been brainstorming things like vermiculture and
compost teas as possible products I can produce.
I think my story is a pretty typical one for more naturally wooded bioregions, forgive me if I'm repeating someone else's question... I just thought I'd see if anyone has any more suggestions of food/plant/non-food/non-plant products I might consider producing. Thanks for your time!