Establishing good, self-maintaining polycultures has been the key strategy in quickly transforming our site at Lillie House, allowing us to get an area "finished" so we can move along to the next project.
Polycultures are plantings that incorporate multiple species of plants, not just one as we see in a conventional crop field, or a suburban lawn. "Perennials" are plants that come back year after year, instead of needing to be planted and re-established each year.
When you create a new conventional garden, you create more work for yourself: tilling, planting, weeding, watering, pest prevention, disease intervention... and each year the work starts all over again. If it took 50% of your free time this year, it will take the same next year, which is why people get "stuck" in their projects, never able to move forward.
But when you invest your time in creating a perennial polyculture, it might take 50% of your free time the first year, but in the 2nd year, it might only take 3% or 4%, allowing you to move on to the next area of your yard. In this way, you can build a complete edible landscape, or "food forest garden" as a tapestry of polycultures.
In this class, we'll learn about a variety of approaches to polycultures and study dozens of models that can be put to work in gardens in the Great Lakes region.
We'll also be releasing this class as an "online" class for those who can't make it this weekend.
SPACE IS LIMITED: To register, contact Mike at lillie.house.kzoo@gmail.com
Time: Sunday, 9:00 am, suggested donation $25, ($40, includes online materials and videos.)
If only I could be beamed up.
ReplyDeleteOh, well we'll get to work on that!
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