I`m from NRW. I started my permaculture garden last year. First Hügelbeet is doing good so far. I even got my first seeds, thanks to Handbuch Samengärtnerei. It`s a really great book for learning how to get your own seeds.
Dreschflegel is great, too. I got all of my seeds from them and this year i will plant those i gathered last year from my own plants to breed my own varietys.
Also i tried to experiment a little bit with clayponds at a hillside. But it didn`t work out well(probably to steep sides and to small), there did not stay any water in the pond.
I didn`t have the money yet to do a pdc.
But hopefully this May i might have some spare-cash.
Did you guys do a pdc, Permakultur-Akademie any good? Otherwise i will try to get in Geoff Lawton`s online pdc.
ipk-gatersleben seems to be great, but won`t there be the same arguments against it as
https://permies.com/t/6255/permaculture/free-seeds-USDA
plantsnobin McCoy wrote:I urge you NOT to request 'free' seeds from the USDA. I cringed a bit when I saw this thread. It is not meant for this purpose. It is not for someone new to gardening who is all excited to grow something. It is for research and breeding purposes. And if you are indeed breeding, trialing, and experienced, fine. I know I am sounding really hateful here, but I don't mean to be. But, it has happened before that someone put out the info that everyone could get free seeds on the internet. Everyone started ordering seeds, and one guy was dumb enough to go bragging all over the place that he was getting seeds, then selling them on ebay. You can imagine what the fallout from that was. Truth is, many of the seeds are old accessions that won't germinate anyway.
Now, for a little good news. If you need seeds, there are lots of places to get seed to start your own garden. There are many generous people on the Homegrown Goodness forum who will gladly share seeds with you, some want a trade, others will give them away. There is also wintersown.org Trudi will give seeds to those who need them. I am sure there are other organizations who do too. Again, sorry for the possible hateful tone of this post, but this has caused problems in the past for those who truly are interested in breeding, but don't have a university affiliation.
