Any other alpine permaculture enthusiast?

Hi everyone!

My land is located in north-east Italy, near austrian border, in the hystorical alpine regione called Cadore (the heart of the italian Dolomites).
Even if on a small scale, I'm trying to manage it adapting permaculture principles to my specific region.

I think here in Italy permaculture is much less developed than in other countries, particularly here in marginal mountain regions.

I'm then looking for people (other than well-known large-scale permaculturists like Sepp Holzer) doing what I'm doing in a similar setting, maybe on the Alps or somewhere around the world with similar climatic and general conditions, just to share experiences and thoughts.

I'm at 1050 meters above sea level, with usually humid and fresh summers (rarely exceeding 30 °C) and minimum winter temperatures around -15°C (even though climate changing effects are so evident sometimes).

Thank you, have a nice day!

Alessandro

Hi Allessandro, welcome to permies!
From what you say, you have a similar climate to US hardiness zone 7 - maybe with slightly cooler summers. Do you have quite a short growing season in the mountains? When is your last expected frost date?
We do have members from Italy and other parts of the alps, and from mountain regions elsewhere in the world.

I believe the dolomites are limestone? So is your soil stony and alkaline?

Hi Alessandro, welcome to Permies. The Permies group in Europe is relatively small. I believe many people have a blockage speaking in English with all the difficult termonology. I agree with you that it is very important to regionalize permaculturalists and as well as other growers who are facing diverse extreme conditions sharing experiences and adapted seeds.
I'm part of GTS, a people's breeders collective sharing locally adapted seeds and have started a mountaineer group on the forum. I'm not aware if Permies has such a forum especially for mountaineers, but there is wetlands, woodlands and urban farming forum. But feel free to use the search bar to look for it, or if someone reading this is aware, please post it here. The challenges people living in mountains facing are numerous, i realized when visiting people in southern Spain. Intense sun, short seasons because of frost, erosion and poor soils, rocky, and with the climate getting extremer it ain't getting better. So teaming up is a clever move i guess.
I was at the Sow your Resistance conference in ANtibes last year, which was awesome! But there were few Italians and many didn't speak English or French, so communication was soso. I did get some great diverse bean population of a lady, we did an exchange as well. Even more concerning was that there were no people from Spain which is in the proces of desertification. Luckily people from other countries were there, from China to Islands in the pacific and Peru to Canada, from Niger to Palestine, so it was a great experience.
So much so that we of GTS are going to meet up in Croatia this november to speak of all things adaptation gardening/landracing and exchanging a miximum of seeds. There will be people from all over Europe, from differing difficult places especially. Like islands , which have less issues with frostbite, but more so with salty air and shallow soils. People from Scandinavia who face short seasons are breeding for short season crops. Combining the two could lead to crops good for people in mountainous areas in the long run.
So you're not alone and very happy to respond to any questions you have.
For a brighter future ahead! Have a good day!

Hi Nancy,

Thank you for your intervention!

I add some more infos hoping these will be helpful to better characterize the region:

Our land is generally just slightly acidic, so that usually there are  no concerns with soil pH with almost all cultures.
Being on the side of a mountain we just have about 50 cm of good (although quite rocky) soil, then it becomes large rocks and heavy clay almost immediately.

Eight year of amending with manure have made my soil quite better with respect to what I initially got, so now flower and edible gardening and fruit trees growing Is satisfiyng, even though the work is always in progress

The land Is located at the border between the region were beach and maple naturally grows and higher land where spruce and larch is dominant.

In the past almost all my land were pastures and corn/potatoes fields, but have been abandoned since some decades.

I have a seasonal spring from which I can get a large amount of water in spring and autumn to fill IBC totes.

Thank you all, have a nice day!

Hi Hugo!

Thank you for your reply too!

It's wondeerfull to know about the existance of this group and the fact that there will be a meeting in Croatia, which is relatively near to me.

This makes me fell less alone in my permaculture work ahah.

It is true that for many italians it is difficult to communicate in an international setting, even more if you consider that the majority of people working in agriculture is not young and often do not know any english at all.
It was incredible to me to discover the huge amount of new and fresh information and thoughts about these topics when I simply shifting from italian to english of french when searching for them on google.

I will look for infos about the group you mentioned, hoping to be able to give my contribution also (we have lots of different heirloom regionally-adapted vegetables varieties here, due to the natural isolation of this land).

Thank you again!

Alessandro

Ha ha! The work is always still in progress

Alessandro Frescura wrote:It was incredible to me to discover the huge amount of new and fresh information and thoughts about these topics when I simply shifting from italian to english of french when searching for them on google.

Although sometimes the same is true in reverse! Looking for plant use or crafts in local languages can reveal some interesting things that you can miss if you search only in English....

Some lady from French Alps sends this pepper she has grown out of seeds from the PEPS group, a landrace adaptation collective of market gardeners in France.

Absolutely wonderful!
Is this a pepper that can be grown outdoor in a mountain climate?

Speaking of landraces, I'd like to share this beans evolutive mixture. It Is composed by old varieties I got around my land (no more than 200 people live in my village, but almost any family had ita own peculiar variety or selection of bens) and by some hybrids which came out from them due to free pollination.

It Is fun to look at the changings in the proportions of different phenotypes year by year, in responce to environmental factors.

Have a nice day!