For the permies and the wannabe permies :)

[Rosieposie]

Hiya :D

I am still a bit of a newbie to permaculture and gardening in general but it has become a bit of a thing of mine as I adore my plants and animals and am working hard to make my little family self sufficient in an abundant fashion. I just wanted to put it out there how much joy each deed in a garden can bring and how rewarding it is to watch the land come to life, it is a very healing thing to do and can give your life a tremendous sense of value. It's nice too when you start getting buckets of free food in reward for what you put in lol.

So for a little bit of inspiration I would like to recommend this site which I have found to be very uplifting and educational :).

http://permacultureprinciples.com/

If life is bringing you down, go outside and put some life back into the world :)

[northstar]

Hiya :D

I am still a bit of a newbie to permaculture and gardening in general but it has become a bit of a thing of mine as I adore my plants and animals and am working hard to make my little family self sufficient in an abundant fashion. I just wanted to put it out there how much joy each deed in a garden can bring and how rewarding it is to watch the land come to life, it is a very healing thing to do and can give your life a tremendous sense of value. It's nice too when you start getting buckets of free food in reward for what you put in lol.

So for a little bit of inspiration I would like to recommend this site which I have found to be very uplifting and educational :).

http://permacultureprinciples.com/

If life is bringing you down, go outside and put some life back into the world :)

I love this Rosie!
I started gardening last summer for the first time in my life. I live in an apartment and I bought some big containers and filled them with organic soil and I grew mostly herbs on my balcony.
My little garden is well underway this year again. My chives came up all by themselves! I went out a month ago to survey the containers after a long cold winter and there was a healthy pot of chives growing all by themselves without any input from me! That made me so happy.

Last summer I opened my balcony door and cut fresh herbs and cooked with them all summer.

I cannot tell you the joy my little garden gives me - the sight, the smell, and the taste of the fresh herbs! Pure joy. :)

Anyone can garden!
You don't need to own a farm or even your own house.
If you live in an apartment with a balcony you can garden.
If you don't have a balcony you can ask a neighbor or family member if you can put in a garden on their property and share the food with them.
If that is not an option, you can participate in a community garden.
If there are no community gardens where you live you can start one!

[soleil]

ive started a ton of seedlings (late) because my first round died/just wasnt set up properly. this is the first time i've been doing it all by myself from seed with (as minimal help) from my fiance as possible. as he already has a green thumb, this is my turn to turn mine green. :)

so far i'm extremely excited to grow my own stevia :)

[Bubu]

I have been Studying permaculture for years now and I found out the the best teacher is the little forest at the back of the house, Comprehend and copy nature. Victor S. Permaculture principle is very good but ones they go to as far as training and seminars they will flood you with menial issues a waste of time for you and money for them. The most important thing I learned in the forest formation is to bring in the seeds. I do not see this being emphasize in the permie principles. What I do is have some seed trays in the kitchen made of wire mesh. Every seed in the kitchen goes into this trays. They are scattered into the forest or I make seed bombs out of them and throw them anywhere, You can search the seed bombs if you like.

[soleil]

I have been Studying permaculture for years now and I found out the the best teacher is the little forest at the back of the house, Comprehend and copy nature. Victor S. Permaculture principle is very good but ones they go to as far as training and seminars they will flood you with menial issues a waste of time for you and money for them. The most important thing I learned in the forest formation is to bring in the seeds. I do not see this being emphasize in the permie principles. What I do is have some seed trays in the kitchen made of wire mesh. Every seed in the kitchen goes into this trays. They are scattered into the forest or I make seed bombs out of them and throw them anywhere, You can search the seed bombs if you like.

ive started collected seeds from organic/(god i hope) non gmo fruit/veggies. and also bought myself an illustrated medical herb encyclopedia to check out what grows around my house. so far, im able to recognize a few weeds/wild flowers in southern ontario. im waiting for my neal's yard book for home made remedies to start doing some myself.

do you have any advice as to what to collect and how?

[northstar]

do you have any advice as to what to collect and how?

Oddly enough, the common dandelion is a medical powerhouse. Both the roots and the leaves have strong medicinal benefits.
Stinging nettles (a common weed in Canada) provide a huge variety of nutrients, minerals and vitamins.
Common Oatstraw (the grass part of the oat plant) is very soothing to the nervous system and a fantastic source of calcium (but you have to boil it for approximately 20 minutes - this is called an "infusion".)

I have been studying herbs for 2 years now with a clinical herbalist who lives nearby. I am learning some amazing things about the significant medicinal benefits of what most people would call weeds! :)

[soleil]

ive been keeping an eye out for wild mugwort. i havent found it yet and really want to make sure i can recognize it. and also looking to begin an herbalist course of study sometime this year. :) my dream is to have my own botanical shop :) or something :)

[northstar]

ive been keeping an eye out for wild mugwort. i havent found it yet and really want to make sure i can recognize it. and also looking to begin an herbalist course of study sometime this year. :) my dream is to have my own botanical shop :) or something :)

Herbs are so awesome and fun to work with and study! I feel so lucky to be able to take classes with a master herbalist. We make teas, tinctures, lotions, syrups and lots of fun things.

If haven't worked with mugwort yet but if I do I'll let you know! :)

[Zelig]

I've become obsessed with permaculture recently and see tremendous opportunities for developing self-reliance with it. I have just finished building a hugelkultur bed in my backyard and things are already starting to sprout less than a week after seeding. I'm in northern Ontario in zone 1 or 2 and it'd be pretty cool to grow some fruits and vegetables here in between snows. Ultimately, I'm hoping to develop some land I 'own' outside of Thunder Bay (zone 3 or 4) and to establish a permaculture homestead. I'm a newcomer to growing anything other than a lawn, so there is a lot to learn. I'm glad you started this thread.

[Earth Angel]

my 22 year old daughter is very excited about starting a garden this year (southern ontario) and my husband and I are too ......the interesting thing is that she works with the public and says she talks to at least 2 people a day who are starting their garden for the first time this year (like us)....of course its now June, and we are still getting frost and have not begun the work......but its incredible the number of people young and old who are so excited about growing their own food.....I think we are receiving messages from the sun telling us to do this!

[Rosieposie]

Isn't the garden a joy! I love it when stuff starts self seeding too lol I have just managed to source some heirloom potatoes and am very excited about it :D May I recommend sweet potatoes to anyone looking for a good bulk food crop, mine produced several kg in my first season (you do have to cure them to get them sweet) and they do well in the shade of my fruit trees (shade tolerant plants are the bees knees), no pest issues and have all come away again beautifully after harvest (I just left a few little potatoes in the ground with the tops exposed and off they go again). Also you can eat the greens!

I love discovering how many uses each plant has, like I used to think clover was a weed but now I see it as nitrogen fixing/bee feeding/green manure/high protein chicken food. Borage is also great to toss in a gap in the garden as it takes care of itself really well and seeds everywhere and attracts tonnes of bees and the leaves are high in protein for chooks too, seems to help keep the balance of pests amongst the greens too. I want to get more into the medicinal side of it all too, I currently use hawthorn and ginkgo biloba for my shocking circulation with great results.

If there's any people in Aussie after heirloom seeds I would recommend the diggers club :) here: http://www.diggers.com.au/
Worth looking at their shop even if you arn't in Aussie just for ideas of plants to go seed hunting for actually.

Cool beans, happy gardening folks!

Oh! An afterthought.. I often see beautiful heirloom seeds for sale on http://www.etsy.com/?ref=so_home if you look in their gardening section (etsy is a cool site for finding stuff, lots of hand made and homegrown stuff)

[jbins]

Permaculture is going to be a big part of the solution to many of our problems if you ask me! I'm so glad theirs an interest in it on this forum and i'm happy to have found this forum again. This thread reminded me of a couple videos on food forests i watched not to long ago that i really enjoyed. i hope you don't mind me posting them here as i feel they're great examples of permaculture before the nomenclature even existed as we know it!

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[thunder24]

plant williow trees for the bark...its like aspirin from what I understand...

dandelions are a powerhouse... the heads can also b turned into wine...

clover is edible and some taste like green beans....

plaintain is edible for salads and sautes or stirfrys... just remember with these green leaves some are a bit bitter...

ginsing, may apples, bloodroot, "touch-me-nots", strawberries, blueberries, all nuts...look at what is native in ur area and increase its fold...
birch trees good for "wintergreen" toothpicks
lillies roots are edible i read somewhere... all ur flower heads on pumpkins and squash and zucini's....

throw out echincia seed bombs...those add to ur medicinal herbs...
get seeds from the mid east or europe of old style wheat and rye

[Rosieposie]

Hey jbins those videos are really neat :) I think you're right about it being a big part of our future, I read a quote on another forum once that said "most people don't know a lot of the worlds problems can be solved in the garden" it sort of stuck with me, mother nature provides all our needs and I like the idea of nurturing and giving to the earth and have it giving back. It seems like a more balanced, abundant relationship, at the moment it bothers me how parasitic our current systems are. I've also read somewhere someone discussing how our relationship with the earth and nature is often in reflection of our relationship with the female energies, so perhaps that is a part of it all, humans coming into balance with the male/female aspects of ourselves :).

And some really good hints there Thunder, I didn't know I could eat the clover too lol awesome!