Alleycropping & Silvopasture - Transitioning to Restoration Agriculture with Mark Shepard

Mark Shepard, Manager of New Forest Farms and author of the book Restoration Agriculture, will introduce the simple Agroforestry practices of Alleycropping and Silvopasture as a method of transitioning your farm from a production system based on annual crops to one dominated by a diversity of long-lived perennial crops including nuts, berries, fruits, and livestock. Attendees will learn detailed information on the establishment, maintenance and harvest of long-lived woody crops while simultaneously maintaining current cash flow. Plenty of photos will be used to show what your farm will look like as it grows and changes through the years increasing in fertility, diversity and resiliency.

[@melovescoffee]

I just finished binge watching all his stuff last week! I just love his smarts. We definitely need more smart farmers like him. I pretty much figured out how to feed myself now. Next step: farming. Never thought i would even get this far, let alone consider farming. It's not easy to integrate trees into an existing system. I have planted about 15 trees now. That's as much as my current plot will hold while still allowing for smallfruit and annual/perennial other crops. It is now jam packed. I don't do the whole nitrogen fixer tree thing either except for what will give me an actual yield. Siberian pea shrub. Easy to hedge, easy to coppice, perfect. Thank you, Mr. Shepard!

[@TheJamesRedwood]

Yeah mate, nitrogen fixing bacteria exist in healthy soil in general, not just in leguminous root nodules. All successful farming is about farming microbes and the rest of the soil food web, "period".

[@urbanpermie6307]

Don't be afraid to plant non productive ones too. You can always use them to trellis productive vines up them like grapes, passionfruit, kiwi etc

[@Fomalhaut_Antares]

Check out Curtis Stone of you haven't already as this is an old comment. He's a lot like Mark.

[@lucaswuthrich5132]

a true visionary

[@rssrolo]

love this guy - did he ever design that disc gold course? 47:45 ... could be another great way to produce food for cities, alleycropping golf courses!

[@moocrazytn]

I've watched and appreciated many of these presentations. But don't recall any detailed discussion of "weeds" among the herbaceous crops. Can someone direct me to a presentation on this issue? Thanks!

[@b_uppy]

In his book he covers it. One of the examples he gives is in regards to Canadians' canola fields having an issue with (I believe) Siberian peas persisting in the fields. One of his thoughts was focus on growing the siberian peas (since They're persisting so well) as a possible oil source. If it the same Sibrrians pea I am familiar with, it could be used for chicken feed as well. On Mark's property he grazes several kinds of livestock, each has a niche of food they prefer. Sheep will eat forbes for example. That's partially how he manages his plot.

[@rachelholdt6840]

Also, the healthier your soil is, the less 'weeds' will grow.

[@ajb.822]

Question: Apparently this isn't a problem (?) but, how does one know how much width to allow in the tree lane b4 cutting into the soil to prune the roots, to avoid making the tree vulnerable to falling over in challenging weather situations ( high winds, straight line winds, esp. in extreme rainfall times) ?

[@heterodox3487]

AJ Burton Not sure there's 1 answer. It depends on the soil and tree, some roots spread beyond the canopy others just go deep. If your alley is 2x machinery rip once in the middle of the alley. The rip will raise the area making hard to mow. That's my plan 🍀

[@brandonkrause6401]

Right next the tree maybe 2 or 3 feet away. You just do this every year tho. Its one of the main inputs for an ally crop system.

[@b_uppy]

@@douganderson7002 Get over it. Stay on subject.

[@b_uppy]

It's in his book.

[@mygreencontribution]

Curious if anyone knows how to spell the name of that 1000$ ham company in Iowa he refers to near the end of the talk?

[@mygreencontribution]

Appreciate it. thanks!

[@melovescoffee]

Any time! :D

[@nealneumiller9177]

8:45 is a 40x40 house that is 16x bigger than a 10x10. not the 4x bigger. So 992 gals would be 18 (55 gal) rain barrels. Really have to design the cistern system that mark reynolds uses in earthship biotecture. use the water 4x with regards to a house that typically uses water (city or well) once. Diego, I really enjoy what you do! Don't let up!!!!

[@lilfrankietellez]

Indubitably

[@Swansen03]

12:10 hmm... um.. i notice alders growing everywhere, and i also notice black locust growing everywhere also... However, i'll concede they are usually found around edges, openings, and succession phases. That would follow agriculture in the permaculture sense however.. The one missing link in that consideration would be fungi, they would move the nitrogen where needed. All i see alders in guilds all the time, around something tap-rooted generally.

[@brandonkrause6401]

Lol na man. There are millions of acres of Oak, walnut, hickory, maple, and cherry with not a single nitrogen fixer for miles.

[@HarrisonCountyStudio]

@@brandonkrause6401 “millions of acres”. Here in WV, we have those Oaks, walnut, Hickory, Maples, and Cherry trees. But we also have a shrub called ‘Autumn Olive’, which is a fantastic nitrogen fixer. It’s actually an invasive species. You would be hard pressed to walk 10 acres and not see at least one. Many meadows and pastures have been lost to Autumn Olive. They grow very fast and are proliferated by birds.

[@b_uppy]

@@HarrisonCountyStudio Yes, but invasive species get hold in circumstances of eco disturbances...

[@b_uppy]

'All I see alders in guilds all the time, around something tap--rooted generally.' --not sure what you mean by that. Alders grow in moist conditions. Think they help preserve ground moisture (besides nitrogen fixing) as they often grow in masses then quickly fall. They provide 'mulch' to help mycelium also hydrate plants. You see a bunch of alder. You know you got pretty moist ground.

[@Swansen03]

@@b_uppy around a tree with a tap-root. Realized some time ago root systems were the most important factor when guilding or even when seeing which plants would be beneficial/non-competitory. It's all about the root systems

[@michaeleldridge5640]

If anyone is close to Southeastern Michigan and needs help implementing this, let me know, I am more than willing to volunteer. Thanks

[@GardenViper]

27:43 is the most important thing that permi's miss so much. Purist, high horsed approach to modern agriculture will take you nowhere got to speak their language profit, chemicals, steel. Show me a profitable, law abiding, 2,500 plus acre farm that can actually compete in the commodity market the runs on no steel or chemicals, permicultural designed or otherwise.

[@safffff1000]

I think Joel Salatin controls close to that.

[@breadbread4226]

2500 acres? Maybe it's the European in me, but that sounds absolutely huge.

[@GardenViper]

@@breadbread4226 2500 acres is the smallest commercial farm I have worked on. Biggest is 36,700 acre.

[@DavidGalvanwiz]

@@GardenViper and why would we want that? If three-seven families are able to move out to the country and live on that land why shouldn't they?

[@DavidGalvanwiz]

Also who said we don't like steel?

[@urbanpermie6307]

Not sure why this guy has to keep twisting permaculture ideas, and put them in false contexts to make what he is pedalling sound better. He is disrespectful, and it's not helping his cause.

[@ThorBonde]

what exactly doo you mean?

[@urbanpermie6307]

Permaculture is not about rain barrels and herb spirals. What this guy does still relies on fossil fuel machines on an on going basis.

[@recoveringniceguy57]

He makes his own biofuel. Mark has results from his work. There's no need for him to conform to what your personal definition of permaculture is.

[@urbanpermie6307]

Ha ha, Biofuel is not clean energy. Its not a viable large scale option either. Why would you use large areas of food growing land for a few cups of fuel? Wind and Solar is far more efficient, and they are not perfect either. Get real dude.

[@markm1514]

Wind turbines have bearings that require lubrication (petroleum) and currently pv solar is very energy intensive to manufacture (mostly coal,) not to mention the strip mining for the rare earths required. If you can grow an oil crop on a portion of your land to run all the machines you need, and all the crop residue goes to compost that enriches your land, how is that a bad thing? Imagine how much land you would need to run a team of draught animals with a comparable work output. "Permaculture is not about rain barrels and herb spirals" that's exactly what he's talking about.