As most of you know, we bought a few acres in Canton almost 5 months ago. Time is flying by! We had a goal and want of buying some land for a few reasons. We loved our last home so much, but it was in a crowded subdivision, full of people spraying herbicides and pesticides all over their lawns. We wanted to improve our health even more so by being in a space with fresh, clean air. We also wanted Avery to be able to live a carefree lifestyle, which she definitely is now (more on this in a minute), but another huge priority of ours was to be able to raise our own food. We have done so much research on this because we want to do it the right way (maintain our land to grow food and raise a few animals), and we always come back to permaculture practices. I’m not an expert in permaculture by ANY means, but today, I want to share with you how we are bringing permaculture practices into our property and a little about what I know about permaculture. There is a lot of information out there about permaculture and it can be very hard to figure it all out, so if you are looking into implementing permaculture practices into your land, learn with me!
How we are bringing permaculture practices into our property
What is permaculture?
To start, let’s talk about what permaculture is. According to Bill Mollison, cofounder and father of the movement, “Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.” Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design. It helps owners create systems that are derived using whole-systems thinking. It will help you cut down on time and effort, and it is a way to design agricultural landscapes, especially in home landscapes, in a way that improves and supports the local eco-system, with an emphasis on being life-giving for generations.
According to The House and Homestead, “Permaculture is based on 3 main ethical standards: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. Earth Care is all about making sure that our actions improve (or at least maintain) the earth and the natural environment. So for example, when it comes to gardening that means we are using organic methods to make the land more productive and diverse and steering clear of herbicides, pesticides and GMOs.
In the home, Earth Care could mean using natural cleaning products and practicing good habits like turning lights and taps off when we’re not using them. In the community, Earth Care could mean walking or cycling instead of driving or picking up litter.
People Care is all about making sure the needs of the people around us are met in sustainable, self-sufficient ways. Feeding ourselves, our families and our community members with the food that we grow is one way of caring for people, but it is certainly not the only way.
Fair Share is all about taking only our fair share. In other words, take only what you need from nature and allow renewable resources time to regenerate. Cut down on consumption and waste as much as possible and harness the power of natural energy from sun, wind, rain and biomass instead of relying on the grid to support all of your activities.”
Now, I’ll admit: I definitely do not see myself using every single aspect of permaculture. Realistically, there’s no way I’m biking anywhere. It’s almost 2 miles to the end of our road and then a lot of miles to the closest grocery store. So, we are picking and choosing what permaculture techniques to add into our life. Here are a few ways that we have started with permaculture practices:
Observe
The first step to implementing a permaculture design is to sit back and watch. Where does water flow throughout your property? Where does the sun provide the most heat and where do the trees provide the most shade? Sit back and watch and just see what you notice. Once you have watched for a while, that is when you can and should start planting and implementing designs into your land. I’ll admit it: I started way too soon, but I’m glad I did. I put down my vegetable garden within the first month of us moving in. I just could not wait. This technically goes against permaculture practices, but whatever!
Rainwater collection
This is something that we have not implemented yet, but we are working on it! Rain water collection is so important. Thankfully, we do not have city water – we are on a well, so that helps out a lot, but my goal is to add rainwater collection systems off of our house gutters, as well as our chicken coop gutters, once we build that. This will help with water for our chickens and ducks, water for the garden, and an emergency water supply if we ever need it.
Land erosion
Land erosion is a huge topic in permaculture and to be completely honest, I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to erosion. Our house sits at the very top of a very big hill. Our property is sloped and really, the only flat part of our land is on the other side, where our “forest” is (what we will eventually turn into a pasture). The house side of our land is on a big hill…and anytime it rains, the back of our property turns into a big creek almost and tons of dirt and rock gets swept away. Close to our house, we have a drop-off by our back porch and we definitely need to do something about this to prevent erosion. I think we are going to build a good retaining wall there to start, but I need to do more research into this. but before we do anything to improve our land (build the soil!) and prevent soil erosion, we definitely need to do more research.
Mimic nature
Mimicking nature is super important in permaculture because this is what gives you more time to do other things. There are many ways to do this, but let me speak about the few things that we have implemented, so far. Companion planting is important, because each plant will provide multiple benefits. Food, pest control, pollinator attractors, and mulch. For example, if you plant a fig tree, like we just did, you will want to search “tree guild for figs” or “fig companion plants.” When you search this, you will find out that some great plants to plant with figs are goji, purslane, chicory, oregano, and yarrow because figs need a lot of potassium, and these plants will help accumulate potassium in the soil. Doing companion planting, creating fruit tree guilds, and trying to mimic nature dramatically reduces your time picking off bugs, watering, fertilizing, etc. etc. etc. Now, you will obviously still have to spend time out in your garden, but hopefully, it will cut that time down significantly. And, you’ll learn as you go. This was my first season trying it out and trust me – it was not perfect. I still had a ton of pests, but it’s a work in progress!
When it comes to animals, the next animals that we are getting are chickens and ducks. In an ideal world, they will free range and around our property, I’ll plant things for them to forage. Sunflowers, greens, creeping cucumber, etc. Doing this and letting them free range definitely helps cut down on costs as well, when it comes to feed. We will definitely have to play this by ear, though, because I know there are a lot of predators in our area. I just want to give them an as natural life as possible, while also cutting down on my cost and time.
As you can see, we are just touching on the very basics of permaculture practices. I mean, we haven’t really dug deep at all. There is A LOT of in-depth information when it comes to permaculture. But, these are a few ways that we are bringing permaculture practices into our property, and hopefully, by implementing these practices, it will free up some of our time so that I do not have to constantly pick bugs off of our vegetables or fertilize our fruit trees. We’ll see how it all goes!
Last but not least, I say I would touch on Avery in a minute and I wanted to take that time. She LOVES it here and she is thriving. She seems so much happier and just more carefree. She runs outside whenever she wants to, without me yelling at her to wait because there are cars and people that I don’t know. Living in the “country” is honestly the ideal place to raise kids. Ian and I were just talking about how this slower-paced, less stressful lifestyle is SO good for her. She runs in the street to get to our trampoline, she rides her bike to our mailbox at the end of our road, and we play outside more than we ever have before, just because we have SO much space to do so. We garden, compost together, and roam around our woods. The other night, we rode up our street as she popped her head out of our sunroof and it was just beautiful to see her admiring the stars (because yes, we can see them here since there aren’t 2300 lights on at 229292 different houses). It’s beautiful to watch kids grow up in the country – it truly is!