Linda Edwards

Hello everyone,

I just found this forum a few days ago and haven't even scratched the surface of all the posts yet. I first heard of permaculture years ago when Bill Mollinson did a TV show called In Grave Danger of Falling Food (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrtJbk8_GY8). Since then I've read about permaculture and tried to implement some of the ideas in a mish-mash sort of way, but have never really done it. I think partly it's because I know nothing about gardening and most of my efforts seem to be in controlling weeds. I also always seem to have either too much work leaving me too little time, or plenty of time but no money. I have put in a number of fruit trees and perennials like tree tomato and globe artichokes, and grow some vegetables, and I've had chickens for years, but I've never really got the 'hang' of permaculture in the sense of designing a system. I now want to do that, and I'm determined to learn as much as I can, but as always I just don't really know where to start or how to design something when I know so little about gardening.

I live in South Australia in an outer metropolitan area on a suburban block about 680 sq metres, It's a Mediterranean climate with cool wet winters and hot dry summers. The soil is clay and there's limestone around 30cm below the surface, which means trees take a long time to break through and get properly established. I've just started experimenting with raised beds, but now have learned they're probably a bad idea in this climate.

Linda

Tyler Ludens wrote:Don't forget that raised beds dry out faster than ground level beds, and are mostly suitable for cold climates where raised beds will warm up faster in the Spring, and very wet climates where better drainage is needed. In warm climates with no Summer rain, raised beds don't make any sense, in my opinion.

Hello Tyler, Thanks for the information. It's really interesting because raised beds are pushed constantly here as being the ultimate aim for gardeners. All the magazines recommend them (probably TV too but I don't watch it), all the community gardens use raised beds, etc. etc. Hmm. I may need to re-think then. It might be the usual story of somebody somewhere wants to make lots of money out of idiots like me. I'd better go and do some research, but I also have a good area for a non-raised bed too, so will set about planting that out and see what the difference is. Interesting.

Linda

Jared Mason wrote:
In terms of goals, by food forest-y I mainly just meant a permaculture style kitchen garden - sustainable, no-till, high-density etc. I've seen lots of cool food forest vids online. This ( [youtube]http://youtu.be/iX9mQNswJrw)[/youtube] is probably closest to the balance I'm trying to strike and even this is waayy bigger than my space.

Hello Jared, I'm pretty new to all this too, and I found the youtube video really inspiring. I've been fumbling around in the dark being generally overwhelmed by where to start, and have had a garden full of weeds and a few fruit trees and ornamentals for a while. My space is bigger than yours at about 680 sq metres. Now I want to really get into food gardening and like you have started with some raised beds. I'm in the Southern Hemisphere too, so now in the end of spring/beginning of summer. NZ is a lot cooler than where I am (South Australia), but you probably need to make sure seeds/seedlings don't dry out. We've had almost no rain this spring and won't get any during summer. I'll have to use some kind of shade over the beds before long and have built a shade house so I have somewhere to start off seeds.

Radishes, rocket, mitzuna and things like that seem to do really well. In one bed I have lots of rocket and some comfrey, and will probably add a tomato or two in there. I eat the rocket all the time like lettuce, but it's easier to grow and doesn't wilt so easily. The comfrey is supposed to have medicinal uses, and is also supposed to go well in the compost. The chooks seem to like it too. I'm trying to get away from the ideas of rows. I'm not sure what to put in the other raised beds when they're ready, but I've started seeds of sweet corn, capsicum, tomatoes and pumpkins for the winter. I've also bought in some seeds of old vegetables like salsify and mangel wurzel (from http://www.4seasonsseeds.com.au/) because one of the things that concerns me is the almost total lack of diversity in vegetables in this country (and probably in NZ too).

Good luck with your venture. I'll be following with interest.

Linda