Learning a New Permaculture Approach p2

 

2. Catch and Store Energy - Use of electricity, water storage and irrigation, building materials, sun, wind

3. Obtain a Yield - Food forest for materials, food, fuel, etc.

4. Apply Self Regulation and Feedback - limit consumption and allow nature to have its share, learn from natural cycles and mistakes,

5. Use and Value Renewalbe Resources - sustainable practices, animals, insects

6. Produce no waste - repurpost broken, reuse, renew

7. Design from patterns to details - 

8. Integrate Rather than Segregate - community

9. Small and Slow Solutions - long view, invest little and don't over extend

10. Use and value diversity - many different types of strawberry, more and more insects, natural plants

11. Use Edge and Value the Marginal - increased productivity

12. Creatively Use and Repond to Change - Planning and modify plan when needed. 

If you are new to permaculture and want to learn more, I recommend taking the permaculture class with Andrew Millison. I did and it helped me connect a lot of shared values, personal experience, common sense and new perspectives under one approach.

Learning a New Permaculture Approach p1

When I was young my parents used to take me outside and taught me to weed, water, and tend our large traditional garden. I followed their directions as best I could. Later when I worked for a landscaping company I learned a lot regarding design, individual plan needs and skills with tools. I followed their directions as best I could. Now as a new husband and father with my new house I looked at our overgrown mess of a back yard with excitement and determination.

As I worked on filling in our ravine, I began buying plants for the front yard. Thankfully I am writing this entry years after the effort so I have forgotten some of the detail but not the pain. Nearly every single plant I bought died. Whether it lasted a week, a month, or a whole season, I can not count one plant that I purchased that still exists. I often made planting decisions based on flower color and physical features. I focused on showy annuals without considering the future and role of perennials. I never tried to naturally amend soil, used mulch sparingly, overused chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. I didn't weed much or interfere if insects and animals attracted. I figured I didn't need a plant in my yard that couldn't survive on its own. After years of watching plants struggle and eventually die I started to reconsider my ability to rehabilitate our yard.

That was until I planted one foxtail (obedient plant) on top of a mound in the back yard that got regular sunshine vs most of the rest which sat in thick shade under tall trees. That plant grew to double its size quickly. The excitement I felt when it came back the next year and continued to spread lead me to take further action. I read more about the needs of the plant, prepped a bed for its future expansion. I separated the plants to help them fill in the gaps, I weeded and began to compost, mulch and water regularly. In three seasons that one plant grew out to cover the entire top of the mound and provide an impressive landscaping effect. Finally, I was proud of the return on investment on time, effort and money. The fire I had to grow things was relit.

Looking back at that time, I was finally stumbling my own way into what I later learned was a permaculture approach to landscape design. Following twelve principles of design as explained by David Holmgren starts with the first basic tenet of Observing and Interacting. Instead of making reactive decisions based on individual plants I needed to first create a plan to take into account all the natural forces that were present in our back yard that affect the potential for life - landscape, the elements, vegetation, wildlife, and influence of people through use of structures and space.

Once I focused my efforts on noting existing natural patterns and established natural growing techniques I had much greater success. The transformation took multiple seasons but each success laid the foundation for further success because I learned to follow the other 11 design principles. Continued in the next post -  Learning a New Permaculture Approach p2. 

Laying a Strong Foundation

Looking from the ravine floor up the 10 ft slope at the filled in back yard. Walnut saplings pointed out.  

Looking at our back yard you would never know that it contained a 10 ft deep, 30 foot wide ravine. The honeysuckle bush that grew on the side and bottom was that thick and tall. If you didn't already know, bush honeysuckle is invasive and a real problem here in Ohio and Kentucky for a few reasons: 

• they are very tolerant of poor soil conditions and shade can compete well amongst the roots of trees 
• they are amongst the first bushes to leaf out in the spring and the last to drop leaves in the fall so they are vigorous growers that easily overpowering smaller native plants and shrubs.
• their canopy can be so think that the ground beneath is completely shaded and barren of other plant life creating stagnant environments where standing water frequently collects making it a perfect mosquito breeding ground.
• they can produce a toxin that caterpillars and other plant-eating insects can’t seem to handle. It also seems to suppress the germination of seeds in competing plants. 
• They quickly regrow from roots left in the ground and their sweet berries are favorites of birds that help spread the bush.

(see https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/honeysuckle)

Knowing that we wanted to remove this invader I set to work cutting them back so that I could reach their trunks. One can easily pry even the biggest of honeysuckle bush if you can find the three main roots that shoot out in a triangular pattern from the base. The roots are close to the surface so I like to use a pick axe after a day of rain to chop throw soft soil until I feel the satisfying crack of a broken root. After chopping the three roots just grab the trunk and rock it back and forth in a twisting motion. If it doesn't come out easily you can feel which of the three roots wasn't completely broken so you can give it another go with the pick axe blade. More on honeysuckle in future posts.

I focused my efforts on removing honeysuckle on the front side of the ravine so that we could invite trucks to dump dirt into it to fill it up. Extending a level grass plot was the first step in accessing the rest of the backyard. We put ads frequently in Craigslist Free category as a site for free dirt dumping. It took a few weeks but after 10 dump truck loads of all shapes and sizes we were getting close to filling the ravine for free. It was a win - win. 

Then it happened.  One day, we got a call from a developer that was interested in dumping multiple large truck loads dirt from a construction site and we happily agreed. When I got home from work that day I found that we had our very own 20 ft tall dirt clod mountain. I quickly changed and climbed to the top with a shovel and pick axe to start working on it. After an hour I realized I needed a lot more help.

That's when I learned that one neighbor, Dan ("the man") had experience working a bobcat and would help me level out our back yard if I paid for the rental and gas. God bless him and his kids who took turns driving it as he taught them. They did a great job leveling out the dirt from the drive, grading it down and away from the house and drive. The extra dirt was pushed off the edge to create a steep dirt slope. Concerned that the dirt might eventually give way and spill our yard into our neighbors, we knew we needed to protect the hill. It was out of necessity that we decided to save money and use resources at hand. 

We did purchase a few yards of end of season top soil which we had delivered and poured along the top edge and back side of the filled in ravine. Once done I planted all the Fall walnuts I could collect from other trees on our property to start growing a new walnut strand with roots to hold our hill in place. It only took a season for those nuts to create over 50 different foot tall stick trees which over the years grew quickly to hold the hillside in place. Now fifteen years later and some strategic thinning we have 15 strong walnut trees that have successfully held our hillside in place. And we have a real sense of privacy and so much more bird and squirrel activity.

Lots of Green but Not Much Good

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Making The Backyard Plan:

When we first moved into our new house over 15 years ago we fell in love with the landscape. Our brick ranch house sat under a variety of mature 30+ foot tall trees. During the next few weeks between cleaning, moving, and prepping for our first child, I spent time exploring our back yard.  Here's what I found:

• A small patch of grass that receded into a deep ravine with steep slopes
• Multiple ash trees with spotted bark - telltale signs of emerald ash borer infestation 
• Bush honeysuckle so thick I had to use hand shears to cut a path to walk through  
• Poison ivy everywhere and growing up our trees
• Grape vine that lay like a mat on top of the honeysuckle binding it tightly together
• Winter creeper vines covering the ground choking out what little grew under the honeysuckle
• And lots and lots of mosquitos!

It wasn't pretty. It was completely daunting. The back yard was a thick green backdrop that masked a nasty, unsafe place we tried to avoid. But from a distance I could envision a different space complete with:

• A large, level yard full of grass for our little family to play in
• A food forest full of native plants that was safe to explore (no more poison ivy!)
• Pretty flowers of many colors and a traditional garden
• Impressive boulders and pondless waterfall

There was so much to do. Where to begin? I had the energy and enthusiasm to reformat the space but lacked significant time, money and in some cases the right approach. Mistakes were made. Successes were few. I questioned whether I had a green thumb or not. Sound familiar? 

But then I found permaculture and it changed my whole way thinking. I could see that too much of my effort was focused on individual plants and effects without taking into account the larger environment and natural cycles. Now that I focus on shaping inputs of the evolving ecosystem I am finding greater biodiversity and larger volumes of life both plant and animal. So much to enjoy and yet much of the work was done for me for free by nature itself.

With over 60 percent of the land in the US owned by private citizens, if but one of every 10 households/organizations chose to develop their back yards as ecosystems we will create a patchwork of new native lands to sustain our health and the future of our native neighbors.

This blog is about my experience transforming my back yard into a permaculture based landscape and fully functioning ecosystem. Each post will reflect on vital landscaping topics involved in the transformation and how I address them looking back at the past, assessing the present and forecasting the future. You can learn from my successes and failures. 

Hopefully The Backyard Plan will inspire you to transform your own backyard into an invigorating space for you and healthy environment for your native neighbors.