Integrating bio-intensive, row gardening, and medicinal plants with permaculture ?

Hello,

As I'm almost into my third year where I currently live, I'm trying to change the way I garden. Over the years, I've learned about permaculture, bio-intensive (John Jeavons), and another row baser food production model that relies on companion plants mostly. I've also learned about a lot of medicinal plants.

As I have a 9 to 5 that is unrelated to nature, as well as other interests and activities (I live alone, so sharing household responsibilities is easy: I do everything), I'm trying to get more organized, so that I can get better result, with less time on annoying stuff (think, watering and removing unwanted herbs), as well as having a garden that's prettier, more resilient, with more species, etc.

I live in a 8b zone, with a decently sized garden of about 380 sq meter, with a 25 sq meter patio. There is a tree on the property, also a few around it, and some of the garden is shaded for most of the day.

I want to produces decent amounts of medicinal plants, corns, other grains, legumes, a  few calories food, aromatics, flowers... for one person. And possibly have at least two chickens.

Bio-intensive is kind of labor intensive, but if I do it for a few crops, I might get a lot of corn (for example), potatoes and other plants (mainly thinking about artemisia annua and whitania somnifera at the moment), as well as green manure for composting. Other crops, I can handle having less of them (with such a small space, I aim for medicinal plant self-sufficiency, not food self-sufficiency).

The row gardening method (from the book of Gertrud Franck, Companion planting: Successful gardening the organic way) might help me get guaranteed success for a few plants (tomatoes, squash...).

As for the medicinal plants, some are annuals (so should fit nicely either with any of the two methods above, or somewhere else), some are perennials so they can be a nice addition to some spots, but some require to stay in spot for a few years before (usually their roots) can be harvested. Some are also wild plants, so maybe I can move them, but having some wild area can help those plants thrive and let me harvest them without any work beside the harvest.

Also, a small space for chickens would be nice.

Lastly, I'd love to have some spots that are "full" permaculture: using the space as best as possible, having a lot of diversity, resilience, several functions done by several plants or other stuff, etc.

But perhaps I'm mistaken, and going "full" permaculture can give me all those things I need.


So far, my current plan is to have about three 9 sq meter beds for bio-intensive (one would be used for corn, one for another grain probably, and the last would contain a mix of annual medicinals I want to have in bulk). A bitgspot, west of the house (so shaded early in the day, and in the late afternoon) would have the row gardening. And where I can, there would be some sort of permaculture "spots". Next to the entrance, I have a few square gardening beds, so that I can have aromatics and common medicinal such as chamomile nearby. And a good sized spot, near the tree, there would be chicken there.

I realize it's a big question, that would almost warrant consulting from somebody with a PDC and some good experience. Still, it's planned for me to take one PDC in a few months hopefully; meanwhile, I still want to improve things here, and enjoy the garden will I still can. Another reason I'm doing all this, is to learn as much as possible, so that the day I have a "real" garden (think, hectares), I can get it started the best way possible.

I never really grew medicinals other than some echinacea but grew lots and lots of herbs, many are great fresh as well as dried. in 8b you just might be able to grow rosemary into big bushes outside.
just a thought

No need to grow rosemary on my own, there happen to be a big rosemary bush right outside my kitchen, but I do plan to propagate it to other places too, in case something would happen to it.

Okay so I'm solving at least one of the issue now.

Last week, my brother-in-law helped me cut some of the herbs and hedges in the garden, meaning I have now a path that goes all around it. I've decided to plants some aromatics and medicinals along that path, so that every day I can walk the path, and see how my plants are doing, and also harvest; as it's more or less a full circle, it also mean it should be easy to do it everyday.

I've also decided that I could use the space around that tree, with a no-dig bed: I planted some hops there, and will add other medicinals, so that space will be used. It's kind of funny, because this space was always there, but as I'm not manucuring my lawn (I hate lawns), the space in the garden seem to shrink as the season move forward. Cutting some of the grass seem to add more space to the garden.

Mike,
I bet that your garden will evolve along with your sense of exploring new types of gardening over time.  This is what I did.  I knew very little about medicinal plants, but the I slowly learned more and more and included it in my garden. Same with biodynamic gardening, fruit trees, berry bushes, hugulkultur, biochar, herbs, foraging then planting weeds in my yard on purpose as easier vegetables, etc.
John S
PDX OR

Well thanks you for the reply. It seems like it's how it's going to be ! It's kind of frustrating however to "have" to wait one year to apply some of the knowledge that are acquired. Hence, I want to get it right, or as close as possible, as early as possible. Some people were fortunate enough to start learning in their childhood, it's not my case, so I want to learn as fast as I can. Of course, the more mistakes I make, the more I learn, so there is kind of a conflict of interest here.

When you're in the middle of figuring out how to do each new challenge, it feels crazy, like, I can't believe I'm doing this!  After awhile, it just becomes your normal life and you forget that you ever had anxiety about that one, because now you're onto the new one.

John S
PDX OR

Mike

Have you looked at plants from other cultures. I’m finding a lot of veg from other cultures also have great pharmaceutical qualities. I live in Australia so my sources probably wouldn’t help you. I try not to walk on my beds. A 3m by 3m square would be difficult for me to service without walking on it. My favourite tool when I need to loosen my beds up is a French broadfork. It loosens the soil without turning it over.

Good wishes for your garden. It’s great fun.
Max