Dave's Food Forest

Dave's Food Forest

United States of America

Visits 418

Breve descrição do seu lugar e práticas

15 year old, 0.5 acre permaculture backyard food forest on 0.7 acre suburban lot just north of the Columbia river in Washington state. 200 varieties of edible perennials - apples, plums, figs, grapes, berries, hardy kiwi, aronia, sea buckthorn, nuts, etc. 50 species of native plants to support native wildlife and insects, and healthy predator/prey relationships. I do not spray anything. I only fertilize seedlings. I only water during extreme heat events. I do use wild birds to 'fertilize' and kill pest insects - I attract them by throwing black oil sunflower seed on and under my plants in the winter. The birds spend all day scratching in the leaf litter and pooping. I have a small pond with biological filter, which is used by frogs, salamanders, and birds. I have a Tesla solar roof + batteries on my house. Our generation exceeds our usage, even here in rainy western Washington. I am working on a keyhole shaped raised veggie bed. Overall it is working great. The only work I do is graft, prune, and harvest. My biggest struggle is figuring out what to do with all the pruned branches. Currently I just put them in brush piles to rot in my zone 5, and to be used by wildlife (mostly birds). There are a LOT of birds that use the piles. However I worry about fire danger. I have dabbled with making biochar from them but that is a slow process for me.

Qual é o seu sonho para o futuro da sua quinta e/ou da sua localização em geral?

1) To be able to walk into my backyard food forest every day of the year and harvest something.
2) To support a large number and variety of wildlife in my yard.
3) To work with others to harvest and share my surplus. I am very close to achieving 1). I have already achieved 2), e.g. this week I counted 23 bird species in my yard. I am still trying to figure out 3)

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