Starting a Community garden

i having a great land base to use,its an empty lot with houses on both sides,its in a residential area. im slowly learning about permaculture,but i want to start my gaden soon,i dont even know were 2 start after i till the soil,i really want it to have a landbase that can take care of itself and help all of nature work together.

So I guess im saying Agriculture sux, Any advjce on planning a garden that centers on permaculture?

ok, first off, accept that you want to take on a big thing :wink:

not sure i’d till. and beyond question, the first thing i would do is take an “inventory” of what plants are already there, you can learn a lot that way, and there could be quite a lot of things already there that you really want to keep.

secondly, since it’s in a residential area, go ahead and grab all those lawn bags that people put out with tree/shrub prunings, grass clippings, leaves, etc. i’d sort out the grass clippings and dead leaves in one pile, and put the sticks & woody stuff in another one. you’ll be wanting this material.

next, check out the slope of the area and try to determine where the water is going (and where it isn’t going). no point putting drought tolerant plants in marshy ground or putting marshy plants in dry sand.

in other words, the first thing is getting a lot closer to that spot. you need to get a better feel for how it works now before mucking with it. once you start to see where/how it works (and where/how it struggles) you can start to look at options on how, where & what to plant to enhance it.

also, don’t limit your observations to just plants, keep an eye out for insects, birds, etc, etc. if there are any animals that visit that spot, that’s another relationship you want to understand.

herb spirals are useful for catering to different needs.

if there’s a chance u mite lose the land, i’d suggest against planting trees (just been thru that mysel…)

but the forest garden idea is useful- in essence, taller plants toward the north, shorter plants in front. the idea is to create maximum edge, as there the best synergy can be found.

don’t forget about insect fodder! bees need food too.

and a lot of the weeds u pick will be useful 4 fertiliser. jus stick em in a container of water, and leave for 1-3 weeks.

shout for more…

hehe, ai think dandylionpunk is a frend of mine. :slight_smile: If ai’m not mistaken we put some native plants on it the other day?

Watch out for cops :wink:

Yeah, sad story. I visited before South Central got bulldozed. It was beautiful. Many families had their own fenced plots and there were many trees.
If the vacant lot in question is the same one that chase and I have started planting on, we have permission from the owner.

I agree with jhereg about not tilling… unless of course you are looking for a work out. I agree with just starting at the surface and rebuilding the soil matrix up from there with mulching & composting. A good way to clear areas of weeds and to start the process is to acquire cardboard and just lay it down in the areas you want to ‘weed’. It will stop the light, kill the weeds, hold moisture into the ground, will eventually decompose and makes planting/germinating seeds easy.