Hello there! New land owner and new to permaculture

Hi,
I’d just like to introduce myself, my name is Don and my wife and I just recently bought a 3 acre wooded property that we are looking to build a home on in our retirement years (about ten years from now). We have been dreaming of getting a piece of land for many years now and we managed to turn that dream into a reality this year (of all years, imagine that...).

Although we won’t be building our house on it any time soon, we wanted to get the land early in order to develop it and grow certain species of trees that we wanted to have.
We didn’t know at the time we were planning this that what we wanted to do had a name, permaculture!

So that’s why I’m here, to learn as much as I can from experienced people and ask questions regarding...well... everything!
I may have lots and lots of newb questions so please bear with me 😉.

beautiful place you have there...
i am in ontario.. bought some land a few years ago
not too far from the ontario quebec border

welcome! what particular species of trees are you most interested in?

Don, welcome to Permies! Congratulations on your new property! You've found a great forum to ask questions, share ideas, and discuss permaculture options for your particular place.

greg mosser wrote:welcome! what particular species of trees are you most interested in?

I’m planning on planting some black locust, honey locust, red oak, apple trees, pine trees both white and Korean for the nuts, paw paw (although I may be too north for them we’ll see) and some ginkgo trees.
I’m also planning some honey berry bushes and hazelnuts, of which there are already a few on the property.
It sounds like a lot but I love trees!
The land currently has balsam fir, yellow birch, a few spruce and some poplar trees not sure which exactly.

well, from another tree lover, sounds great, and hardly into ‘a lot’ territory at all! from your list, i’ve added honey locust, apples, lots of pawpaws, a ginkgo i planted from seed 20+ years ago when i was i college, hazels and honeyberries to my place. along with probably another 30 woody species, so i reckon you’re in good company!

and if they’re at all accessible, i’m a big fan of tea made from the young tips from firs and spruce!

the paw paw should survive they just might not set fruit due to frosts

M. Phelps wrote:the paw paw should survive they just might not set fruit due to frosts

I was wondering about that, I know the fruits ripen in October, which is the time when frosts start around here. I’m still going to give it a shot though, I’ve always loved those trees!

Having a good mix of species would be a good idea to increase resilience. Maybe having more edible trees: hazelnuts, chestnuts?

When you are ready to pursue Pawpaws, in Micheal Judd's book For the Love of Paw Paws, he reccommends adventurous USDA zone 4 people to buy from Akiva Silver of Twisted Tree Farm. Pawpaws are not listed right now, perhaps an inquiry closer to when you are ready to experiment with them.

At any rate, Akiva has a great article here, describing how to start a nursery business. His advice can be applied to propagating additional trees for yourself. You may want to start a nursery bed or two for starting your own trees. He recently published Trees of Power.

Check out Treeseeds if you decide to start you own trees from seed.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

Check out Treeseeds if you decide to start you own trees from seed.

I actually tried to order from them and my order never showed up, I tried contacting them and they never responded. I ended up making a claim through PayPal and I,got my money back. I ordered seeds locally, which may do better in my climate.

Yeah. In past years they were good to me. When I visited last week, so much stuff is out of stock. I figure they're likely going out of business. I did not order from them this year.