Jack Stuart

Yeah, already chatted up one of our neighbors about it.  Deer.  Deer are the only pest worth talking about.  She had cultivated her garden for several months and everything was doing great...  one day she went to work and came home and the deer had destroyed everything.  Luckily our soil is pretty solid.  Dark and healthy.  Lawn grows like crazy, as does everything else.  That said, I'm still going to mulch the entire area and let it ride for several months before looking to plant anything other than trees and maybe some shrubbery type plants.  Might even let it roll for a full year - we'll see how it goes.

From what I've read, you could use a lot of mulch and rebuild your soil.  I know several counties provide it for free and there's also a myriad of private tree services that are dying to get rid of it too.  They can either drop it at your house or pay to dispose of it...  so free.99 to you is better for them.

Probably going to be posting elsewhere regarding this, but solid response from my first couple of posts from people nearby so I figured I'd ask here.  

We have deer.  Lotsa deer.  I see 'em multiple times per week as I'm coming and going from the house to work on it.  Seen as many as NINE in the yard at any one time.  I know they're gonna wanna eat all my stuff.  Doubt a fence is enough, but that's the first line of defense.  What else should I do?

Well that image ended up a lot smaller than I thought...  Oh well, you get the idea.

Here we go... 11 months later...  We bought a house.  Still a long way off, but we closed a month ago and have been doing renovations ever since.  Move-in is end of September.  

Ended up with an acre and I've had a little time this week to sketch out the first tentative plan for the food forest.  I tried to make everything to scale-ish.  See attached.

A little key for those interested:

Green - new fence. box on south side is a dog run  Fence then connects to neighbors existing fences on the SW side and N side of the property (N side to be completed after garage).
Blue - new construction, adding on to the patio with new screen room attached to pool enclosure and roofed, but open grilling area in the dog run all going in this fall (currently drawing up the plans).  Box on the N side is big workshop/garage that I'm looking to do early next year.
Light Brown is mulch.
Red - existing trees that I'm keeping (others are around the property that will be removed (not doing well and/or majorly in the way).  Two biggest dots are pines and the smaller dots are palms.  Might have to ditch some of the palms cause they're really close to the house, but I'm gonna hack 'em back and we'll see.
Orange - canopy through shrub level stuff, all labeled (fixers are mexican sunflower and fakahatchee grass - probably technically herbaceous, but whatever).  Stuff in front is just thrown in, no clue what I'm going to do there, but ornamental edibles are in order - pineapples for sure, who knows what else at this point.
Yellow - herbaceous/groundcover level stuff (don't mind my spelling on the illustration).  Herbs off the screen room is a small herb garden - perhaps raised.  Flowers/groundcover is just to cover the raised septic drainfield (approx septic tank location is wrong, it's actually right about where the 'Equip' is in 'Pool Equipment')
Pink - firepit area... may or may not gravel that area.
Purple - kids swingset lol

I laid it out with a few things in mind...  all mulch beds will be properly curved so I don't have to get off the mower when doing the lawn.  Might throw some mulch around that pine on the SW side, but didn't sketch it in.  The trees lining the drive will not be mulched so I will need to use the trimmer to clean up around them - already have to do that for the ditch off the sides of the driveway anyway.  

Trees are sort of haphazardly thrown in there, so that's probably going to change.  Suggestions welcome.  SW neighbor had some trees that shade my property a bit, but I tried to make everything get ample sun.  Bananas are in that area specifically because it's lower lying and retains a bit of water (doesn't puddle or anything, but is soggy longest after rain).

Dog run fence can't go in until I tear out some misc trees/shrubbery and there's another massive grouping of that stuff where the fig and the misc herbaceous area is.  I'm going to do that in a couple of weeks while they're installing our tile floor.  At the same time I'm going to throw in the bamboo on the N and W sides to provide a quick privacy barrier.  Then I'll paint the exterior.  After we're settled in, I'm going to build out the SW corner - mulch and get trees started.  I'll take care of the front yard at that point (pulling a couple of palms, maybe trying to move them to the SE corner of the dog run, on the outside.  Then mulch around the pool area after the screen room is completed, ending at the herb garden.  The rest on the N side will be implemented when the garage is finished next year.  I'll be mixing in the herbaceous/groundcover stuff next spring and shoehorn in the fire pit project at some point in time - probably right in time for summer so we don't use it lol.

Good stuff guys...  Might be a good thread to share resources, unless there's another more fitting for the area.  I'm sure you're all researching as I am, but if you haven't already - David the Good, Green Dreams FL (Pete Kanaris), and FLgardening.com have been my go to's for my starter info...

thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated...

Luckily I have a good amount of time to research as the property hunt won't even begin until next spring.  Great resources linked and just poking around here at some of the other Floridian's posts is very helpful.

As far as the area is concerned, we are looking at the east side, preferably NE - Oveido, Chuluota, maybe as far as the SW Geneva area.  We want to try to keep to Seminole schools as they're higher rated (though I suspect we'll end up going private)...  however, what's available and our level of patience will be a major factor so Bithlo, Christmas, even down into Wedgefield can be on the table.  If it weren't for the school situation, Bithlo/Christmas would be a no-brainer.  Also, we have friends who live on Lake Pickett and love that area... lakefront or even lake access is high on the desirability list and we're willing to pay for it.

Thanks for the breakdown of lot size.  Before even considering permaculture (or knowing what it was), I was set on 1 acre minimum.  Just to have some space to stretch our legs.  Also trying to have it all by backing up to a huntable preserve...  ~1 acre backed up to a nature preserve or 2+ acres somewhere else seems like the ticket, and right in line with what I was looking for already.

Something like this pops up today in my searches and has me frustrated that we aren't ready to pull the trigger:  https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2670-Mills-Creek-Rd-Chuluota-FL-32766/47732553_zpid/

Of course, I'd prefer something more wooded, but hey a blank canvas is good too.

Alrighty... fair warning, I'm known to be long-winded...

Central Floridian checking in... first time poster, short time permie enthusiast.  Short-time as in, couldn't sleep a couple nights ago and rabbit holed permaculture stuff until my eyes hurt and my mind spun (in a good way).  I'm a dreamer... and have been dreaming of being self-sustained forever.  Been stuck in the rat race chasing money, but over the last few years I decided it sucks and I want out.  Been in my head about it for far too long and all the covid crap has motivated me beyond, "maybe some day"...

I have about 10 minutes of gardening experience ~8 years ago in which everything died except a pepper plant that produced like 6 peppers which were tiny, but delicious...   Kinda started messing with avocados about a year ago...  transplanted two willy nilly and both promptly died.  Apparently throwing a sapling in a hole with no regard isn't the best move...  Currently got a pineapple started in a pot on the back porch, an avocado tree in another pot, and two mangos just breaking through.  The pineapple will fruit, but the others are more experiments in "does it live?"...  Just bought some seeds online that looked easy so I can start a wall garden and grow something to eat (again, all experimenting).

My wife and I are looking to buy our 'forever home' next summer...  Our visions of perfection are quite different.  Me - cabin in the woods, tons of land, never see another person again forever.  Her - McMansion in the suburbs, pool and a little yard for the kids (5 & 2), around the corner from the grocery store.  We have decided to compromise as little as possible.  We'll do a half-McMansion in the outskirts of the suburbs, have a bit of land to play with (more on that later)... and the pool (not gonna lie, I miss our old place only because of the pool).

Off the top of my head, this is our ideal compromise:  2000-3000sq ft, largeish yard for the kiddos and toys, pool, no HOA nannies, mostly (if not completely) self-sustaining... well/septic, solar, and garden... or now, food forest.  

I'd love to spend a few years building a permaculture on the property that will feed our family.  Like, we'll still hit up the grocery store for some things (beer and ice cream heh), but it would always be optional.  I'd love to be able to give some things away to friends, family, and people in need too.  I love big, stressful, cumbersome projects that almost kill me and pay off over the long term...  I spent about 3 months renovating our home by myself (literally) - everything outside the drywall was redone... tile floors removed/replaced, full kitchen, full bathrooms, all new light fixtures, painted in/out, landscaping, etc.

We know the area we want/need to be in, the type of property we want, and the budget... the big question I have now is...  how much land do we actually need?  How much dedicated space is needed, given my climate, for me to grow/raise our own food?  We are not picky eaters and the lower maintenance the better... year round production with enough excess to give some away.  Of course I know the specific property will determine what/how much, but unfortunately Zillow doesn't have a, "can I grow a kickass garden here?" search option so just ballpark.

Other questions are a matter of resources...  particular threads or other resources to get me started on understanding the basics and help start my journey.  Ideally I'll be moving into our new property this time next year and will be ready to build out our permaculture.


Thanks in advance!