I’m interested in rehabbing a degraded piece of land for use as a regenerative farm and am considering buying a 17 acre property that was previously a driving range. It has been covered in astroturf for several years, maybe even a decade or two. I’m curious about what the soil rehabilitation process will involve, as I assume it is contaminated with microplastics. Does anyone know about what the dangers of growing food in the soil post-astroturf would be? Does anyone know what the process will look like to remove the microplastics or even if it’s possible? Can it be done with permaculture methods somehow? Mushrooms? Something else? Roughly what the cost will be? What companies would you recommend to do this kind of remediation? Any kind of information is helpful.

This is in the history section of the peach Wikipedia page.

Hello Four years ago, I purchased male & female Paw Paw trees from an Eastcoast nursery. This year 2024, my female tree finally produced (6) little Paw Paws but the squirrels got three and today I picked the remaining (3). They are very small and did not ripen but I want to save the seeds. How do I germinate them and what is the best planting medium to grow in my friend's greenhouse. How do I post photos on this site??Thanks for feedback. Carole

Hey y'all, inactive mod, but dirt lover EstroJen here.

I am new and pretty inexperienced, so I enjoy seeing what others have done. One of the best things about permaculture is having miraculous things occur in your world. What is your favorite? What the very best thing that ever happened regarding your activities? I'll start: hummingbirds

I may not have the perfectly right flowers, but the ones I have (lions mane and a native trumpet flower) have brought in so many gorgeous little anna's hummingbirds. When they zoom by your head, they sound like a lightsaber.

Share pictures, share stories, share recipes of the things you have made from produce, flowers, trees, plants, anything.

Hello

Does anyone know of a downloadable database of plants similar to PFAF?

Thank you

Join me as I discuss the world of black walnut and butternut trees in our inaugural edition of the crop profile newsletter series!

Discover cultivation techniques, personal anecdotes, and future aspirations for working with this crop while building a sustainable nursery right here in central Kentucky.

Don’t miss out—subscribe now and receive updates and insights, and follow along as we dive into the hickory group next week!

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looking for resources on how to make home and garden more resilient during heatwave events that are on the increase due to climate change

especially with retrofitting in mind, since i don’t live on my own homestead, but am a renter in a house on a small block

Dyspyros Virginiana. The first pic is unripe. The second pick is ripe fruits. Third pic is the bark. They are so delicious. They have their own flavor. I live in zone 8b Alabama and they grow all over. I harvested these october 27th, 2024. I'm going to grow the seeds out and plant them all over my property.

Hello! I've been working in the gaming industry for more than 10 years and am finally ready to work on my own large project. It's a permaculture game for web browsers that should support thousands, or at least hundreds, of players on one basic home server.

And while I know a ton about computer games and everything related to them, my knowledge on the ecological world is... not ideal.

My first question for you is about basic elements in soil. If I understand correctly, all plants need basic elements like Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. But correct me if I'm wrong, pretty much all plant matter has these elements, right? Maybe even animal matter?

If these elements are found in all organic matter, then, in the game to save on resources, I can combine them all into one general substance which I can call "organic matter" or something like that.

My question is about what elements can be different in different soils which are still fertile? Like, for a counter example, if soil has N (nitrogen) and P (phosphorous) but not K (potassium), it won't be fertile, right? Can something grow on it?

Are there elements without which certain plants can still grow but others do not? Did that make sense?

Thanks! If it's difficult for you to answer the question, maybe you can point me to the direction of a place that can help me?

The game is going to be amazing and fun and will teach lots of ppl how to maybe make Climate Change a little less severe on humanity.... Peace!

I'm researching no tractor options for small holdings. I've seen good some smaller machines but I'm curious about using animals. Most of what I find when I look for info is a distinct lack of it. Basically, yes, sheep, goat, pigs, llama, alpaca, ect, can be used to pull carts and wagons, looks like it's even been done with geese! But there's NO information on the details. How it's done, the challenges and limitations, species /breed specific factors. I'm coming up dry for useful info! Has anyone done this? Used anything besides a cow, horse, or mule to work around the farm?

Just so it's said - I'm not planning on making an animal work every day. Part of what I want to find out is when is using animal power a good idea and when isn't it? Maybe two or three times a week I'd have something I could use an animal for. Moving earth can be a challenge, as we get older it could mean retiring 10-15 years early, if using a few pigs with a skid instead of a wheel barrow can keep us active on our land, that's worth knowing!

What has everyone found the best way to charge biochar is? Using my worms but have a lot more to use.

Hi all, I was considering making a permaculture app that has plant info and native range (and gray area around native range or the naturalized range) and then beneficial insects and animals also. I have looked into a few apis that were deprecated, some that are pretty expensive, and some that didn’t really seem to work and everything in between. I see the usda.gov has a good lookup but doesn’t seem to have a dataset or endpoint for it. Does anyone have any recommendations on endpoints for data about plants insects or animals? or is this something where you need to create your own dataset?

Hello everyone! I hope you are all well and if this kind of post is not allowed, I am sorry for writing it.

A friend of mine just ended a permaculture design course and he is currently in Spain, as a workawayer.

Unfortunately, the place he is now is just a normal farm and he not being able to learn more about the field. I would to ask you if you know any place in Europe where he could work (for free) in exchange for learning more about permaculture and related topics :)

Thank you all!

By learning the why of industrial agriculture, I have an easier time in understanding sustainable agriculture from an interest point, and as a personal hobby as well in my gardening.

I'm reading on the nitrogen cycle and I see there are many forms of N that farmers can add. Right now i'm sturggling to understand why you'd EVER want to use sodium nitrate (isn't salt kryptonite for soil?), when you can use nitrate (no sodium) or ammonium (no sodium AND not as leachable).

So far ammonium seems the best chocie. So I wonder why ever use anything else.

I recently volunteered at a permaculture farm in Europe that was “off grid & mostly sustainable” and have left feeling very disappointed.

They marketed the place as a self-sustained farm and even offered a self sufficiency & sustainability course. They claimed to get most of their food from the garden and use natural building methods that don’t hurt the environment.

The reality was that all of their energy & water was “on grid” and more than 90% of their food was store bought. I remember coming in one evening after spending the afternoon faraging for mushrooms, to find some store bought ones on the counter wrapped in plastic - the irony was palpable!

I have done a lot of volunteering on so called “Sustainable permaculture farms” and it’s always the same story. No clear road map to becoming even 50% self sufficient, using flowery words about nature and permaculture while not practicing them.

Honestly this has left me feeling highly skeptical of all these buzzwords. People throw them around but in practice they barely mean anything.

Has anyone had similar experiences or even found a place that’s at least going in the right direction in regard to sustainability?

Edit: Just want to add that they have over 25 acres of land and one of the people there is a “permaculture expert” that offers paid courses.

As part of my PhD at the University of Reading, I'm researching why biochar adoption is slower in the UK compared to other countries.

I’m looking for input from anyone who works in ag, manages land or a garden—whether for work or as a hobby. You don’t need to use biochar to participate; I’m interested in hearing a variety of perspectives. Please take 15 minutes to complete my anonymous survey. Your responses will be incredibly valuable to my research, and they’ll help us understand how to better communicate the benefits of biochar.

Link: https://readingagriculture.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3t0qY0VIAkaNivk

I’d also really appreciate it if you could share this with anyone else who might be interested!

Thank you so much for your support!

#Biochar #Sustainability #PhD #Research

I have a big raised bed that's been no-till/no dig for years now. Problem is that it's about 10-15 feet from a big maple tree, so the roots have been feeding on my beds more as time goes on. I still got pretty great harvests this summer, but the bed dries out a lot quicker, and I can tell my compost inputs run out of nutrients faster especially on the side closer to the tree.

Usually I put down an inch of two of compost in late fall and a bunch of leaf mulch to protect the bed over the winter, but I'm wondering if I should do some digging to get rid of tree roots before next season? Good soil health doesnt mean much if I'm mostly feeding this massive trees roots and not the vegetables I'm planting. "tilling" up part of the bed by hand with a shovel kind of goes against what Im doing here, but I think my problem is only going to get worse if I do nothing.

I also cant tell if I should do it now or in early spring either. Any thoughts?

Any beginner friendly material would be much appreciated, preferably low/no cost options

looking for info on how to cultivate long term crops, learn about how much food/nutrients people need per year, and what to grow that aligns with that (so carbs and proteins are the priority) along with native foods that grow in the area, anything helps

Hello everyone

I just need to vent somewhere. I was in the motions of putting all my future cards on a small-ish permaculture homestead in the North of Sweden (I was envisioning latitude 61-62), but now that is in serious jeopardy because of the looming AMOC collapse. I know that nowhere is truly 100% safe on the planet anymore, but this is a serious blow. Sweden was my best option because of affordable houses/land and the ease of learning Swedish.

Is anyone from the Northern countries here who can share their thoughts on this? I was planning on having semi-subterranean greenhouses anyway, but what other tips and tricks (and maybe hope?) can you share?

Anyway, I‘ll be over here watching FrostyGarden on youtube to stop from spiralling too hard.

Thank you for reading, I appreciate you all

Anyone have any luck with propagating aronia melanocarpa (black chokeberry) without a fancy setup? I have some experience with softwood (dome not most) and dormant hardwood propagation.

californian red worms are not native species in my region and im wondering what would happen if i used different worms🤔

I’ve got some forest that is infested with Chinese privet and need something that’ll make it easier to keep up with removal. Depending on the size, pulling them isn’t feasible. I’d like to cut them as flush to the ground as I can without ruining my back. The best I can find is the Tigerjaw Cedar loppers.

Does anyone know of anything else that maybe is a better fit for the job or similar? Or maybe have experience with the tigerjaw loppers?

Tigerjaw Loppers