I have tried to garden in the coastal hills of the Willamette Valley for 6 years now. I was really excited about
permaculture last year when I discovered it! I thought I had a good plan!
The only successful crop this year was the squash my daughter planted in the horse manure by the barn, (with no
irrigation)! Everything else dried up and was overtaken by weeds. My water bill sky rocketed. The
voles and
underground varmits make their tunnels right under each line of drip irrigation. I love to garden, but unless I find a plan that seems feasible, I think I will quit!
I am thinking a good
permaculture plan is what I need. I need help!
My best garden was the one where I followed Steve Solomon's "Waterwise vegetables". At least I could measure the amount of water each plant had with the 5 gallon buckets. I had 4 wheel barrels of winter squash and buckets and buckets of melons, peppers and tomatoes! It saved lots of water compared to the drip hose, which I need to leave on for 24 hours to get a decent amount of water in the soil (at great cost) . I was just hoping to not have to spend the time rotating buckets any more.
Where would you begin?
I have 50 fruit
trees, 15 blueberries and 12 raspberries, most of which are not thriving. The ones planted in wild soil are doing better than the one that have had more "care". starting to sound like I
should just replant everything onto the wild hillsides and the manure pile and forget my plans.
Maybe I should add that I also planted about 300 douglas fir trees on the lower section of my property (in an effort to maintain forestry status). I am thinking 80% to 90% of those trees have died. I know that I planted them correctly. I think the failure is from poor soil and lack of water. They normally are easily grown with little to no upkeep around here.
??