carl gibson

For anyone out there who has ever grown or harvested nettles, what is the most that you ever harvested from a given size area? Just from my casual observation it seems like they can be incredibly prolific. How many pounds could you harvest from say a 400 square foot nettle patch? I am interested in both stinging nettles and wood nettles, so information on either species is great.

Hey guys,

I'm looking to hear your experiences on deer browse with j-chokes. In my experience, when they are newly planted, deer can do a lot of damage to them, but once they are mature, deer seem to lose interest. Do other people have similar experience? Do you ever notice deer browsing on your mature j-chokes?

I ask because if deer were known to browse mature plantings I would consider that a good thing, because then you could also also harvest deer meat, to complement your j-choke tubers.

Thoughts?

Whatever you do, don't let the voice of the Discourager hold you back! Collectively, we can accomplish awesome things. Even half an acre is enough to put in an epic food forest. There are many sources of free information already mentioned. And cuttings and seeds can be found for free or cheap, with a little resourcefulness.

thank you both for the feedback, very informative, I'm curious to hear about other experiences as well.

Has anyone here had lower back surgery? Are happy with it, or do you regret it?

I have severely bulging disks at L4 and L5. A lot of people are recommending surgery, specifically laminectomy, would love to hear about other people's experiences.

Go to the edible acres channel on YouTube. They are very quietly producing a massive amount of ultra practical permaculture knowledge. And they are all about living on a shoe string. That is what they practice, and that is what they show others how to do in a very accessible way. I have lots of expensive books and I love them but honestly the above mentioned channel is probably more useful than all of them put together.

Ps I would be glad to send you one of these books that I have already read, I have quite a few, if you are interested just moosage me and I’ll send you a list of what I could give.

The real key is to get some little bit of land, any land, and just start.

I did eventually end up figuring out that I could order a copy of the book from Tagari publishers in Australia. I'm about halfway through it and it was definitely worth every penny. But I do massively appreciate your offer.

I personally know two people who earn their entire livelihood from permaculture. No trust fund, no second job, no outside income, little to no money from books or classes. One of them does make some money from youtube, but hey, he’s diversified, and I’ll bet if that income stream disappeared he would replace it with something else in the permaculture realm.  They both own nurseries, they are both waaaayyyyy beyond organic, hard core permaculture with very few compromises. One is Edible Acres, the other is Twisted Tree. Of course a big part of their permaculture practice is that they have figured out how to live well on way less money than the average westerner. So yes it absolutely can be done! However if you are someone with an appetite for lots of expensive stuff, no it probably cannot be done. But the whole point is to live well while making an extremely minimal impact.

Just surprising that it is not available new from anywhere in North America. I guess it must be a book that doesn’t do a lot of volume because it is so large and pricey and so there is not a huge financial incentive to keep it available here.

Thanks I just went there. The shipping from Australia is $77.10 which makes it about $193 to get it here in the US. A lot better than $450, but still ultra steep for most people. I guess I will go for it, Ive been thinking on it for such a long time now.