David Dakota

That's funny. We are planning on moving back to ND this summer because of family health issues. However my wife is a little hesitant since she is a native Floridian...Ha haha...

Hey Wyatt. I grew up about 50 miles north of Grand Forks.
I live in Florida now but my parents still live up in the Grafton area.
My family and I are planning on a visit in a few months and we are sure to be spending some time in GF.

Hey Permies folks.
I'm not sure where to post this thread because I wouldn't consider this a personal project per say. I didn't quite see a thread for advancing permaculture technology, but I wanted to get thoughts on this idea.
What do you all think about using something like Google Glass as an observation tool? My thought is if there was software that could be developed for GG that would work passively with the permaculture designer during the observation process to collect and store data about a site they visit. Hopefully the software would cross-reference various data from the internet about plant and tree species and their characteristics in regards to permaculture design. Also things like slope and geography as well as climate history sun angles and such. These things could be uploaded to your computer where the data could be easily accessed for designing.
Not sure what the feelings are about this. I posted this on the Geoff Lawton 2014 PDC Facebook page but wanted to expose it to some more people out in the permaculture world.Who knows, maybe someone could take the idea and run with it to help speed up world domination for permaculture.

Let me know what you think.

David Dakota

Thanks for all the useful info David. My wife's family lives in the Davie/Hollywood area so next time we head down that way I'll have to check Spyke's out.

@ Leila

Sorry the name is confusing. I'm not in North Dakota. I grew up there but live along the treasure coast of Florida now. I'm in zone 9-10 so I think taro might do well here.

If anyone knows a good resource for tropic and sub-tropic perennials please send me a link cause I am not sure what I want to do yet. I am reading through "Gaia's Garden" right now and it is quite inspiring but since Toby wrote it with more of a temperate climate in mind the tables in the appendix don't give me a lot of options.

Thanks.

David Dakota

Thanks for the encouragement Jen.

I had seen the video Geoff did with Toensmeier and Bates. They truly are masters of the microhomestead. Such amazing diversity on such a small piece of property just baffles me. I haven't read "Paradise Lot" yet but have heard it referenced several times as a good source of info.

I'm planning on taking Lawton's online PDC next time it's available as a way to better understand what possibilities are here. I am also going to start going through "Gaia's Garden" (which I know Paul recommends for a suburban size permaculture system) to give me a better understanding of guilds and companion plantings. With a smaller space I know I don't have the luxury of doing as much so I want to make what space I do have count.

Again, the suburban area isn't the ideal place for us to be, but this is where we are for now so while here I am going to get my hands in the dirt. We are very limited on what we can and can't do though, due to us not owning the property. It is a family property but they are somewhat reluctant about doing anything drastic with it like...Growing food However they're slowly starting to like the idea of having fresh food to eat. I hope that by doing what I can and proving that permaculture systems work, it will convince them to give us creative control.

I'm not sure why it didn't show up under my name (not sure if there is a privacy setting I missed or not) but I'm on the east coast of Florida zone 10.

David Dakota

Hey fellow Permies.

I consider myself to be a novice in many things (including posting on forums), and permaculture most definitely falls into that category. I try to live by the philosophy of , "Grow where you are planted." meaning, wherever I am, that is where I am to be and so I need to make the best of my time while I'm there.

A few years ago before getting into permaculture, my wife and I moved onto a small piece of family property (roughly an acre) with a smallish duplex on the front half of the property with the back half of a gnarly tangled mess. At the time I still believed in the divisive paradigm of the hollow political rhetoric in the mainstream and was comfortable in my ignorance. While being swept away downstream of the flowing sewage of that paradigm, a branch was extended out to me, metaphorically speaking of course. This was the branch of preparedness and modern survival.

I happened to come across The Survival Podcast, and my world was thrown into upheaval. Listening to Jack Spirko and hearing about the reality of the world around me was like waking up from a deep sleep. As I continued to travel deeper down the new found rabbit hole I came across permaculture and have been enamored ever since.

I started with a small garden, maybe not very permaculturesque, but that knew I needed to take action and do something to help me and my family to be more self-sufficient. Then I heard about urban permaculture and like a floodgate opening I found myself looking at my backyard in ways I'd never seen before. There was a blank canvas for me to experiment on, albeit an overgrown canvas. I knew it was time to ramp up my efforts to make it a thriving space for me and my family in these uncertain times.

Presently, I am slowly, while in between working full-time and a family, clearing the overgrowth and trying to actually get a feel for what is back there. This weekend some progress was made but there is plenty left to do. I have high hopes for this place and while I'm here I can gain experience and skills as well as preparing a place for my family and I to hold out if need be.

I know that this isn't my ideal place to be but it is what I make it out to be. I have many great ideas and am eager to implement them. I just hope I can get things going while there's time.

Take Luck.

David Dakota

Thanks for the idea John. I might just try some taro out and see what happens.

Hey fellow Permies.

I just cleared out (pushed back the edge) roughly 10-15 feet of overgrowth in the front portion of my urban forest garden. I am in Southern Florida(zone 10) and am looking to get some things started but want to get some ideas from you all.

The ground was very moist (partly due to the rain we've had the past few days and the artisan well that's present) and there were a lot of ferns growing back there which means acidic soil if I'm not mistaken. I was wondering if potatoes and berries would be good to plant in those areas or maybe it's too moist? I know sunchokes are supposed to grow well in acidic soil but I'm in zone 10 so I'm not sure if they would handle the heat.What type of potatoes do well in acidic soil, all or only certain varieties? We would prefer to grow sweet potatoes or yams if we can. I also know blueberries like acidic soil but what else would be good here? In the wetter area I would like to just dig it out and put a pond but the land isn't mine, so I was thinking maybe using it to grow sugar-cane or if I could possibly use it as a rice patty?

I will be posting the video of my progress soon and would love to hear your thoughts on where to go from here. You can see the first video of what it looked like below.



Take Luck

David Dakota

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, Jocelyn.
Hope you have a speedy recovery, and as little pain and discomfort as possible.
I'm sure that Paul and the rest of the folks there are taking good care of you in the meantime.
Get well soon.

David Dakota