Hello from Switzerland

Hello Permies!

My Wife and i are in the process of buying land in the mountains of Wallis, Switzerland. We have just received the contracts, so more or less good to go.

Anyone else here from Switzerland?

I hope to start working on the Land as from Feb. living in a tent to start and plan to build our own house, have had to agree to have it liveable by Oktober otherwise we will have to rent near by....  In the process of Planning and designing... It will be a house built with natural materials,  at the moment i am torn between Dirt bags and Straw-bails in the Walls... Any input anybody?


Cropwise, besides Veg and fruit. We are looking in to Mushrooms (logs), Truffel (oakroots)  and Hops up Stone bolder/borders.

One thing i am not sure about when it comes to mushrooms... (i have been watching alot of video from #North Spore) If i use all the possiblitys of Breeding mushroom Logs, in Beds, but also in woodchip paths... can i go overboard and plant to many? Can Mushrooms become invasive?


Well thats it for my first post, thanks in advance for any inputs, looking forward to expanding my horizon with your help

Hello Colin and welcome to Permies!
Not sure if we have any active members from Switzerland. My great gran was Swiss, does that does that count ;) ?

I've added your post to a couple of forums to help get responses to your questions, or you could post more specific questions if you like, that might save this thread getting confusing.

Looks like you've got a busy year if you're hoping to be in your house by the end of it!
Ideally I guess you'd build with what you have locally. Indigenous methods usually have evolved for a reason. I'm not familiar with dirt bags, but assume they will give you thermal mass whereas the straw would give insulation. You'd still need to insulate the dirt bags ideally on the outside I guess, so the straw bales would end up cheaper. In my climate I'd be reluctant : due to the constant damp (driving rain is very penetrating) although someone locally is just finished their house with bales. The other factor is vermin - you'd need to be sure the mice couldn't set up home but I believe this is perfectly doable. They usually end up homes with nice feeling about them.

Again not an expert on mushrooms, but I think as long as they are feeders on dead wood (i.e. you don't have something like honey fungus that attacks living trees) they will only spread as far as their food allows. Maybe someone else can give a better response.

Good luck with the project and let us know how you get on!

Hiya Nacy thanks for answering and sharing my post :)

Looks like you've got a busy year if you're hoping to be in your house by the end of it!
Ideally I guess you'd build with what you have locally. Indigenous methods usually have evolved for a reason. I'm not familiar with dirt bags, but assume they will give you thermal mass whereas the straw would give insulation. You'd still need to insulate the dirt bags ideally on the outside I guess, so the straw bales would end up cheaper. In my climate I'd be reluctant : due to the constant damp (driving rain is very penetrating) although someone locally is just finished their house with bales. The other factor is vermin - you'd need to be sure the mice couldn't set up home but I believe this is perfectly doable. They usually end up homes with nice feeling about them.

Yep a lot a work ahead ;) can`t wait to transfer the ideas in to reality.

For reasons you mentioned i am leaning more towards Straw Bale but hadn't even thought about the mice issue so ill have to get looking in to that!!!

*Edit:  Just found a reassuring video on the topic :)  




But already learnt alot about mushrooms just serving through this great Forum (thanks to creator and staff for your work)

And Nancy would love to keep you informed, we are also planning to document our journey and release in youtube aswell

o just getting restless now till i can start

Hi there everybody, it took me longer than I anticipated, but here it is our first Video.

https://youtu.be/CR83csYpxPI

We would really love you to like and subscribe to our new YouTube channel, because we would really love your input and feedback as we find our way and grow day by day

Yes mushrooms can be invasive.  We have that happening now with golden oysters here in the United States.  People are growing them and they’ve escaped into the wild in several states.

I’m not familiar with what mushrooms grow naturally in your area, but I’d try to stick with something local.  You probably have oysters as there are over 200 species of those worldwide.

I said i would keep you updated with our adventures and here is the most recent update

I just had the Impuls to share our most recent update, we would love if you subscribed to our channel

Thanks