Welcome to Permaculture

Happy Thanksgiving

Been busy this year expanding the gradens, giving the chickens more space to roam, and improving the aquaponics systems.
I've taken to canning and preserving more of our own food. My canned soups and chile seems so much better than the store bought too. Not much else to report yet on this front but we are growing more long term perennial food plants as time goes on. We actually got to harvest bananas from one of our own plants this past September. The grapefruit and tangerines are coming on strong again this year, so we should have plenty of citrus juice to freeze. That is about all I have to report on that for now.

May 2009

I'm learning more about Permaculture and trying to implement some of the design practices into my garden.
I have started checking out a forum about itPermies Permaculture, well I don't know the real definition (if there is one) off hand but I see it as trying to be more self sufficient and provide for as much of our own food at home as is reasonable for our situation. Lets face it, very few people now days are going to be completely self sufficient and hence most use a lesser definition of what self sufficient means. Even homesteaders brought certain things with them to start out. For my part, I grow most of the veggies we eat and we are hoping to raise some of our own meat in the form of chickens (yes we have backyard chickens and the eggs are great) and fish (from the Aquaponics systems.) On the other hand, we still have to work outside jobs to get the money to pay all the bills (taxes, insurance, medical, fuel, power, internet and all that.) On 1/3 of an acre I don't really expect to grow enough to meet all our food, fiber, oil, fuel, building, and income needs but I do hope to lessen our footprint on the earth a little bit. I also like to know what I'm eating and growing one's own food is a good way to start.