What is with this yard?!

 

I borrowed this picture to help illustrate some of the differences between traditional gardening techniques and permaculture, but first, what is permaculture?!  It would take an entire book to explain well, I'll just be scratching the surface.

Permaculture is a term coined by an Australian man in 1978 defined permaculture as  “The conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive systems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems."  Basically, planting your garden to mimic nature.

There are a lot of benefits of permaculture.  I'll go over a few really quick and then tell you about what's going on.  Because permaculture mimics nature the garden is more self sustaining, had more diversity and is less at risk of being destroyed by pests.  Because I am helping nature along instead of working against nature it is also less back breaking working in the garden.

Ok, now on to the question I know all my neighbors want the answer to.  What the heck is with this yard?! I know, it's not pretty, not yet.  I always tell people that my yard is in it's awkward teenage stage. It's unsightly and useless, but give it a few years and it will be beautiful and useful.  The first step in our yard was also one of the most important parts of permaculture.  We needed to catch the water and keep it.  Nope, not rain barrels. Those mounds that look like raised beds are berms, behind them are swales that are filled in with straw and wood chips.  The swales catch all the water we get, rain, melting snow, sprinklers, all of it, and they hold it in the soil, at the same time raising the water table.  It's water storage system that also helps plants grow better.  As you can see from the picture above the swale catches the water as it travels downhill and traps it in the ditch so that it was soak into the soil and be stored underground.  Swales and berms took us an entire summer, but even though it's only been one year I can already tell the difference.  My yard is on a fairly steep slope and dries out very early in the year, around mid April, but with the swales catching the snow melt and rain we have found that our soil is hydrated even in June!

Two more key points  We also needed shade in our very hot, dry yard, especially in the west facing front yard.  To shade the soil we put wood chips over the top of everything.  They don't stop the weeds, but they keep the soil protected, shaded, and hydrated, and they also build the soil.  We also planted a lovely globe willow that will grow nice and big and provide a lot of shade.  After the shade our next priority, and what I have been really working hard and focusing on this year, is perennials.  I am planting as many perennial foods as I can.  My goal is to feed my family and I love not having to worry about finding seeds.  Perennials also usually come up sooner than seeds.

This was just a quick overview.  Stay tuned and I promise to keep you posted as we transform our garden and yard into a permaculture food forest.