We are extremely limited on growing space here on the northern slope of this mountain side. The home site was actually bulldozed out of the side of the mountain so there is little top soil and we had to bring in all of it. Not very sustainable, but alas this is temporary for us and the garden does supply about 50% of our needs. We built raised beds because the surface was rock. This proves to be a bit of a problem in the winter in freezing our limited root zones, not to mention we are on the north slope. A place great to normally find springs and good timber like redwood, but not a good choice for a home site.
This is where Bill Mollison’s Permaculture “bible” (here on the right) is beyond essential for home site, garden, animal, water, and orchard placement. He gets you to really stop and think. For instance, when designing placement of the above list you should not only take into consideration sun, air flow, water flow etc., but how many trips a day to you make to that area. Like god knows how many times we visit the chickens/rabbits everyday to feed, take scraps from the kitchen, weeds from the garden, gather eggs, check on the chicks or take manure to the garden. He gets you to think in a circle, putting the things you use most closest to the inner circle. He even has plans and drawings how to do it. We did this here with our strawberries, I can’t tell you how many times in the old place we didn’t catch our strawberries ripening before the birds because they were “out there” in the garden. Now we have to walk past them everyday and rarely does a bird get one. Same with our blueberries, instead of being in “the garden” we landscape near the home with them. An edible landscape. Actually, we applied this everywhere there was a spot of dirt near the house including the Koi pond. This year Theo is going to make a bio-filter for the fish pond using rice as the filter plant. The water will slowly move through the rice plants filtering it and fertilizing the rice in the process. We already use the nutrient rich (fish poop) pond water to irrigate our garden. This is an experiment for the much large aquaculture project we have planned on the community. All of this was in Bill’s book (nearly 600 pages) and has really increased our harvest, saved lots of precious time and taught us things the two of us would have spent hundreds of $ on sitting in a weekend workshop.
In the garden we focus on heirloom varieties, meaning what we grow can be reproduced from it’s own seed next year. As opposed to an F1 Hybrid which doesn’t not plant true the next year. Most seed catalogs these days are hybrids and unless they say OP (Open Pollinated) then you can bet they are hybrids. Saving seeds can be a tricky business understanding what may cross pollinate with something else. That can be a problem if you are after the same thing next year, but this is also how new food crops have happened. Squash are notorious for this as well as corn. In fact if you don’t have lots of time to cover each 
corn ear with paper bags to keep them from pollinating with another variety, then you have only a few options. Plant at different times so when one is blooming the other is just starting to grow. Separate them over a mile because corn pollen can travel this far on a good wind. Or just wait till next year to plant your other variety. This book to the left, Seed to Seed is the absolute guide to have and the one we use for seed saving (mine is worn out). Suzanne explains each plant family, what will/won’t cross pollinate and easy ways to keep your seed pure. She gives little hints that really help your germination like rotting your tomatoes first before collecting the seed to save. It really works, we increased our germination factor by 3 this way. I can’t say enough about this book that covers over 160 vegetables.
We currently have a seed bank of over 600 vegetable, grain, herb, and fruit varieties. We encourage everyone to learn how to save seed not only for yourself, but to trade with others. Yearly we meet with others as humans have for years and trade seeds. This is how we get some of our favorite varieties. Many times we may have something that works well in our
climate here, taste great and produces well, but doesn’t store long. Yes I said store, as in root cellar. Refrigerators are energy hogs and storage on an energy efficient house/farm is crucial. So yes, we are greatly interested in fruits and veggies that store or can well. We have recently learned we can store a variety of squash for us and our livestock nearly all the way through the winter! We have stored apples well past Christmas. Not to mention hundreds of jars of canned goods. A root cellar is essential on any farm to feed your family and your livestock. We haven’t had a “proper” one yet, but we have been storing what we can with our make shift one and we have done great with it. I can not wait to build one when we move and see what else we can store when we build a large one into the side of the hill. We want it to attach to our kitchen logically, but we also want to be able to load it from outside or take food to the livestock that direction.
What’s in the garden at the moment:
Veggies: Onions, garlic, peas, beans, radish, carrots, rhubarb, potatoes, broccoli, corn, cauliflower,
Chard, Kale and Spinach we eat lots of and so do the rabbits/chickens.
Grains: Our grain production is limited to small plots for seed production of next years seed.
Oats, buckwheat, barley, milo
Berries: Most of our berries our in containers (except strawberries) awaiting our move.
5 varieties of Blueberries, 7 var. of blackberries, 3 var. of raspberries
Fruit Trees: Also in containers. We have about 35 trees.
Lemons, Oranges, Limes, Cherries, Peaches, Apples, Almonds, Apricots, Nectarines and Olives.
Honestly, I’m a gardening nut and would have acres planted. No kidding, plus greenhouses. Alas, I must wait till I’m on the land. Everything relies on this. I want to grow grains to feed the chickens, but need the land. I could grow grain for the chickens, extra for us and food (blossoms)for the bees with one crop of buckwheat. A few acres of buckwheat would provide for all three for the year. So frustrating, I know all in time. I will keeping moving in that direction, head held up doing what I can now till I sink my hands in the new rich earth of a sustainable community!
