Asberry Acres Forest Garden - The Permaculture Plan

Here's the homestead...

The Grand Plan

Trees and bushes in the plan:

• Lindera benzoin
• Quercus spp.
• Pinus koraiensis
• Castanea pumila
• Pyrus communis sativa
• Elaeagnus umbellata
• Prunus domestica
• Asimina parviflora
• Malus domestica
• Asimina triloba
• Corylus americana
• Caragana arborescens
• Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

This diagram shows the overstory at full growth and other large features:

• Small pond - water 'battery' for the soil, different habitat, water for bugs, birds, etc.
• Beehives (dark blue squares) - want to try Warre hives to encourage hive health over honey production.
• Trees are in semi-regular pattern to maximize sunlight to the understory and fruit/nut production but not so regular as to look like a typical orchard, plus, I don't have a feel for more 'natural' placement yet.
• Pears, plums, and apples - seriously considering using dwarf varieties. Would also like peaches, but need more room!

Currently, the land is overgrown with weeds, has an unburnt burn pile (wood), and another two old burn piles with metal and glass pieces in them.This means my first priority will be to clean them up. My second priority will be to either burn or mow the weeds. Burning will do a better job killing the ungerminated weed seeds, but I'm not sure if there's enough dead growth to burn the whole area, however, if there is, I don't want an out of control fire either.

All of the trees and shrubs have been ordered and it'll be my luck for them to all come in at once. I'll create mini-guilds in a 2' radius around each tree. Considering the bad shape that the soil is in, I'll need to bring in a large amount of carbon for amendment. I've had a lot of success with lasagna mulching so I'm going to need to find good sources of cardboard/paper/newspaper, wood chips, and manure. I'm thinking about plowing the entire area and seeding it with clover and alfalfa. Those cover crop plants will start repairing the soil so that I won't need to rely on external inputs as much as the mini-guilds start to expand outward. The bulk clover and alfalfa seeds will be my next big purchase. After that, but before the trees arrive, I need to get mycelial and bacterial inoculant.

With needing to dig the small pond, I'm also considering putting in some tiling as a way to increase the pond's water storage and distribution. Since it's such a big job, I'm going to seek out expert opinion to find out what possible consequences this may have.

The house and shed (not shown) need to have gutters added which I'll then collect into an IBC tote. That water will be for the intensive, raised bed gardens on the south side of the house. So that I don't have too many projects this year, I'll probably run pipes to the beds for a drip irrigation system next year.

Would love to have an outdoor kitchen. Recently saw plans in Mother Earth News for building an oven that I liked. There is no reason to coop up all that heat indoors during the summer.

Next year, or maybe even this fall, would be a good time to put hoops over the raised beds. Longer term I want to build a passive solar greenhouse. Stacking functions, I'm wanting to put a wood-gas generator in there as a Combined-Heat-and-Power (CHP) system. Since wood gas burns cleanly, the exhaust can then be taken in by the plants (with appropriate cautions for humans entering.)

My biggest project is going to be putting in a Gobar gas system. A humanure system might be simpler, but the Gobar gas system creates two useful outputs: methane gas and high quality manure. I've read that the solids output might still contain disease since it's an anaerobic process, however, any issues with that would be quickly solved by composting them.

One glaring issue with this plan is that there is no mention of animals. I know that I definitely want goats and ducks, but since I've spent the last two years focusing on learning about forest gardening I simply haven't had the time to learn what I need to learn. I'm also thinking this is an area for the kids to become expert in.

Well, this is the plan. Now to see how well I execute it!

The Asberry Acres Homestead

What I Have to Work with
Last summer, I purchased a property with an acre and a half of land with a house built in the late 1800s. The house was the original homestead for the family that owns the several hundred acres surrounding me and was moved from the original location to a corner plot that had been industrially farmed. A big bonus of the house being moved is that it sits on a brand new, well constructed foundation with a big crawl space! Unfortunately, with the house being so old and the previous owner (not from the family that built the home) having treated it so poorly, I've had to spend significant amounts of money for repairs and remodeling.

My Number 1 Go-To Permaculture Forest Gardening Resource: Plants for a Future

Plants For A Future : 7000 Edible, Medicinal & Useful Plants

What is it?

"Plants for a Future (PFAF) is a charitable company, originally set up to support the work of Ken and Addy Fern on their experimental site in Cornwall, where they carried out research and provided information on edible and otherwise useful plants suitable for growing outdoors in a temperate climate." The charity's web site contains a database of 7000+ rarely utilized plants categorized by edible, medicinal and other uses, 200+ articles, and community discussion forum.

Leave It Better Than You Found It
The Plants for a Future site and database was compiled/grown/given freely by Ken Fern so that others may spend their time enjoying, rather than working in, their own gardens. "It is our belief that plants can provide people with the majority of their needs, in a way that cares for the planet's health."

Why is PFAF the first site I visit?
Because it helps me answer my initial questions...
How tasty is it? What part(s) are edible? Is it a good medicinal, and why? What part(s) are medicinal? What zones will it grow in? What is it's growth habit? How much shade will it tolerate? What pollination needs does it have? Does it have any close relatives that might be a better fit for what I'm looking for? What are the basic cultivation needs? What does it look like?

I've also noticed that most plants have conflicting information from various sources, but Ken's observations tend to be much more accurate.

Nitrogen fixers and nitrate accumulators

A natural guild seems to be forming here in this field of soybeans and amaranth! Unfortunately for the GMO soybean farmer, amaranth is (and was the first known species to be) glyphosate resistant.

Aside: Maybe I'm taking a leap here, but it seems the smart thing is to grow and harvest them both! I'm aware of the difficulties farmers have with 'weeds' interfering and damaging harvesting equipment, but I'm betting that some one, some where could find a solution?!

Anyway, back to the title of the post. My intuition is bringing out some interesting features of this situation, like... how did the amaranth become so quickly resistant? is it the soil biota? did the roots from the soybeans transfer genetic or epigenetic material to the amaranth? It seems a strong possibility that these two species 'want' to coexist - mutually dependent, mutually beneficial. Is there a higher function at work - nitrogen fixers guilding with nitrate accumulators, for instance? I've been googling for research about this possibility but haven't found anything yet. Hmm.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranthus_palmeri

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/super-weeds-bees-diabetes-7-food-safety-predictions.php

Diversity, Habitat Mimicry Key to Permaculture

A seeming contradiction for me is that industrial monoculture agriculture, focused on higher and higher profits from greater and greater yields, gives considerably less yields and requires more energy (effort) than biodiverse permaculture. From Biomimicry of native prairie yields more bioenergy than corn ethanol - mongabay.com December 7, 2006 we find that:

Diverse mixtures of plants that mimic the native prairie ecosystem are a better source of biofuels than corn grain ethanol or soybean biodiesel according to a new paper published in the Dec. 8 issue of the journal Science.

...

... the study "shows that degraded agricultural land planted with highly diverse mixtures of prairie grasses and other flowering plants produces 238 percent more bioenergy on average, than the same land planted with various single prairie plant species, including monocultures of switchgrass." The researchers estimate that the prairie would yield 51 percent more energy per acre than ethanol from corn grown on more fertile land and would require far less energy to grow.

...

"Fuels made from prairie biomass are 'carbon negative,' which means that producing and using them actually reduces the amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere. This is because prairie plants store more carbon in their roots and soil than is released by the fossil fuels needed to grow and convert them into biofuels," explains the University of Minnesota news release. "Using prairie biomass to make fuel would lead to the long-term removal and storage of from 1.2 to 1.8 U.S. tons of carbon dioxide per acre per year. This net removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide could continue for about 100 years, the researchers estimate. In contrast, corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel are 'carbon positive,' meaning they add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, although less than fossil fuels."

Is the problem that we're stuck on always doing things the old way because it "works"? Is it because biodiverse permaculture is not particularly suited to machine harvesting? Is it because current farming is too invested monetarily? We clearly know the consequences of factory monoculture agriculture -- loss of nutrients through topsoil erosion, nutrient "poisoning" of downstream (pun intended) systems, excessive use of petroleum byproducts, and a substantial negative input-to-output energy balance (10 calories of petroleum inputs result in 1 calorie of food energy).

Competition, only the strongest survive might work for capitalism but doesn't work in nature. Cooperation and diversity seems to be a key feature in all abundant, resilient systems.

Edible Forest Garden: Borage

One of my interests right now is in securing a sustainable food source for my family and local community. I think that Edible Forest Gardens are the way to go. More about that later...

Borage looks like a potential multi-use plant with greens, seed, oil, medicine, nectary, and predator insect shelter uses. It appears to be invasive, however, it's rated to Zone 7. For Zone 6, if it requires a cold frame or thick mulch to protect it from the winter, then I should be able to limit it's spread. Since the leaves are rich with potassium and calcium, should be able to cut the plant back when it does get vigorous and use it in a compost tea!

Here are some medicinal facts regarding borage:

• Dietary fatty acid supplementation alters stress reactivity and performance in man.
• Dietary gamma-linolenic acid in the form of borage oil causes less body fat accumulation accompanying an increase in uncoupling protein 1 mRNA level in brown adipose tissue
• Borage oil reduction of rheumatoid arthritis activity may be mediated by increased cAMP that suppresses tumor necrosis factor-alpha
• Randomized, double-blind trial of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation with fish oil and borage oil in preterm infants

Thanks tiabin!