rick wilson

Thanks for all the replies and great ideas guys...    Still almost a foot of snow on the ground here right now so just starting a bunch of seeds indoors.   Also just took about 100 cuttings off my grapes, currants and goosberries so had to pot them all.    I have asked a few friends so far if they would like to use some of my garden space, a few have said yes.  I dont live at this property about 5 miles away so for now only want friends or family there while im not.

Thanks everyone supermarket waste is not really an option pretty strict rules about discarding it.   And pretty much anything besides tropicals can be grown here lots of daylight hours in our rather short season.  

Hey everyone I have decided to use the land my father has given me to help feed the poor in my area,  my wife and I are both blessed with good paying jobs, and my job affords me alot of free time.  Two things that really bring me joy in life are gardening and helping others.   So my wife and I have decided we would like to start almost like a csa but instead of charging for product we will be giving out weekly baskets to those families with children who are finding it difficult to put good quality affordable food on their table.   we will probably start with about an acre garden this year and hopefully maybe double it the year after.   I am just looking for advice in general that anyone may have.   insurance etc.  how to incorporate permaculture etc.  getting volunteers to help at harvest etc.    

my wife is involved with a local church that is regularly contacted from members in the community for financial support food etc, so we will probably ask them who would need the baskets the most etc.  

Anyways if you can think of anything that may help me for the upcoming growing season it is well appreciated.  growing area is 5a.  Canada
I am a fairly experienced traditional gardener usually with about a 1/3 acre garden.  I never use pesticide fungicide etc
Thanks for your time
Rick

You shouldnt have any problem growing melons in southern ontario i grew 30 pound georgia rattlesnake in  an area of nova scotia where we have less than 80 frost free days jus give them lots of compost

Those are June bug grubs, probably you recently tilled that area?  They will  eat large holes in your potatos and carrots, but do next to no damage to anything else.  On a positive side they are a sign that your soil is healthy and full of organics, just that it hasn't been worked in a long time,   I started a new garden in a old hayfield last year that hadn't been tilled in 25 years or more, it was full of those grubs,   but I had an amazing garden besides the damage to about 30% of the potatoes and carrots

Hey everyone I am new here and love the site, so much information, and so many great ideas. The idea of a permaculture homestead has me dreaming all day. I would like some input on this property I have, it is a 17 acre property in zone 4-5, Nova Scotia, Canada.
On my property I have had frosts as late as june 24 it killed my grape vines back to the ground two years ago they returned thankfully. However its not like there are frosts every night, just they can happen very late into the spring. I think the last frost before that was around mid may. most years the last frost occurs the first week of june. Fall frosts usually start around the last week of august but sometimes don't appear until late September. coldest temp in last 10 years was -34.4C or -29.9f however most winters usually see 5-6 nights around -31C Average annual rainfall is 120 cm or 47 inches we average 3.5 inches per month during the growing season, may to august. Temps usually average around 70f in july and august and are our two hottest months, rarely does it go over 87f, however humidity levels are quite high.
Im going to post a picture of my property and would love suggestions on making the most of it. How can I deter late frosts to specific areas around my gardens, grape vines and fruit orchard?

picture explenation. future locations house red rectangle, future ponds blue circles, future orchard green circle, grapes yellow circle, and animals barn in pink rectangle, faint purple rectangle will be veg. garden.

The larger blue circle in the forested area is low lying and always swampy I dug a few shovel fulls of dirt out last august and the hole filled up in 15 min so I belive a pond will be no problem here. two frogs lived in it until the freeze. The location where the house will be is an apex on the big field the land slopes away to the edges in 3 of the 4 directions about 15 feet but rises to the west and the back field is higher than the first but slopes from west to east right down to the swampy area. The property is about 700 feet wide by 1100 according to google earth.
I also plan to have two adult cows maybe 2-4 pigs and hopefully 100 meat birds and hens, also bees when everything else is rolling.

Here are some pics of my current farming and gardening exp I have gained from my fathers farm who also happened to give me the land... albumn of photos is in the link. I currently own my own condo in a small town about 8 miles away where I also work less than 1 mile from my condo. http://s1158.photobucket.com/user/crwilson12/library/

I also have a 40 acre woodlot about 15 miles away but believe I will mostly just let the wildlife enjoy it and have some timber harvested from it, its most conifer, what should I do with it, it is the third pic in the albumn

hey Peter im going to post a link from Mark Vander Meer on YouTube you must listen to it totally worth the 20 min. specifically around 15 to 20 min. he explains why forest soils typically are very shallow. Basically because of the ph level being very acidic you have no microbe activity below a couple of inches, hence why in the amazon once they clear cut it and farm it for a year or two the soil is dead, there was no topsoil there to begin with, and they must move to a new area. They are using up what little nutrients and organic matter and bio activity are stored at the very top.

There is a reason why people in the past chose to farm where they did and that was basically always open areas, not because they would have to put so much work in clearing the forests,, but because the soil in the forest is useless for anything but growing a forest. people in permaculture always talk about edge, the secret isn't some magic happening with light levels etc etc. it is because the ph levels are alkaline enough for all the organics blowing out of the forest to decompose where they get trapped along the edge and you will find good soil there.

Part of the reason I understand this is because I live in an area that has a huge low bush blueberry economy. The forest are being cleared and they are letting wild blueberries take over. There is more money in other crops but there is perhaps 1 inch of organic matter once the forest are removed an a ph of 4.5 It would be impossible to plant anything else in these areas, without tonnes and tonnes of inputs per acre.

Take a walk into an old forest with a shovel and discover for yourself.
It is hard to understand you would think that in hardwood forests the trees would be buried halfway up there trunks in the best composted matter possible. Think about they have been standing there for over 100 years dropping inches of leaves every year but yet half there roots are exposed near there base.

Hey Philippa I too have very red acidic soil, I live on the opposite side of the continent and in Canada to boot but I can give you some help because I have overcome some of your problems by pure luck. your forest soil is probably very poor for agriculture and lacking in organic matter more than an inch or so deep. So what you will want to do is fence off the amount of land that you would like to have in production in the next few years. clear out all the trees and any branches larger than an inch or so. you can build hugels, outside of this area but they will not be your ticket to quick productive land in this fenced area. "you will be wanting to use this in short order right?" So go buy as many wet and rotting straw bales hay bales silage bails as you can find for cheap or free. also bring in lots of leaves and greenery have a soil test done and see how much lime you need. you wont need as much as they say but apply at least a few bags.
keep your two cows in this area and feed them here daily. what you really want to happen is for your cows to tramp as much organic matter into the ground as possible piss on it poop on it and basically pulvurise this piece of land into a sad looking sight. picture a feedlot. if you could get some chickens in there too it would be a great help as well. if the area you fenced off has few tree roots it would be best to have this area plowed before you do all this. I would not recommend fencing off an area more than perhaps 150 feet by 150 feet for this to be effective with only two cows. you can move them into another section in a year or so.
Now after your animals have been in here for about 6 months to a year they should be standing almost knee high in a soupy mess. Take them out of the area for another 3 months or so and let this area dry. Till it all in several times and you will have some very good ground for the next 5 years or so. Start to implement permaculture into other areas while your doing this. and once this area is established you can start permaculture here too. If this area has always been a forest you have virtually no topsoil so this is what you will be creating very rapidly if you follow this.