Daniel Pereira

They till the soil every year, as my grandfather did until ~8 ago, when he stopped taking care of the land.
They plant mostly beans, corn, some tomatoes and brassicas.

the soil is not that wet.. not real wetland.. almost all the soil around my land is tilled every year by old farmers and their soil is sandy and even requires some irrigation in the summer as they have zero organic matter



red -> small rivers (1m * 0,5m deep)
blue -> my land
yellow arrow -> lagoon direction - see @ http://goo.gl/maps/8aRo

my actual though is: the only way i can clean the soil in <2 years is removing (till the soil) or killing the rhizomes (poison).. and as i will not spread poison i thought about some tilling for initial planting, as i will not till all the land (too big for manual tilling and no actual access to machines), while less aggressive approaches will take ~ 3 years

(the land is not near my house and so i cant get grey waters there, i dont have animals and im only around the town at weekends.. )

i will take some diferent aproaches.. to learn and keep it fun..

- keep cutting it throught the next growing seasons
- till some areas and growing leguminous plants as cover crops
- till and do hugelkultur-like bed (phragmites)
- till and do hugelkultur (wood from local invasive trees)
- lasagna beds (im sure phragmites will just puncture the cardboard)
- cut and cover with plastic i got from local store (tick white plastic from old street ads)

i have just on question.. should i let the phragmites dry before using them as hugekultur style beds/lasagna beds? i think the stems can sprout.. and for compost, i think they should not dry, right?

the only reason is i want to produce some food, i live in portugal. this stuff may not be invasive but it won't let anything else grows. how can that be good?

Hello friends, i've been interested in permaculture for some months and now i got an abandoned land from my grandfather that i would like to use to practice permaculture.

the land is near a lagoon, has aprox.1000m2 and is FULL of phragmites about 2m tall, half of them was burnt last winter but they have regrown about .5 - 1m tall, the other half is so dense i only imagine a fire or a big machine cleaning it.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3771304/06072012066.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3771304/06072012065.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3771304/06072012064.jpg

the land has no tractor access, so i've been cutting the new phragmites with a sythe..
i need some recommendations for this.. i know it will be a long journey but I'm a bit lost.. should i get a small machine and till everything? should i keep cutting the phragmites and use them to mulch? compost? i thought about starting lasagna beds, i have access to cardboards, but not so much to composts and other organic matter, and the phragmites would probabilty just pass through the cardboard..

thanks