Matt Faulkner wrote:Hello from Westfield! I was very happy to see a forum here for those of us that live in Indiana. We have a small suburban property (roughly .20 acres), but I have been informally studying Permaculture Design and Edible Food Forests and I've caught the bug. I've been gardening for several years now and love it. We have about 250 square feet of vegetable garden space, but this year we planted blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and three fruit trees (Stella Cherry; 4n1 Apple and a Peach). This fall we will be tilling up one whole side of our backyard so that I can plant an Almond tree, Plum Tree, Nectarine tree, two Pear trees (Bartlett and Asian) and two grapes around an arbor. I'm contemplating planting a mulberry tree and two sour cherry trees behind our fence as well. Next Spring, I will be planting some perennial vegetables (rhubarb, horseradish and asparagus) as well as all of the other shrubs (Nanking Cherry, Goumi and Currants) to go along with the Comfrey, herbs and wildflowers. I'll probably plant a few more blueberry bushes as well since my two girls love them! I built an herb spiral for my wife this summer and she is really looking forward to using it next spring. I'm very interested in learning more about any PDC courses here in Central Indiana as well as learning from all of you. While I will never give up my vegetable garden, I will be converting it to raised beds this fall and next spring as well as utilizing polyculture/companion planting techniques to hopefully create less work and more enjoyment for my family each year. I'm looking forward to attracting wildlife as well as beneficial insects to keep everything in balance. Please offer up any advice you have as I'm still new to this and I'll try to keep everyone updated on our progress while also uploading pictures as time allows.
Jason Vath wrote:Just wanted to testify that potatoes do in fact favor Hugelkultur over traditional ground!
The soil conditions were fairly similar - clay with some manure mixed in.
Kate Muller wrote:I am just getting started. We built these swales, hugleculture beds and a small pond in mid May. We rented an 11,000 lb excavator and a big garden building party.
Here is our 224' long swale. It has 2 sweet cherries, 2 plumes, 2 peaches, and Asian pear, and an apricot tree planted in it. The cover crops are just starting to sprout in this photo.
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Here is the rest of the front yard garden. I am still cleaning up the beds and planting them.
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