In 2024, CPI selected one of the final designs from the year’s permaculture design course as a candidate for implementation. That site belonged to then-students, now-grads Nora & David of Florence, KY. This spring, we asked for an update on their site and anything they have learned.
What they shared was that they were faced with unexpected setbacks, in the forms of life-changing losses and health events, that changed the trajectory of their permaculture dreams. Though time spent in the garden was limited, there were still lessons learned, which Nora shared with us by email in March:
“Things have settled down a little since this January and we've been able to assess the needs of our plantings. Most of everything survived and all sorts of valuable lessons learned which, for the sake of brevity, I will list:
Accepting our limitations... circumstances and physical challenges caused us to re-evaluate what we could actually do.
Adjust and overcome: move EVERYTHING closer to the house and a water source. Incorporating edible bushes and plants into my already existing flower beds. (There was a mental block all these years in my head from doing this. hahaha. BUT, I'm not alone in thinking this way.)
Water access is a BIG DEAL.
Having just one hose to reach everywhere was a little challenging.
I put several barrels around our back shed and was quite impressed with how much water was able to be collected! But... in the dead of summer, a 55 gallon barrel was only enough for 1 bed!
Wood chips and deep mulch REALLY helped. I'm convinced that this is what kept most of our plants alive when we couldn't get around to watering.
The raised beds that we installed around some old locust trees created a problem. We underestimated how even mostly dead locust stumps would send up all sorts of thorny little branches!!!!! I have begun to move plants from the raised beds to other locations, pulling back soil and cut off those branches. I plan on burning the stumps to avoid using chemicals to kill them. Once I can be certain that this has fixed the problem, I will probably reinstall raised beds, but use something like metal raised beds.
Deer pressure was unrelenting... even in the suburbs. I used netting around several bushes and trees and they still somehow were able to reach through and nip some down! Taking extra steps to protect everything including Irish spring soap and "Scram" (blood meal).
Making low cost fertilizer without the typical manures. This has become something I've given a lot of thought to. I don't trust buying manure from unknown sources due to what cows and horses are eating these days (Graze-On herbicide can be ingested by these animals and pass right through to their manure!). I'm also not allowed to keep chickens in Florence. While I do purchase some organic fertilizers, this can get expensive. So, I've focused on comfrey tea as well as fermenting other plant material (inspired by JADAM - a low-cost sustainable organic farming method that originated in Korea). I've also started growing cover crops like clover and daikon radish.
“I am so grateful to CPI and all those who came out to help,” Nora adds - and we’re thankful to her for sharing her lessons learned this first year post-implementation.
To keep up with our ongoing implementation days, see the full schedule here.
