Manitoba Permies?

I'm heading to Winnipeg on a training thing for work.  I'll be there for two 10 day work/training sessions, but will have the weekend of 4 days in between from Feb 24th to 27th.  I'm presently taking Geoff Lawton's online PDC course, and have 40 acres in the B.C. Rockies of my own to play with.  I will be visiting my friends Chad and Nancy at Hollow Reed Holistic.  If any permies would like to meet up at Hollow Reed, and have a tea and chat, please send a purple moosage my way.  Peace.

Alternately I might be available some of the evenings of my 10 day training sessions.  I'll be staying near the airport at the Best Western.

Hi all. Just found this really old thread on Manitoba. Originally from BC, I’ve been here about 9 years. But missing a milder climate and longer growing season, the mountains etc. So... I’ve been checking out cheap land in South east Arizona and thinking about pulling the trigger on 4+ acres. It turns out that in Cochise county you CAN build alternative housing (nonpermitted) with some minor restrictions. I’ve really become entranced by both Hempcrete and earthbag building and am jonesing to take a course or 2 on the basic methods. Anyone else in MB interested in these building methods or with some experience? The reason I ask is I’m trying to network with some fellow northerners who want to learn more about this and want building experience. Yes, it means a week (or so) in Southern AZ getting really dirty!
So as yet im wide open to finding my way in both the design and construction, but would like to get to know others who might be interested in this experience in the future (say next winter...baring any interruptions via the universe).
Send me a line or 5 if you find this interesting or want any questions answered. I’ll do my best! 👍

I just bought some pasture land with the intention of growing a food forest.

To help me get started, I'm wondering if anyone can point me towards a blueberry patch where I could dig some off-chutes (without hurting the main plant) or some highbush cranberries from which I can take cuttings.

Next fall I'll want to collect hazel nuts to germinate, so if you know a good spot to do that please let me know. For now anyways, the berries are higher priority because I think I can get them growing this spring.

Note: I live in Winnipeg and the land is near Erickson. I'm willing to travel a bit to get plants with good genes, but I'm not likely to go out of province or up to Thompson for example.

Thanks!

I am new to the board, attracted by this very thread which I found via DuckDuckGo search.

I live in Winnipeg (West End). Though I have been familiar with permaculture for a few years, and have done WOOFing before, I only recently decided to learn more about permacultural principles after seeing the documentary INHABIT, which is about permaculture being implemented in towns and cities as part of smart & productive design of space.

We are growing veggies in raised beds and flowers in grade-level beds. Last year I began to tap our 3 Manitoba maple trees in our backyard, and began the adventure of beekeeping (2 hives).
As far as how we are integrating our projects into our natural environment we have as of yet only built a 3-barrel rain catchment system (2 meters above the ground), 3 cubic foot compost bin, a vertical gardening trellis. I know, this is not particularly permaculture.

Some of the ideas I have yet to implement are: cold frames, rain barrel pump to speed up watering, cloches/greenhouse, drip irrigation hoses, aerated compost tea.

Irrigation: We have a tough time watering our raised beds enough. With mulch, we can keep them most for two days tops, and I think being raised beds they are evaporting much quicker from 3 sides. Thoughts? To be honest, we are thinking that some addition beds we are making in our back yard this summer will be standard grade-level beds, our hope being that moisture will stick around longer. Main hindrance is that one of our fence lines is infested with Virginia Creeper which is such a pain to deal with...
I am also starting to be under the impression that, barring extremely wet summers in Manitoba, I could direct all my roof run-off directly into the garden with no risk of excessive irrigation. Any experience with this?

Hi Quincy,

I live a short walk away. We're installing raised beds for the first time right now, so I don't have experience that'll help with your irrigation/evaporation issues. I will share some thoughts anyways.

-Maybe you can plant more densely this year to create more shade on the soil.

-There's no harm in mulching even deeper.

-Do your watering in the early morning or after sunset for more soaking and less evaporation.

-I'm thinking about you sending your downspouts straight to the garden beds - I wonder how much of the extra water the bed would get in a rain event would be wasted as runoff/seepage. I'd be careful with this especially if it means you don't fill your rain barrels. The barrels can be used in a dry spell when the plants really need it. Maybe you can fill the barrels with one downspout and direct another one to your thirstiest garden bed.

-If you decide that your new 2020 beds will also be raised, maybe layer some logs at the bottom of the soil for better water retention.

Enjoy the sun and warmth this weekend!

Hi Nick, thanks for the reply and suggestions on my moisture issues.
I have thought about a few of those things before, but perhaps I should think about them more. Last summer rainfall was so poor, that when it DID rain it poured and the rain barrels would fill up quickly and the rest was not captured. Our eavestroughers said that it is no feasible to have ALL of our water going down one spout on the side of our house where the rain barrel system is, so I will be putting in smaller barrels at the two other downspouts, one of which is already running above a raised bed to drain out at the sidewalk -- I am very tempted to put a few holes in it to at least get some drip irrigation happening.

I would be interested in taking a look at each others gardens this summer. Big garden or just a few potted plants, I am always curious and interested in whatever gardening others do. If my friend has one potted tomato plant, I am still excited for them!!! Perhaps there are a few things I could learn from you, even if you are just building up from scratch in Winnipeg. Are you also in the West End?

We are growing veggies in raised beds and flowers in grade-level beds. Last year I began to tap our 3 Manitoba maple trees in our backyard, and began the adventure of beekeeping (2 hives).
As far as how we are integrating our projects into our natural environment we have as of yet only built a 3-barrel rain catchment system (2 meters above the ground), 3 cubic foot compost bin, a vertical gardening trellis. I know, this is not particularly permaculture.

Hi quincy.  I think you are doing well for being a recent 'convert' to permaculture.  lol.  As long as you are creating designs in your life which involve caring for the Earth, carinng for the people, and trying to integrate any surpluses created into those two, then your practicing permaculture.  

You might get more responses if you post about your water issues in a different forum on this site.  The Manitoba thread doesn't get a lot of hits.

I come to Winnipeg once in a while for work training.  I might be able to swing by for a visit sometime, if that is the case.  

Be well, and welcome to Permies.

Late to the party but I figured I'd add myself to the list :) I currently raise rabbits and am constructing my hugel beds in a rural area NE of Steinbach, and just got about 1/2 of my orchard planted this year. Within the next 10 years I'll hopefully expand to getting bees, poultry, some sheep, and finishing off another few hugel beds as well as getting my last 13 trees for my orchard. Once my beds and trees are all in place then I'm going to get a permanent fence set up, then turn it into more of a food forest - all the bone sauce and deterrents in the world won't keep the deer, bears, or wild rabbits away sadly.  I'm always looking to learn from other people - I'm especially interested in learning more about micro barns/multi-purpose animal housing, wild foraging, and food preservation. I'm also happy to teach people about raising rabbits for meat if they're interested! If anyone wants to contact me, shoot me a PM on here and we can exchange emails.

My partner and I just purchased five acres outside Winnipeg (just east of Birds Hill Park). We aim to create a bit of a biodiverse landscape here with fruit tree and berry shrub guilds. Posting partly to become connected with other MB folks (or zone 3) who are growing "food forests."

Congratulations on your new property Nathan! What's it like? Open lawn or wooded? Sandy soil?

I'm working on my tree nursery skills in Winnipeg, so that I can plant out my rural property. I'd be happy to share some seeds or cuttings for you to propagate or at least talk strategy.

Last year I had good success with
Apple seeds
Seaberry seeds
Grape hardwood cuttings

This year I'm trying
Pear seeds
Hazelnut seeds
Walnut seeds
Haskap hardwood cuttings
Plum hardwood cuttings
Cherry softwood cuttings

I'll try saskatoons by seed next year.

Hey Nick!

We have trees along our property line but everything inside is grass. It is clay soil. We ordered trees from Boughen Nurseries this year. Not a lot but we ordered the following:
Apple: Goodland
Raspberry: Red River 5 Pack
Crabapple: Rescue
Raspberry: Heritage 5 Pack
Apple: Fall Red
Raspberry: Boyne 5 Pack
Crabapple: Dolgo
Raspberry: Heritage 5 Pack
Tecumseh Plum
3x 25 pack for all-star strawberry
3x 25 pack for seascape strawberry
3x 25 pack for kent strawberry
5x 10 pack for asparagus

Would love to take strategy. We took a class on constructing edible guilds but it wasn't as informative as I had hoped it would be. Some ideas were helpful. For example the gentleman suggested creating a pattern that goes something like:
5 feet for a tree
5 feet for herbs
5 feet for a shrub
5 feet for herbs
5 feet for a tree
and then repeat
(if a line. but you can expand it in two dimensions too. It is just a patterning to try to make sure you have space and light etc...)

His thought was that doing this would make sure the trees are far enough apart to not scrape against one another when mature which can lead to disease. That made sense to us. But now what to put in the herb sections and what to put around the trees and bushes just gets me confused a bit.

What have you found that works? I tried to get haksup but that was REALLY hard to find. I'd be super curious about your experiences with nuts. I wanted to get some nut trees but wasn't sure what would be good for zone 3. And are they more shrubs? Or trees? But ALL of this is so new to us.

I've been following this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfz0O9f_Ysivwz1CzEn4Wdw
But he's not zone 3.

Nick Neufeld wrote:Congratulations on your new property Nathan! What's it like? Open lawn or wooded? Sandy soil?

I'm working on my tree nursery skills in Winnipeg, so that I can plant out my rural property. I'd be happy to share some seeds or cuttings for you to propagate or at least talk strategy.

Last year I had good success with
Apple seeds
Seaberry seeds
Grape hardwood cuttings

This year I'm trying
Pear seeds
Hazelnut seeds
Walnut seeds
Haskap hardwood cuttings
Plum hardwood cuttings
Cherry softwood cuttings

I'll try saskatoons by seed next year.

Hey Heather! How is your property coming along?

Heather Kay wrote:Late to the party but I figured I'd add myself to the list :) I currently raise rabbits and am constructing my hugel beds in a rural area NE of Steinbach, and just got about 1/2 of my orchard planted this year. Within the next 10 years I'll hopefully expand to getting bees, poultry, some sheep, and finishing off another few hugel beds as well as getting my last 13 trees for my orchard. Once my beds and trees are all in place then I'm going to get a permanent fence set up, then turn it into more of a food forest - all the bone sauce and deterrents in the world won't keep the deer, bears, or wild rabbits away sadly.  I'm always looking to learn from other people - I'm especially interested in learning more about micro barns/multi-purpose animal housing, wild foraging, and food preservation. I'm also happy to teach people about raising rabbits for meat if they're interested! If anyone wants to contact me, shoot me a PM on here and we can exchange emails.

Hi Nathan,
I only started planting my site a year ago so I don't have a lot of experience to share yet. But happy to share the bits that I've learned.
-deer will eat all that stuff that you listed and they won't waste any time. If the top of your trees is less than 5 feet tall then I'd suggest putting a metal fencing ring around each one. At least until the tip is too high for them to munch on.
-voles will probably be a problem in the winter but you probably have time to get ready for that
-for guilds, I suggest snagging some Buffaloberry from Prairie Originals near Selkirk. Tasty berries, nitrogen fixer and at least on my property they've been resistant to deer and mice. I think male + female is needed for pollination.
-for nuts, I bought hazelnut and black walnut seeds from Grimo. I also have a mature Butternut tree in Wpg that I collect nuts from. For all three of these, I stratified the seeds over the winter and am just starting to plant them in nursery boxes. I don't have any but trees to plant yet. The hazelnuts will be a large shrub, the other two will be canopy trees (in a few decades).

I watch that YouTube channel too. Stefan Sobkowiak also has great channel with Canadian content.

Nick,

Great info - thanks so much! We've been planning for the deer. We moved here in July and haven't seen a single deer nor any evidence of deer over the past 10 months. But that's not to mean they won't come. And by adding tasty treats, it may draw them from miles around...  So the metal fencing is a great suggestion! THANKS!

We read that garlic and onions deter deer, rabbits, and voles - but it sounds like your experience hasn't supported that. We've been looking for good sources for both of those (along with the other herbs) around here. Was considering T&T Seeds.