Sarah Forsythe

Did you all find homes? Love the idea of the ecovillage with own land Ala Permaculture. We have a 3 ac in CA that we food forested about 11 yrs ago --but water sources are expensive and the community is not very prolific or inspired around here...looking to be a bit more wild with rivers and a real rainy season...we have been interested in northern Spain and western france...we are physician/surgeon looking to work less and be entirely food/botanical medicine based...we homeschooled/free schooled the majority of our children's lives and now they are all about to fledge...we are looking to share of love of nature and permaculture and traditional food processing etc. with others who get psyched about that ...and are looking for joyful and rich relationships with nature and others...as neighbors...looking to find what seems to be calling us... in the end I think it will be the people that will be the deciding factor...any recommendations about obtaining residency via a eco village start up ---wonder if qualify as self employment...or if it needs to be proving financial sufficiency with a savings account and agreeing not to work?? Anyone want helpful and energetic neighbors around 50 (happily married).

Yes and remember it all starts with bioprecipitation— we if we mulching, densely planting diverse species, including animals/ creating habitat and including nitrigen fixing species—- we are promoting clouds/rain/ storms

We use the same various techniques here in the central coast CA- very dry less than 3 inches of rain/ yr over the last 2 years, very little cloud cover. We do have city water to our home though. We are on just 3 acres.

Adding mulch even in areas we do not water directly, I believe will help because containment of movement of the water lens underground. If there is any moisture in the soil, it will be contained better, even if it is deeper than the roots of our trees and plants. I know it is there because of the survival of some of our 20-30 yr trees that I do not water - pomegranate, persimmon, walnut, toyon and all the native oaks, etc. I am always looking for ways to get all our grey and black water back outside in the ground into swales praying on their creation of a lens that hopefully builds year after year. Most all our planting is down hill from our home.  

I am always covering any bare ground with  living plants, native and non-native as well as mulching. Every native that I do not need to water, I know is bringing in any moisture from the air whenever possible. I strive for dense woodlands here with breaks I keep more wet. We have been here for 9 years and it has been slow, but I see more and more volunteers coming in each year, more birds, etc.

We moved out for a year after year 6 and had broken lines to an orchard we had swaled. I had mulched it - a lot had broken down and it was weedy. But, these apples, peaches and plums survived at age 6...for that hot 100 degree summer when I could not care for them. So, the frugality with which I had watered them (they grew slowly), did pay off...always such learning from our own experiences very specific to our site.

My failures have been around yield because of not making enough time for getting fertility back ---I know that if I worked harder to get my animal and humanure under this mulch, I would have improved water retention, etc. One day when we are retired and kids are out of the house.

I understand the fear of flammability especially with resinous pine needle mulch... I think the key is in having blocks of areas within drier zones you do water regularly or where you hold water on your land between drier areas. I know there is good literature I have read over the years on fire proofing in permaculture perhaps you have read. I tend to reforest in toyon, valley and coast live oak, ceanothus, sugarbush, lemonade berry, I allow coyote shrub and see a lot of islay cherry coming in under them. Then I have clusters of more water demanding natives  and edible between.

We are definitely not all dialed in here... always on a path and always re-evaluating. Obviously my zone 0-2 are the wettest...but I have "rays" of irrigation from these zones to my outer zones and integrate these with our animals. Trying to move our pigs around to create little pig ponds everywhere ala Sepp Holzer, but much less impressive here due to our increasingly desertified conditions. I have hope. I also watch neighbors land... I see they have old standing sycamores that are surviving without water --we are about 400 ft higher and about 1/2 mile from the nearest creek that runs part of the year above ground.

Hello, we are a family on the central coast of California who has been working on our dear land for the last several years. We are within minutes to many small and fairly progressive towns (San Luis Obispo). We are needing to move to a nearby city for school and work for the next several years possibly. We are looking to invite someone with a love of permaculture to live on our property in their tiny home, RV or trailer in exchange for taking care of our installations. We are zone 9a-ish. The weather has become a bit more extreme as you know. We can get down to 17 on a night or two during the winter ( but typically in 30's at night for 1-2 months or warmer and up to 105 a few days in the summer now (typically 90's for 1-2 months) - the rest of the year is mild. We have abundant shade trees and have been mostly focused on food forest implementation. We ask that the person keep the land neat and keep current installations alive and improve upon its abundance. The caretaker may keep all produce. We do have a milking goat and would like to be able to share in some of this. We will be moving to a town just 25 mins away. Our plan is to Airbnb our home and come home some weekends. We would ask that the person welcome guests. This is why the property must be kept in clean condition. We will support new installations. Know that water is expensive here compared to the rest of country, although less than other cities nearby. The tender will need to be versed in dry scapes, we hope they can improve up on our system. If we find the right person, we would interested in them staying on even when we return to the land. We are very interested in permaculture community, but currently that is limited on shared sites in this area. There is however a local permaculture guild and a budding interest in the greater community.

Hope to hear from you!

Thank you,
Sarah and Kevin