Aaron O'Sullivan

Katy Whitby-last wrote:For most farmers it isn't worth their while to sell just a couple of acres. The legal costs, issues of access and the loss of farm payments mean they are unlikely to be interested unless you seriously paid over the odds for it. Where in the UK are you looking ?

herefordshire

id be happy to cover legal costs

In the UK it seems all the websites only seem to sell larger bits of land 10 acre+ which are too pricey for me (1 acre in UK = £10k/$16k on average). Should i try contacting farmers in my local area directly and asking them if they're interested in selling an acre or two to me? or would they laugh me away?

Does anyone know where i can buy Einkhorn wheat seeds inside the uk? or even better could any kind soul post some to me?

I've tried googling but can only find flour, i want to plant and grow my own supply.

Rose Pinder wrote:Kind of an interesting design question though. If the timing (2 weeks set up, 2 years left alone) is a design limit, how could that work?

I agree looking at the existing site, plants, climate would be crucial, and also what other resources are available to deal with the lack of attention (eg paying someone to come in and chop and drop twice a year).

Forests go from bare ground to climax without human intervention, so isn't it more about what can be done within the design limitations?

The land is pastureland. not sure what type of grass. I thought that if i tilled all the grass under and then planted in tree's with strong cover crops and annuals that they would propagate year after year and so kill out any "weeds". Aswell as planting perennials such as sunchokes

Peter Ellis wrote:You could expect to come back to chaos
While you might be able to get quite a few trees in the ground in that time,the young food forest does actually require some care.
Not even Mark Shepard plants in two weeks then walks away for two years.

but the plants will survive? im not too fussed if it becomes a chaotic mess and the plants have propagated where ever they pleased

I was thinking of buying some land overseas in ireland and im wondering if two weeks would be enough to get a food forest rolling. obviously it wouldn't be as efficient as other peoples since i won't be able to micromanage the growth and look after it in the young stages. But if i spent 2 weeks preparing the soil, planting all the plants i wanted. Leave it and come back in 2-3 years what should i expect to return to?

the land would be about 1 acre or less to start with

This subforum seems like a suitabe place for this question

I saw a 6 acre rocky plot for sale in northwestern ireland. assume money is no issue. could i buy tonnes upon tonnes of excavated soil/dirt and place it on top of the original topsoil to essentially make a ginormous raised bed/land? we're probably talking adding an extra 2 feet of depth to the original ground layer. maybe less depending if i could excavate some of the original rocky layer.

I know it would cost enormous amounts of cash but im just wondering from a scientific point of view would it work? or would the soil just erode away after a few years?

I would one day like to have a small holding farm of say about 30 acre. But id likely start at 1 acre and grow outwards from there. Im not very good at marketing and sales so i feel i would suck at the markets. Is selling direct to retailers a viable way? small grocery shops as well?

Tyler Ludens wrote:If you could post some photos of your garden, or even a sketch, it might help to visualize what you've got so far.

Also your general location.

location is herefordshire, england. frost dates are late april to early may, then late october to early november. just did a quick draw on paint lol as it's night over here so no pics

so i've been reading up on permaculture and all that it entails as much as i can atm

now i've got some beds and im not sure which method i should use. I don't want to have to use any form of store bought pesticide, fertilizers or herbicides. I want to eliminate most industrial inputs.

I'm stuck between doing a food forest design with my beds which i suppose is a less intensive form of harvesting food? but less yields?

or i do a sort of polyculture cover crop system where i plant a feeder cover crop, kill it by crimping at the base before it seeds then planting in the food crops that i'll eat? this method has some inputs on my current scale but if i had more space i would dedicate some area to solely produce seeds for the rest of my areas. only problem is that occasionally the land may be bare between plantings

bare in mind i can't fit in anything like a tree

and i suppose if i was to grow fruit bushes i would be best doing a food forest system for this to keep it sustained correct?


lots of questions, hope you can help