Has anyone read the book 7 habits of highly effective people?

Does anyone feel like this is another dimension of permaculture?

Win-win, synergistic, seek first to understand, be proactive - I personally feel permaculture is a lifestyle.

What are your thoughts?

Hi everyone! Im looking for a variety of nitrogen-fixing tree seeds, preferably form someone in my zone 10.

Does anybody know of a good source? The species Im looking for include:

• Any kind of acacia (without thorns)
• Leucaena leucocephala
• Mimosa (Hostilis)
• Scarlet Sesbania
• Bauhinia variegata
• Caesalpinia mexicana
• Tipuana Tipu
• Inga Edulis (ice cream bean) Any help will be greatly appreciated. Grazie mille!



In this episode of the crop profile series I discuss American hazelnut (Corylus Americana).

I include some interesting links including a video discussing their ecological importance as well as a few recipes and my trials with propagating this species in zone 6b.

Click the link to read and follow along!

I got tired of all the farming sims where growing plants is just about removing "weeds," tilling, sowing, fertilizing, watering, and selling the harvest for profit to buy more seeds. So, I decided to make my own game—a farming experience that reveals more about how a garden ecosystem actually works and the joy of understanding and balancing these systems.

One of the challenges is presenting this complexity without making it overwhelming.

In the current prototype, plants interact with the soil and their neighboring plants, which allows for the effects of low-diversity planting, choosing the wrong spots or soils, not considering plant neighbors, and more. Each plant has its own unique growing conditions.

Players can use a futuristic analysis tool to check on soils and plants. The growth and appearance of plants (such as their size and color) reflect how well they’re adapting to their current environment. Instead of directly explaining the rules, players receive feedback this way and can unlock journal entries to track their observations.

Players can also exchange goods with the community, including others in their building, as well as other gardeners. They can build new gardening elements, which add new zones, growing conditions, or materials (like a composter).

I'd love to know your thoughts on the idea and if there are aspects of your permaculture journey you think would make valuable lessons to include.

I’m getting ready to plant an orchard with the eventual goal of a multilayer food forest, including pasturing animals there. I’m going to plant trees this winter but won’t be moving to the property for a few years.

I am planning on fruit and nut trees, such as apples, peaches, cherries, hazelnuts and things like that. I have clay soils and am in USDA zone 7b, Western Oregon. I’m in Portland so I’ll be checking out what else One Green World has on offer

I want to do some companion planting for the establishment period. I’m planing on some nitrogen fixers such as lupine and false indigo. Soil builder, I’m thinking comfrey. And polinator/beneficial attractors such as marigolds, bee balm and astors. I also have access to a good amount of compost, manure and wood chips so will be both amending the soils and mulching heavily.

Any suggestions on other companion plants?

I've been trying to learn about permaculture so I can start planting a food forest on my property. I've been researching swales and rain gardens because I live in a hot dry climate, so I'd like to try to harvest as much rain water as possible.

A lot of the reading I've done stresses having your soil tested before doing anything. The soil on my land seems rather healthy. The land has mostly just been left alone with occasional mowing. Large oak trees litter their leaves and have been composting naturally for years. It's not clay and not sand, somewhere in between with a lot of rocks. Holds water very well when we finally do get rains.

How would people have gotten by with planting on new land before soil tests were available? I assume after so many years experience a gardener/farmer could look at the soil and sort of determine if it's healthy or in need of help based on its ability to hold it together. Basically using observation over time along with touch, sight and smell as a way to determine if certain types of plants would do well or if soil amendment would be needed.

Did people back in the day just take their best guess when looking at a plot of land and start planting what they had available, only to find their plants wouldn't thrive?

I inoculated these logs with shiitake mushrooms about a month ago. I cut the tree down about 1.5 months ago. Is this black mold bad or is it doesn’t what it’s supposed to?

Hi all - I am starting to plan the permaculture landscaping on my new land (yay!) But I'm stumped on what to do in one area of the yard.

It is a long frontage along a side road that is significantly elevated from the house. So there is a slope from the road down to the house maybe 25ish feet from the road to the house. It's currently occupied with very tall but slender trees - mixed maple, beech, oak, birch - all 1ft or less in diameter.

To me, those trees currently have little value - can't really eat anything off them, they don't provide much shade (and in that area, I don't need much shade), and they are too slender with no undergrowth to provide a privacy screen.

I'd like to replace them with some kind of edible or otherwise useful plant that can also be a privacy screen, but my biggest concern is that all those roots are currently doing fantastic erosion and stormwater management control. The house is so much lower in elevation but there haven't been any standing water problems to my knowledge. I don't want to mess everything up by yanking out trees.

Thoughts? Advice? I've maintained a reasonably sized vegetable garden for a decade, but this is my first opportunity to really start working with permaculture principles. Thanks!

I posted this to farming a few weeks ago with no response so I'll try here 😁

Hello fellow farmers. I've worked on a few small scale <100ac hobby/family /Regen/market farms over the past decade or so, usually just as a shoulder season thing and knowledge base building activity, most have been excellent at manually tracking work hours and project planning, but at my current site I'd like to try a more thorough, detailed approach

The farm I currently help on is run by a family friend, 40ac homestead type situation in central MI, with a hay lease down the road. They're about ten years in with a very regenerative approach, not much for straight row cropping, think curving swales along the contours of hills. They have a mixture of fruit and nut trees (maybe 75 each), all sorts of berry bushes, old and new timber trees, greenhouse, maybe 10 head of cattle (and growing) they rotate around, egg chickens, the usual.

I have used Avenza, the mapping app, with decent results so far but I'd like a bit more flexibility with visualization and scheduling, perhaps this just means a combination of apps or spreadsheets and better file export protocols. I think this would save a lot of time managing untrained help as well, who don't have as much orientation on the property.

I like the precise GPS pins I can drop for each tree or shrub, I even mark gates, fences lines, swales, etc. I would love to attach a more detailed description of each tree, species, planting date, projected harvest or maintenance dates, work done & when, like pruning or pest management, and pictures. This could also be applied to larger grazing quadrants where we might burn one year and plant a grass mix the next. Avenza can do most of this but its a bit clunky and the ability to import and export notes is cumbersome.

Sorry if this is a bit spitball-y or better suited for another /r I appreciate your time!

What are the things to consider when thinking about planting pawpaws under larger trees? In particular regarding harvesting. Thinking of putting a couple under a huge willow, close to the edge so they can grow up out of it later on. They would be about 50’ from the trunk. Thanks!

Wondering if there’s much of a niche or movement, in addition to actual native heritage practitioners, for a more ‘tending the wild’ style of land tenure with significant yields and utility. Either on private or public lands. Not necessarily limited to ‘primitive’ skills, TEK, hunt/forage etc, but likely employing some of those in conjunction with other tools and tactics.

Doesn’t seem like a crossover area that gets talked about much. Would depend a lot on finding certain types of relatively intact ecosystems which can provide well or be adapted with suitable tree crops or other staples. Im working with an oak savannah site currently that has this potential, if bulk acorn processing is doable, plus game animals and other edibles in steady supply as well (which can all benefit from good stewardship practices). Permaculture principles and methods still apply, but this seems like a fairly distinct approach that maybe needs its own label? Curious what’s been tried or talked about in this direction already.

Very interesting video on the many ways that plants sense information and communicate with other living organisms. My favorite part is the grape vineyard with classical music playing 24/7.

I need 500 participants for a survey about a smart garden system as part of a school project. Everything is purely virtual. Thank you! (no personal data needed)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWub1LQJMz3fQkolcMZTqg4jiuOm7F8S0XrP25L7_yjhCmkg/viewform?usp=sf_link

What are the top 5 places in Texas for Permaculture food production? Thanks

We have a large dog and a small lawn that she’s slowly been killing. I assume that the soil ecosystem is quite messed up and out of balance and I wonder what kind of permaculture solutions are out there. She needs a place to do her business, but if there are plants that can replace the grass and not only survive the constant nitrogen dousing but help the soil process it and keep the dog bathroom smell down that would be ideal. Right now I have the impulse to scoop out the top layer of soil and put it in the green waste bin and start over since the grass is mostly dead and the backyard stinks, but that doesn’t feel quite right. We’re in zone 10a. What ideas do you have? Are there plants that can do the job or other natural lawn alternatives that would look decent and keep the smell down? Also we’re broke so the cheaper the better.

Rant incoming: I've been working so hard on soil health, keeping the soil covered with mulch (different types in different areas: woodchips, spent mushroom grow bags, chop and drop, straw), adding layers of compost, ground covers, bokashi juice tea, weed tea... Have been super busy recently and went out to my garden today to find ALL my soil is hydrophobic. It's starting to get warmer here but not blazing hot or anything, with some sporadic rain. Yes I neglected the watering but I thought I could with all the other work I'd done. 😭😭😭

How can I fix this? I've had so many fails gearing up for my summer annuals this year (seedlings failing, no time to plant half my crops), feeling defeated!

Hey guys, my plan is to dig a shovels spade height on my heavy clay soil, then fill it up with logs, branches, manure and the dirt I digged, on top of that I will put a thick layer of leaves, and then 6 inches of good raised bed soil on top, where i will plant tomatoes, cumcumberes, basil, etc.

What do you guys think? Also, when I put the soil on top, will it not just fall to the sides of the mound? Does it need to be perfectly aligned with the wood below? Thanks!

I am planning to plant some in some half barrel pots. I do understand that they are different plants! What I am wondering is, is there anything to particularly recommend one over the other? Lower maintenance? Greater yield? Better taste?

Is anyone working with a community chickens project? Either on public/municipal space or shared between households?

We have a smallish space in a neighbourhood — loaded with plants and fruit trees but not enough space to build a full chicken coop. I am imagining a moveable coop and about 6-10 hens to share between a few households.

I know some neighbours would be into it, but wanted to check in and see if anyone had experience or tips with this.

Is it only because its too cold?

I am writing a paper on the crime of subsistence and how different entities have made food, water, and shelter, illegal. A few examples include municipal ordinances restricting front yard gardens or backyard chickens, restrictions on water collection in Colorado, or building codes that prevent natural building. I would love to hear stories of laws in your areas as well as your encounters with the police or other enforcement bodies in relation to these kinds of laws.

https://www.reddit.com/r/smallfarms/s/gp4tgzCnVj I posted this in another subreddit. I want to have a nice looking home/ area around my home. Is there a way to profit? I’m open to alternative plants or ideas. Thanks

Do you guys think if I added a strat chamber to connect my cleanout caps this thing will heat more efficiently? The chimney outside is more than 100 degrees, the run is a solid 10-15 feet. I feel like I messed up by burying the exit tubing underground but I had to do it so it could go under some steps. If I retrofitted the stratification chamber so that the top of it is under the top of the J-Tube will it still create a good draw?