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Just starting - what do I need to research?

 
                    
Posts: 27
Location: Central Croatia
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I have a 10 hectare farm that is currently wild.  I am in central Croatia and my farm is in a small river valley bordering about 8000 hectares of natural forest (mostly chestnut, beech and oak).  There are loads of natural springs dotted around and at least 1/4 is covered in blackberry. 

I discovered the concept of permaculture a month ago and it was mind blowing!  Wow, it makes so much sense.  Since then I have learnt about the following

cob building
earth sheltered greenhouses
rocket mass heaters
hugelkultur (discovered today - what a great use for the fallen rotting trees in my forests)

What am I missing?  Everytime I learn something new, I can't imagine how I could plan my farm without it!

It's winter now, so a great time for research and planning.
 
Posts: 147
Location: St. Louis, MO
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This has been my favorite resource so far;
http://mediasite.online.ncsu.edu/online/Catalog/pages/catalog.aspx?catalogId=1ec0688b-568a-4a47-a8ca-8926e7b4ef1b
 
pollinator
Posts: 1528
Location: zone 7
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if there is anything that will make everything else easier, its learning about soil. learning the basics and even a little beyond the basics of soil will take you 10x further i can guarantee it. almost everything is either directly or indirectly related to the soil.
 
Posts: 192
Location: SW of France
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@riki

first of all, do you know what you want to do on the farm to make a living, or not ?
 
                    
Posts: 27
Location: Central Croatia
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We want to establish a farm that provides a variety of good quality foods.  We have totally free range chickens so far.  We plan on some goats and pigs, a vineyard and some fish dams.  Longterm plan is an eco-tourism place with home grown restuarant but it's not essential that the farm makes money at the moment.
 
Guy De Pompignac
Posts: 192
Location: SW of France
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Ok,

so take a look at Tree Crops, very inspiring !
http://www.archive.org/details/TreeCrops-J.RussellSmith

Also,

Edible forest garden / Food forest (e.g. Dave Jack)

Keyline concept (PA Yeomans)

Broadacre permaculture (Darren Doherty)

Holistic Management (Allan Savory) if you plan to raise grazing stock
 
pollinator
Posts: 4437
Location: North Central Michigan
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READ !!!

my first suggestion would be Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway but also google Bill Mollison or Permaculture and read everything you can find.
 
Posts: 87
Location: Croatia
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Yes, read, read... I've been reading for last few months, spring is coming, I should plant something but I'm still reading

I liked a lot Patrick Whitefield - How to make a forest garden, I'm reading it again for the 3rd or 4th time. But first and most important book I've read on permaculture subject was Sepp Holzer's "Poljodjelac buntovnik" (Rebel Farmer). It does not answer on question "how" but on "why". It gave perfect reasons to start with permaculture for me, before that I just wanted a regular monoculture orchard and a lot of money.

As I learned so far, permaculture is a way of thinking, once you accept this new way everything starts to look different, some things becoming acceptable and was not before, and some things suddenly become so weird. I believe the most important is to have this different point of view, but since you are here I guess you already have.
 
steward
Posts: 7926
Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane
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Since many of the recommended books may be difficult (and/or expensive) to find in Croatia, I will suggest one of the most diverse Ag (and FREE) libraries available on the web.  It contains some of the works of the pioneers in organics/sustainable growing, including Wm Albrecht, J. Rodale, Fukuoka, and P.A. Yeomans.

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/01aglibwelcome.html

There are many winters worth of good educational reading there.  I am a lifetime supporting member, and proud of it!
 
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